Competing With Toyota And VW, Tesla Prepares Cheap Cars

Tesla car illustration. (Vlad Tchompalov / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Automotive manufacturer Tesla is taking plans to expand its business in China. After inaugurating its first factory in China last year, Tesla is also preparing an electric car with a distinctive Chinese design

Most recently, Tesla is also targeting to be able to penetrate the market with the special Chinese model that it is preparing. This cannot be separated from Tesla's desire to record global sales beyond the 500 thousand vehicle mark this year.

China is the largest automotive market in the world in general. As well, the largest in terms of sales of electric vehicles with sales volume reached 1.5 million units of vehicles last year. China is also Tesla's second largest market after the United States.

Last year, Tesla's global sales were recorded at 450 thousand units of vehicles. As for the Chinese market, Tesla posted sales of 145 thousand vehicles.

Tesla is looking for a design director to make Tesla a special Chinese model. This particular model could be an electric car worth 25 thousand US dollars. This is according to the belief of Tesla boss Elon Musk to enter the automotive market with an electric vehicle for 25 thousand US dollars.

With such price estimates, Tesla is likely to develop a compact car that is smaller than the Tesla MOdel 3 at an affordable price as well as conventional fuel vehicles.

"A compact Tesla car will do well in China as well as throughout Asia and Europe. This has the potential to reduce sales of the Toyota Corolla and Volkswagen Golf," said Foresight Chief Automotive Consultant Yale Zhang.

Shanghai.

LMC Automotive consultants explained that the car market in the United States is dominated by SUVs, mid-sized sedans to pickup trucks such as the Ford F-150. Meanwhile, sales of compact cars in China account for 25 percent of total sales.

In comparison, Tesla recently launched the 'cheapest' 7-seater SUV with prices starting at $ 40,490. The lowest price was previously held by Tesla 3 with prices in the range of IDR 1.5 billion.