Photo: Kolesa.ru
Tesla is the definitive American automotive success story of the 21st century. But one of the criticisms levied against Elon Musk's brainchild, perhaps more than any other, is they've never made a small, genuinely affordable electric car that customers want to buy.
Such restrictive pricing on Tesla's range of high-end E.V.s has been perceived as alienating middle-class consumers who want to join the all-electric revolution. The first rumblings of a response to this criticism came last year, ostensibly for the Chinese market.
New reports and renderings courtesy of the Russian automotive website Kolesa.ru seem to finally reveal what this potentially game-changing entry-level Tesla might look like.
Looking like the offspring of a Tesla Model Y and a Ford Fiesta, these renderings show the now-iconic design cues native to Tesla could be scaled down to a scale suitable for entry-level family hatchbacks. That is a segment that Tesla has been ignoring for the past decade.
Rumors that this entry-level Tesla would be designed for China and Europe came into question when it was learned that the car would be produced at Tesla's future Gigafactory facility near Berlin, Germany.
Kolesa.ru also reported that this future Tesla, like other models that the American car maker is planning, will be built with the option of removing the pedals and the steering wheel, implying that Tesla is on the verge of offering Level 4 autonomous vehicle capability through its sophisticated use of cameras, capable of making an image of its surrounding environment. In stark contrast to other AV applications such as Argo AI, which uses a LIDAR system instead.
No official pricing information exists as of yet. Kolesa.ru estimated the price of this new Tesla model would start at around $25,000 in the U.S. and at around €25,000 in Europe. That would make it the cheapest Tesla out there, ready to fight the Volkswagen's ID electric range.
New reports and renderings courtesy of the Russian automotive website Kolesa.ru seem to finally reveal what this potentially game-changing entry-level Tesla might look like.
Looking like the offspring of a Tesla Model Y and a Ford Fiesta, these renderings show the now-iconic design cues native to Tesla could be scaled down to a scale suitable for entry-level family hatchbacks. That is a segment that Tesla has been ignoring for the past decade.
Rumors that this entry-level Tesla would be designed for China and Europe came into question when it was learned that the car would be produced at Tesla's future Gigafactory facility near Berlin, Germany.
Kolesa.ru also reported that this future Tesla, like other models that the American car maker is planning, will be built with the option of removing the pedals and the steering wheel, implying that Tesla is on the verge of offering Level 4 autonomous vehicle capability through its sophisticated use of cameras, capable of making an image of its surrounding environment. In stark contrast to other AV applications such as Argo AI, which uses a LIDAR system instead.
No official pricing information exists as of yet. Kolesa.ru estimated the price of this new Tesla model would start at around $25,000 in the U.S. and at around €25,000 in Europe. That would make it the cheapest Tesla out there, ready to fight the Volkswagen's ID electric range.
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