Musk’s announcement on X wasn’t the only time Tesla’s Robotaxi was mentioned on April 5. Just hours earlier, it was revealed that the long-awaited Model 2 project was essentially dead. Leaked internal emails from Tesla suggested that the company had pulled the plug on its plans to produce an ultra-cheap family car. These plans stretched back to the early days of Tesla, when Elon Musk suggested that the early focus on premium vehicles was all intended to eventually facilitate a platform that could supply cheap, yet high-quality, EVs to the masses. This idea was fleshed out as time went on, and the first budget Tesla was set to roll off the production line in early 2025.
However, unlike the repeatedly delayed Cybertruck, the Model 2 will likely never see the light of day. Competition from Chinese EV manufacturers, including some that produce vehicles for less than half of the Model 2’s purported MSRP, seems to be the reason the project was scrapped.
The one silver lining for those involved seems to be Musk’s plans to build a self-driving Robotaxi on the platform that the Model 2 would have used. While Musk is tight lipped on that — posting on X only that “Reuters is dead” in response to the leaks — it would certainly fit with previous reports about the shared architecture. Whether we see a real Robotaxi in August, or something closer to a render or mockup, is anyone’s guess: after all, we’re talking about a company whose first humanoid robot “demo” was a person dancing in a spandex suit.
