Tesla Model 2 platform to be unveiled in March as mass Cybertruck production pegged for 2024

Just as expected, Tesla's CEO Elon Musk threw cold water on the hopes that the Cybertruck will be produced in meaningful quantities this year. While he confirmed that Tesla will still release the Cybertruck in the summer, Elon also warned that "volume production" of the electric pickup will only be happening in 2024, just as rumored before. Currently, there are more than 1.7 million Cybertruck reservations, representing a potential revenue stream of more than US$129 billion for Tesla, but in 2023 it would likely only be able to accommodate the very early adopters who logged their preorders way back in 2019 when the pickup was first unveiled.

As if to soothe the mass Cybertruck production delays that lie ahead, Tesla officially teased that "our next generation vehicle platform is under development" with more information to be given on March 1, during its 2023 Investor Day event. The platform in question should be none other than the rumored affordable Model 2 EV which Elon Musk expects to outsell all of its other models combined on the way to Tesla's stated focus on "mass electrification" because of which it put the Roadster 2 launch on the back burner.

Rumor has it that the cheaper Model 2 will be assembled in the upcoming Gigafactory in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and Elon Musk tipped during the previous quarterly session with investors that Tesla is gunning for a 50% production cost decrease compared to the Model 3. He did warn that this would mean a "smaller, to be clear" vehicle, yet halving the Model 3's US$33,600 production cost would bring a Model 2 price in the sub-US$25,000 point with subsidies, keeping the original promise.

The Model 2 launch, which should happen during Tesla's current 5-year period that ends in 2026, would allow its automotive market share to explode while Tesla still maintains its enviable profit margins. In Q4, for example, Tesla delivered 405,728 electric vehicles which, when accounting for the leased ones and the income not attributable to automotive operations, returns a profit margin close to its 2022 average of about US$10,000 per vehicle.

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