Tesla seems to be on the precipice of something thoroughly unremarkable if a couple of quick teaser videos posted by the automaker over the weekend are any indication. In all likelihood, this pair of videos is previewing a decontented, cheaper Tesla that CEO Elon Musk has been promising for years at this point.
The first video, posted at 3:05 a.m. EST on October 5 (prime doom scrolling hours), shows what seems to be the center of a plastic wheel cover with a Tesla logo spinning for about nine seconds. Then, a black screen comes up that reads “10/7,” which, if you’re playing along at home, is tomorrow. Then, at 9:10 p.m. EST on the same day, Tesla posted another video of a pair of headlights shrouded in darkness with some fog surrounding them. As of this story’s publishing, these are the only teasers Tesla has posted, and they’re likely to be the only ones before Tuesday’s event. I’ve got no idea what time that’s happening. Tesla sort of just does its own thing, if you haven’t noticed.
There are really only two logical answers for what Tesla is teasing in these videos. It’s either a production variant of the long-awaited Roadster or that cheaper, decontented (read: worse) Model Y I mentioned earlier. I’m not a betting man, but there’s a better chance my beloved New York Jets win the Super Bowl this year than the Roadster sees the light of day in our lifetimes. So, I can fairly confidently guess that this is some sort of cheap-ish Model Y.
Musk and Tesla have been promising a cheaper vehicle for years at this point, but back in July, we told you that rather than a dedicated vehicle, Musk confirmed that the car would just be a stripper Model Y. How inspired. Don’t get you hopes up about this car actually being cheap, though. Tesla killed the idea of an affordable $25,000 EV over the summer.
The stripped-down version of the Model Y is designed to be about 20% cheaper to produce than the refreshed Model Y, according to Reuters. I can’t say exactly what that’ll translate into when it comes to actual purchase prices, but we can look at the current Model Y for guidance. Right now, the cheapest Model Y — the Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive — starts at $46,630, including destination. If you were to lop off 20% of that price, it would come out to be $37,304 — not exactly cheap. This is very rough math. Do not take it as gospel. In any case, Reuters says Tesla could scale this model to about 250,000 units per year by 2026.
It’s not clear exactly what steps Tesla will take to make this car 20% cheaper to build than the current cheapest Model Y. If I had to make some assumptions, I’d say a much smaller battery would be a big part of it. So would a de-contented interior (if that’s even possible) that loses out on some tech features. From a styling perspective, the tease shows us that this cheaper model loses the Model Y’s front lightbar. I suppose we’ll see on October 7.

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