During the 2024 Tesla shareholders’ meeting, Elon Musk teased three brand-new vehicles: the Robotaxi (CyberCab), a redesigned second-generation Roadster that can fly short distances, and a never-before-seen Tesla Van.
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Yesterday Tesla held the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting where among other topics Elon Musk revealed plans for a “special Cybertruck” that will be launched next year with major design changes that will allow it to comply with regulations in China and Europe.
This was certainly exciting however, during the event, Musk also shared several new information including plans for 3 new vehicles.
Musk briefly touched on the new vehicles during the portion of his presentation focused on new products. Musk said…
“Obviously, we’ve got some new products that we are working on under the covers, and I think these are going to be pretty special. Some of them, I think people at first think it’s not going to be that amazing, but just wait, it’ll be.”
As he said, Musk also displayed images of all of Tesla’s vehicle lineup, including the Tesla Semi, Cybertruck, Model X, Model S, Model Y, and Model 3. However, what was more exciting is that Tesla added pictures of three never-before-seen vehicles to its lineup.
Since Tesla has yet to reveal the vehicles, obviously, the upcoming Tesla products were shown clad under a sheet.
However, from their outline, we can glean some revealing information about the upcoming vehicles.
One vehicle we are certain is coming is Tesla’s upcoming robotaxi. Elon Musk has already announced that the vehicle will be unveiled to the public on August 8. Although details about the upcoming vehicle are sparse, we know that it will be called “CyberCab,” will be smaller and cheaper than the Model 3, and will primarily be focused on autonomous ride-hailing activities.
Other facts we know about the robotaxi include that it will be produced on Tesla’s next-generation, Gen-3 vehicle platform.
The Gen-3 platform will reduce the price of the Robotaxi's powertrain below $1000 and eliminate all use of rare earth metals.
Tesla also said the vehicle will use a next-generation “unboxed” production process, in which the vehicle will be divided into four parts that can be simultaneously built for faster and cheaper production.
This is certainly exciting and has the potential to be the biggest improvement in vehicle assembly since Henry Ford unveiled the moving assembly line more than a century ago.
Having said that, there have been recent hints that Tesla has backed off on some of the revolutionary aspects of the robotaxi production process to allow the vehicle to come to market with less execution risk and an expedited timeline.
Tesla is now saying the company’s upcoming vehicle will be built by leveraging the excess production capacity of the current products and by adding some improvements from the Gen-3 platform.
The next vehicle Elon Musk showed off during his presentation appears to be a sports car. The second-generation Tesla Roadster has been in the works since 2017. The vehicle was initially expected to start sales in 2020; however, Tesla’s sports car is now four years behind schedule.
Musk says the delay has less to do with technological challenges and more with Tesla's decision to prioritize other vehicles like the Model 3 and the Model Y since those vehicles better align with Tesla’s stated goal of “transitioning the world to sustainable energy.”
However, after several delays, Tesla appears to be working earnestly to bring the 2nd generation Roadster to market. Musk previously said that the redesigned 2nd generation Roadster would be unveiled by the end of the year.
According to Musk, the vehicle will use cold air thrusters to fly for short distances and will have a 0 to 60 time of 1.1 seconds—far exceeding any other production vehicle. As if all this wasn’t enough, Musk has promised that the second-generation Roadster unveiling event has the potential to be the greatest product unveiling in history.
With this much hype, we can’t wait to see the unveiling, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted as we learn more details about this vehicle.
The third vehicle Elon Musk showed during his 2024 shareholders’ meeting presentation is one we have never seen before, and there is much less publicly available information about the product.
However, looking at the image Tesla shared, we can see that the vehicle has the general silhouette of a van. Unlike the Robotaxi and the 2nd generation Roadster, this vehicle is much higher off the ground, and the covered image shows a much more boxy, squared-off design.
Elon Musk has recently shaken up many of Tesla’s plans, including scrapping plans to create a low-cost $25,000 customer vehicle to focus on producing the Robotaxi. However, if the EV maker is showing off a potential Tesla van after the recent shakeup, it would suggest the Tesla van is currently being worked on in earnest.
Unfortunately, Tesla hasn’t shared anything about this upcoming vehicle. However, during the same shareholders’ meeting, a person in attendance asked Musk if Tesla could create a van that could seat twelve people, and Musk gave a revealing smirk, suggesting such a vehicle might be in the works.
Elon Musk also mentioned a high-density passenger vehicle in his Tesla Master Plan, Part Deux, released in 2016. Of all the vehicles Musk highlighted then, the only vehicle that has yet to materialize is a Tesla van.
Currently, we don’t have a lot of information regarding a potential Tesla van. However, we’ll be sure to keep you posted once we get further clarification from Tesla. Until then, visit our site, torquenews.com/Tesla, regularly for the latest updates.
So, what do you think? Are you excited to see Tesla is working on three new vehicles that can all be unveiled before the end of the year? What segment do you think Tesla’s upcoming vehicles should tackle? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below by clicking the red “Add new comment” button.
Image: Screenshot from Tesla’s annual Shareholders’ Meeting, 2024
For more information, check out: Elon Musk: “Tesla Will Make a Special Version of the Cybertruck Next Year that’s Europe & China Complaint, but It’ll Need Design Changes & Recertification”
Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and the evolution of the EV space daily for several years. He covers everything about Tesla, from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.
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Isn't there any editorial…
Isn't there any editorial oversite at torque news?
The lead states. "Elon Musk Shows-Off 3 Next-Gen Tesla Vehicles"
The story states, " However, what was more exciting is that Tesla added to its lineup."
Then lets the air out of the tires with a later follow-up sentence, "Since Tesla has yet to reveal the vehicles, obviously, the upcoming Tesla products were shown clad under a sheet."
First, the never-before-seen vehicles still remain never-before-seen.
No, it's not obvious the upcoming vehicles are under the sheet, it appears from the shding, there are no vehicles at all under the sheet.