Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased two new electric vehicles on Tuesday at the automaker’s 2023 annual shareholder meeting. The billionaire executive even claimed that Tesla is already building a new product.
“I just want to emphasize that we are actually building a new product,” Musk said. “We are actually designing a new product. We are not sitting on our hands here.”
Musk went on to say that there are two new products in the pipeline and that “both the design of the products and the manufacturing techniques are head and shoulders above anything else in the industry.”
As the CEO spoke, a rendered image of a vehicle silhouette appeared on the screen behind him, giving the audience a preview of one of the vehicles. It’s possible the vehicle is the $25,000 hatchback that Musk mentioned in 2020 during the company’s battery day. He said this meeting was not the place to announce a new product and a proper product launch would eventually come.
Musk was not clear on stage what he meant by “building” the vehicle. It is likely that a prototype will be built rather than a production volume vehicle.
Screenshot of the Tesla Investor Day 2023 presentation teasing two new vehicles. Image credit: Tesla/Screenshot
Tesla previously teased two new models at its Investor Day in March, with a photo featuring Tesla’s full lineup and two revealed car outlines. One of the vehicles appeared to be the size of a van and the other the size of a sedan or hatchback. Both are expected to be more affordable vehicles that are sold in much higher volumes.
“Elon’s guess is that we will probably make more than 5 million units a year from these two models combined,” Musk said.
During Investor Day, Tesla also confirmed plans to build a mega factory in Mexico, where many have speculated that the production hatchback, commonly referred to as “Model 2” by Tesla fans, will be built.
There has been some speculation that the second vehicle Musk teased will be the robotaxi he has referenced in the past. An onlooker asked Musk for an update on Teslas being used for ride-sharing, and Musk replied that ride-share “won’t really be relevant in the self-driving world.”
The executive went on to say that Tesla is almost completely self-driving, something Musk has claimed several times in recent years.
At the shareholder meeting, Tesla also announced that former CTO JB Straubel will return to the automaker’s board and that the company wants to try some traditional advertising methods to promote new features.
