BERLIN, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) plans to manufacture a 25,000 euro ($26,838) car at its factory near Berlin, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday, in a long-awaited development for the company. An electric car maker that aims to accommodate large volumes of its cars.
The source, who requested to remain anonymous, did not say when production would begin.
Tesla declined to comment. Its shares rose three percent in pre-market trading in the United States by 0910 GMT.
Consumer surveys show that the high price of electric cars – combined with high interest rates – is one of several factors hindering the uptake of the technology in Europe and the United States.
The average retail price of an electric vehicle in Europe in the first half of 2023 was more than 65,000 euros, according to automotive research firm JATO Dynamics, compared to just over 31,000 euros in China.
Musk had long been planning to make an affordable electric car, but he said in 2022 that he had not yet mastered the technology and shelved the plan.
However, sources told Reuters in September that the automaker was close to an innovation that would allow it to cast almost all of the underside of an electric car in one piece, a feat that would speed up production and cut costs.
Mass-market expansion is critical to Tesla’s goal of increasing vehicle deliveries to 20 million by 2030, setting it apart from competitors like Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) that have moved away from setting delivery targets and instead focused their strategies on protecting margins. Profit. In the transition to electric vehicles.
A general view shows the Tesla logo at the Gigafactory in Gruenheide near Berlin, Germany, August 30, 2022. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/File Photo Obtaining licensing rights
Raise wages
CEO Elon Musk visited the factory in Gruenheide on Friday and thanked employees for their hard work, a video on Musk’s social media platform X showed.
The source said that he informed employees at the same meeting of plans to build the car at a cost of 25,000 euros there.
The German factory currently produces the Model Y, the best-selling electric car in Europe.
The automaker plans to double the German factory’s capacity to 1 million cars a year, but has not provided an update on how many cars it has produced there since March, when it said it produced 5,000 cars a week – the equivalent of about 250,000 cars a year.
Local authorities said in October that they had asked the automaker to provide more information on how its expansion plans would comply with nature conservation laws, and would then decide whether to approve it, without providing a time frame.
Tesla also informed workers on Friday that all employees will receive a 4% pay rise from November onwards, with production workers receiving an additional €2,500 per year from February 2024 – the equivalent of an 18% pay rise in a year and a half.
Germany’s IG Metall union said in 2022 that Tesla’s wages were about 20% lower than those offered under collective bargaining agreements with other automakers.
($1 = 0.9315 euros)
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Rachel Moore, Bernadette Boom and Emilia Sithole Matarese)
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