Tesla recently unveiled its major project for 2025, “Redwood”, a mass-market model that promises to redefine the electric vehicle landscape. According to inside sources, this compact crossover embodies Elon Musk’s ongoing vision of making electric vehicles more accessible.
Tesla, the industry leader in electric vehicles, has informed its suppliers of plans to launch a new mass-market model, internally dubbed “Redwood”, from mid-2025. Sources close to the matter described the vehicle as a compact crossover.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk regularly promotes his vision of more affordable electric vehicles built on a low-cost platform. These models, including a $25,000 entry-level car, aim to compete with cheaper gasoline-powered cars and affordable options from rival manufacturers.
These include Chinese automaker BYD, which recently dethroned Tesla as the world’s leading electric vehicle manufacturer in the final quarter of 2023.
Musk, who had pledged to produce a car in this price range in 2020, has relaunched this project after a pause. Currently, Tesla’s lowest-priced Model 3 sedan has a starting price of $38,990 in the US.
Tesla reportedly solicited “requests for quotations” from suppliers last year for the “Redwood” model, aiming for production at a rate of 10,000 units per week. Industrialization of the vehicle is scheduled to begin in June 2025.
New vehicles and NV9X platform
Furthermore, in May 2023, the dynamic CEO announced that Tesla was working on the development of two new products, with a combined sales potential of 5 million vehicles per year. According to Musk’s biography published in September by Walter Isaacson, the brand plans to produce an affordable autonomous cab and a $25,000 entry-level electric car, based on the same vehicle architecture called “NV9X”.
“Product design and manufacturing techniques far exceed anything in the industry,” he had told shareholders at a general meeting.
Already in 2022, Musk had announced that Tesla would launch a futuristically designed self-driving cab in 2024, despite repeatedly missing his target of achieving full self-driving capability. Furthermore, in March 2023, Musk and other Tesla executives unveiled plans to halve the cost of next-generation vehicles, although no launch schedule was specified at the time.
Anticipated challenges
Tesla, despite its ambitions, often struggles to meet launch and price targets. Production of the Cybertruck model, for example, has been delayed and slow to ramp up, with a starting price of $60,990 50% higher than Musk had announced in 2019. “They’ve been overly optimistic on most of their new product launches. Volume production is more likely to start in 2026,” said one of the sources.
Musk said last year that the affordable model would initially be built at Tesla’s Texas factory. However, the Redwood’s launch schedule is raising questions among investors, as the market expects delivery growth to be less ambitious than Musk announced. Analysts predict difficulties in making low-cost electric vehicles profitable, given battery costs and traditional production challenges.
However, the American automaker could strengthen its market position with the launch of the Redwood in 2025. This project marks a new stage in Tesla’s quest to offer affordable, competitive electric vehicles. Rumors have it that the automaker plans to manufacture some of its new vehicles at the Berlin plant, or even set up a new facility in India.
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