In April of this year, according to a report by Reuters, tesla (TSLA) has abandoned its long-promised next-generation $25,000 electric car plan, causing a sharp drop in the stock price of the auto manufacturer. CEO Elon Musk quickly responded on his social media network X.

"Reuters is lying," he posted, without elaborating. Tesla's stock price regained some lost ground.

Six months later, Musk seemed to acknowledge that Tesla had abandoned the $25,000 human-driven car plan. He stated during the October 23rd earnings call that manufacturing affordable electric cars would be 'meaningless' unless they are fully autonomous.

His latest remarks were in response to an investor: 'When can we expect tesla to provide us with a $25,000 non-robot taxi standard car?'

Musk replied, 'We won't make non-robots...', before being interrupted by another tesla executive. Musk later added, 'Basically, I think having a standard car priced at $25,000 is meaningless. It's pretty stupid.'

An April 5th Reuters article reported that Tesla has abandoned its plans for a new, affordable mass-market electric car but still plans to launch self-driving robot taxis. Since then, Musk has increasingly hyped the plans for robot taxis and autonomous cars.

At the October earnings call, Musk mentioned that tesla does plan to release a '$0.025 million car' - its 'Cybercab', a two-door, two-seat fully self-driving car. Musk showcased a prototype on October 10 during a Hollywood-style event.

Musk stated that Tesla will begin production of the Cybercab in 2026, with fully self-driving versions of its existing Model 3 and Model Y models set to be deployed in Texas and California next year. The auto manufacturer faces serious technical, regulatory, and legal challenges in delivering on Musk's latest promises for fully self-driving cars, mirroring similar commitments made about a decade ago.

Until recently, a new and affordable Tesla car has been a key strategy for Tesla to become the world's largest electric car manufacturer. For years, Tesla's goal has been to produce 20 million cars annually by 2030, more than ten times its current sales volume, nearly twice that of the current global sales leader Toyota. In May of this year, Tesla canceled the target of 20 million cars in its latest sustainability progress Impact Report.

Just in January of this year, Musk confirmed the plan for a new affordable electric car in an earnings call. He said the next generation of cars will debut in 2025, kicking off the second significant growth wave, with the first waves being the Model 3 and Model Y cars released in 2017 and 2020 respectively.

Investors and Tesla fans often refer to the anticipated affordable car as 'Model 2,' priced below the current cheapest Tesla Model 3, starting at $42,490.

In January of this year, Musk described the new model as requiring 'new revolutionary production technology.' However, in April, after Reuters reported Tesla shelving Model 2, Musk outlined a plan for a 'more affordable' model that can be 'produced on the same production line as existing Teslas.'

Morningstar research service analyst Seth Goldstein said he believes these cheaper cars will be manufactured based on existing Tesla platforms, priced around $30,000.

"To my knowledge, the initial plan was to manufacture more affordable cars on a new platform," he told Reuters. "I think Tesla realized that they were falling behind in manufacturing economical cars compared to their Chinese electric vehicle counterparts... So, they changed their strategy instead of investing heavily in producing new cars."

After Reuters reported Tesla abandoning Model 2 on April 5th, Musk posted on X that same day announcing Tesla's plan to introduce 'robotaxis' in August. The event was postponed to October and held at a movie lot near Los Angeles, with Wall Street reacting neutrally, causing Tesla's stock price to drop by 9% the next day.

Some investors believe Musk's comments on the Cybercab—along with the display of the 'Robovan' autonomous driving concept and humanoid robots—lack specific product details. Tesla has not disclosed whether Cybercab will employ new autonomous driving technology other than the 'full self-driving' capability of their existing vehicles. Their current models cannot drive fully autonomously and require close human driver attention.

Cybercab's target market is not yet clear. The sports car exterior and two-door two-seat configuration of Cybercab—layouts that are almost extinct in the more extensive auto market in the USA—have left some analysts puzzled, as they originally expected siasun robot&automation taxis to have more passenger and luggage space.

Musk stated during the October earnings call that the design of this concept car has been optimized for autonomous driving, and the price is also relatively affordable.

"Its price is about 0.025 million USD, so it's a 0.025 million USD car," Musk said. "It just doesn't have a steering wheel and pedals."