The Low-Cost Tesla Is Already Here: It’s Called The Cybercab

The Cybercab is a novel, ground-up design and is being built now. It has a target price of $30,000 or less and will eventually be sold to consumers, according to CEO Elon Musk. The beauty of the Cybercab is that Tesla can fiddle with the design/configuration to make it more palatable to consumers. In short, add a steering wheel and you have a Model 2. (Note: some have been spotted with a steering wheel already.)

Why the Cybercab could be the real-world manifestation of the Model 2:

• Next-Gen platform: The Cybercab is built on Tesla’s low-cost next-generation vehicle architecture. This platform can produce both an autonomous robotaxi and a cheap commuter car. By focusing on the Cybercab first, Tesla is already scaling the exact underpinnings a consumer "Model 2" requires.
• Extreme manufacturing subtraction: To hit a sub-$30,000 price point, Tesla stripped the vehicle to its core. It has a tiny, ultra-efficient sub-50 kWh battery pack that achieves a certified 165 Wh/mi—slashing the single highest manufacturing cost. It utilizes simplified structural body castings and a two-seat cabin, eliminating thousands of parts (and costs) found in a standard sedan via an "unboxed" manufacturing process.
• The retrofit for consumers: While the fleet robotaxi completely drops human controls, the vehicle’s drive-by-wire and brake-by-wire architecture makes it simple to modify in contrast to fixed mechanical linkages. To sell it as a standard consumer commuter car, Tesla would essentially just need to adapt the assembly line to include a steering wheel, pedals and a rearview mirror.
• Regulatory de-risking: Fully autonomous, "unsupervised" Full Self-Driving faces regulatory hurdles that could park robotaxi fleets for years. Selling a human-driven or supervised version of the Cybercab platform directly to consumers gives Tesla an immediate volume release valve for Giga Texas production if regulatory clearance stalls.