When Reuters reported in April that Tesla had scrapped plans for a long-promised, next-generation $25,000 electric vehicle, the automaker’s stock plunged. Chief Executive Elon Musk rushed to respond on X, his social-media network.

“Reuters is lying,” he posted, without elaborating. Tesla’s stock recovered some of its losses.

Six months later, Musk appears to have backed into an admission that Tesla dropped its plans for a human-driven $25,000 car. He said in an Oct. 23 earnings call that building the affordable EV would be "pointless” unless the car was fully autonomous.

  • magnetosphere@fedia.io
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    35 minutes ago

    Musk is a fascist bigot. I wouldn’t drive a Tesla if it was given to me for free. Just walking up to it and seeing that T would piss me off. In a way, I’m glad he refuses to build a cheap EV.

  • adarza@lemmy.ca
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    2 hours ago

    he’s still building the car. it’s just the price will be double or more.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    “We can’t make an affordable Tesla unless we come up with something that would make it too expensive.”

    Gotcha.

    • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Until we tax them ridiculously (50-100%) to keep things “fair” for the american auto makers that refuse to build anything smaller than a chevorlet suburban.

      • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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        2 hours ago

        Along with European, Japanese, and South Korean automakers. Nobody is building EVs this cheap because no other country’s government is dumping hundreds of billions of dollars into selling them well below their actual cost.

        • BakerBagel@midwest.social
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          35 minutes ago

          Correct, because Uncle Sam is spending hundreds of billions of dollars to make oil and gas as cheap as possible while automakers spend bullions every year on stock buybacks. America’s poor investments are all China’s fault.

          • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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            7 minutes ago

            You think European, Japanese, and South Korean automakers are American companies? That’s weird.

            Do you really think BYD and other Chinese state-owned auto manufacturers have found some secret sauce that nobody else can figure out allowing them to somehow build a car cheaper than anyone else in the world, or do you think it’s more likely that the state is paying for them to have artificially low prices?

            Furthermore, let’s imagine the rest of the world matches these subsidies, what is your end goal here? Are you wanting everyone in the US to dump their old car in a parking lot and go out and buy a new one every year like people used to do with smartphones? That’s not exactly good for the environment and is just consumerism on steroids.

        • Traister101@lemmy.today
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          2 hours ago

          Aww that’s so sad. It’s a shame nobody has the economic wealth and power to absolutely dominate the market if they put a equal amount of money into EVs. I guess we’ll just have to keep spending our money on the military

          • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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            33 minutes ago

            So instead of healthcare or housing, you’d rather our tax dollars go to Ford and GM so that you can buy a cheap new car every year or two? At what point in history were new cars ever obtainable for most people? I make decent pay and even I have never owned a brand new car because buying used is a much better value.

            You’re arguing for the Walmartification of the auto industry and all it’s workers, where locally made goods are replaced with a bunch of cheaply made goods from an overseas sweatshop and all the local businesses go under. This isn’t good for anyone but the Chinese government.

        • Grimy@lemmy.world
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          1 hour ago

          Every country subsidized their auto industry, it’s just that all the benefit goes directly to ceos except in china apparently.

          Ford received 9 billion in June.

          • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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            39 minutes ago

            Ford received a loan to use toward building new factories for EV production. In China, Ford would owned by the government and funded with taxpayer dollars directly.

              • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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                17 minutes ago

                Sure, when that rationalization comes with lax environmental regulations and zero worker protections along with heavy subsidies that expire just after their last competitors close up shop. What are you left with then?

        • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          Those automakers are at least trying to compete by building small cars. I see more ads for electric f150s than i see for compact cars in north america.

          • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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            26 minutes ago

            Domestic manufacturers almost entirely phased out small cars long ago before EVs were even significant because they can’t build them as well as companies like Hyundai, Toyota, and Honda. Even those companies have phased out tiny cars because nobody in the US was buying them.

            Why don’t you buy a Chevy Bolt, or Nissan Leaf if you want a small, cheap EV?

            • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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              16 minutes ago

              It isn’t they can’t build them, it is moreso they don’t want to because of profit margins and influences from CAFE standards makes small cars hard to build and big SUVs easier due to some backwards fuel economy regulations.

    • SendMePhotos@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      I so badly just want a tiny electric vehicle. I don’t travel much. Just need it to go around town and maybe a town over.