Tesla China VP talks about a locally designed EV. Is it the $25k compact EV?

It is a rumour doing rounds in the automotive circuit for quite a long time that Tesla is working on a compact electric car, which would be a zero-emission hatchback. Now, Tesla's China Vice President Grace Tao has said that the possibility of a made-in-China Tesla electric vehicle is very much real and it could be materialized in near future. This has further fuelled the speculation about an affordable compact electric car from the EV major.

The made-in-China affordable all-electric car could be the $25,000 costing Tesla EV that the world has been discussing for quite some time. In an interview with The Paper, Tao indicated that the upcoming EV will be nearly 100 per cent localized.

Tao didn't talk about the $25,000 electric car directly. But, Tesla has been mulling the idea to make a compact and cheap car in China that will be sold around the world.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk too has said previously that there is no plan to launch a Model 2. However, he noted that Tesla's goal is to launch a cheaper car. The US electric car major currently is the biggest EV brand in the world with the majority of the market share in its pocket. A cheaper car will increase the market share further strengthening its footprint. Also, this would further boost the EV adoption rate around the world.

Tesla has recently opened its new Research and Development centre in China. In addition to that, there were reports of the EV company looking for a location for a second factory in the country. Currently, Tesla has a Gigafactoiry near Shanghai, which is the first such factory for the brand outside the US.