According to Reuters, investors have been hoping that affordable electric vehicles can drive Tesla's growth into a mass market car manufacturer. However, according to sources and Reuters, Tesla has cancelled affordable electric vehicles and will continue to develop autonomous taxis (robotaxi) on similar small car platforms.

　　Two insiders revealed that they learned about Tesla's decision to abandon the Model 2 (Affordable Car) at a meeting attended by dozens of employees. One of them stated that the meeting took place in late February, and "Elon's instructions are to fully develop autonomous taxis."

　　Another insider also confirmed that Tesla has cancelled its affordable car plan and stated that the new plan requires the production of autonomous taxis, but production is expected to be much lower than expected for the Model 2.

　　Reuters reviewed several pieces of information from Tesla regarding this decision, including a message sent by a budget car project manager on March 1st. The message stated that the manager discussed the termination of the project with engineering personnel and suggested that they delay informing the supplier of the "project cancellation".

　　Another person familiar with Tesla's plans expressed optimism about Tesla's decision to shift from an affordable car strategy to an autonomous taxi, with Musk seeing autonomous taxis as the future of mobile transportation. But this insider cautioned that Tesla's product plan may change again depending on the economic situation.

　　Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on this matter; Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on social media platform X, "Reuters is lying." However, he did not provide specific details. Shortly thereafter, Musk posted on X stating that Tesla will launch autonomous taxis on August 8th.

　　Image source: X

　　On the same day, Musk also responded to a Tesla investor in another post with an emoji "eye", who speculated that Tesla was using more resources to bring autonomous taxis to the market.