What Happened: The denial comes in the wake of several reports in the Chinese media that cite Tom Zhu, president of Tesla China, confirming that the company was working on such a vehicle, according to cnEVPost, a China-focused EV website.
Multiple reports purportedly refer to a Clean Technica story — which in turn claimed that Zhu spoke to China’s press agency Xinhua and made disclosure regarding the $25,000 vehicles to the latter.
CnEVPost said it had looked at a video of the Xinhua interview included in the Clean Technica story and did not see any comments on the $25,000 vehicle.
Why It Matters: A Tesla source was quoted by Shanghai-based cls.cn media outlet as saying that the news surrounding the vehicle was a false rumor and that “we never said those words,” as reported by cnEVPost.
The launch of the $25,000 vehicle — dubbed Model 2 — was reported early last month in local Chinese media and the price range was stated to be between RMB 160,000 ($24,700) and RMB 200,000 ($31,000).
Sina said this month that a required Environmental Impact Assessment for a budget Tesla model was underway and it could be revealed at the Guangzhou Auto Show in November or December.
It was also reported by media outlets that the budget vehicle would be sold globally and would be available within three years.
Price Action: Tesla shares closed 0.55% higher at $816.12 on Friday and gained 0.18% in the after-hours session.
