New Tesla Compact EV coming in 2025: new patent images surface online

• New Tesla compact EV confirmed for 2025
• New patent drawings give hint at the styling
• Design previewed in exclusive Carwow renders
• Takes inspiration from the Model 3 and Cybertruck
• Set to cost from around £22,000
• New production methods lower costs

It seems as though Tesla’s affordable compact EV has been “coming soon” for years now, but Elon Musk set a production date of late 2025 earlier this year, giving us a glimmer of hope that the MG4 alternative will soon become a reality.

The new electric hatchback doesn’t have a name yet, but it’s rumoured that it could cost as little as £22,000 thanks to some clever new manufacturing techniques, and a new set of patent images give us a clearer picture of what it’ll look like.

What happened to the Tesla compact EV?

It’s been a good few years now since rumours first surfaced about a cheap, compact electric car from Tesla, and the future of this car was thrown into doubt earlier this year thanks to a report from Reuters claiming that Tesla would scrap it in favour of developing self-driving robotaxis.

Elon Musk took to social media shortly after this to deny these claims, simply posting on X “Reuters is lying”. He didn’t make reference to any specific inaccuracies.

During Tesla’s 2023 financial results call, Musk finally put a date on compact EV production. He said: “I don’t want to blow your minds but I’m often optimistic regarding time, but our current schedule says that we will start production towards the end of 2025, some time in the second half.

“That will be a challenging production ramp. We’ll be sleeping on the line practically, but I am confident that once it is going it will be head and shoulders above any other manufacturing technology that exists anywhere in the world.”

So you can expect a full reveal of this new hatchback towards the end of 2025, with first deliveries likely to begin in early 2026.

New Tesla Compact EV design

Getting a good idea of what this new electric hatchback will look like is tricky, because there have been no sightings of this car yet and Tesla doesn’t really have a consistent design language across its range. With the exception of the Model 3 and Model Y, every new car it unveils seems to look radically different.

Some new patent images have surfaced online recently from Tesla showing what appears to be a new model, and it could be one of two things. It’s either the new hatchback, or it’s the new robotaxi which is set to be unveiled later this year.

The two cars are expected to be very similar under the skin, with a lot of parts likely to be shared between the two, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that they’ll look pretty similar as well.

From these drawings we can see that the car has a more rounded shape than anything else from Tesla, in stark contrast to the rolling axe head that is the Cybertruck. The Carwow team had a go at imagining the new compact EV’s design using digital rendering earlier this year.

Up front there’s a similar light bar to the Cybertruck, and the triangular mirrors ape that car as well. In true Tesla style, the lower bumper has a clean and fuss-free look to it. That bubble-like roofline is even more exaggerated here, something which would make for improved interior space, and there’s another Cybertruck-esque rear light bar.

New Tesla compact EV batteries and range

When this new Tesla compact EV does arrive, it’ll use a new type of battery which is more powerful, safer and cheaper than the Model 3’s thanks to something called a tabless design.

This technology is essentially a new way of connecting the battery’s cells together, and it reduces the size of the battery by around 35%. They can also store and release more energy without overheating, giving them as much as 16% more range per kilowatt-hour than traditional batteries.

Tesla is also planning to make the battery a structural part of the car, helping make it lighter and stronger, 10% lighter to be precise. That’ll boost the range by a further 14%. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that the new Tesla hatchback has a battery half the size of the Model 3’s, this would equate to a range of around 180 miles.

To put that into perspective, the £27,000 Fiat 500 Electric has a range of 118 miles, potentially 62 miles less than the entry-level Tesla. And that car could end up costing around £5,000 less.

New Tesla compact EV motors and performance

To help further reduce the cost of this new Tesla, it will use a new type of electric motor which uses no rare earth materials. This makes it cheaper to make and lighter. In fact, this new drive unit will cost just $1,000 (£820) to produce, and it can be built in a smaller factory to help save even more money.

So what does this mean for performance? Well Tesla will probably only use one motor to keep the price down, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be slow. Rear-wheel drive versions of the Tesla Model 3 can do 0-60mph in 5.3 seconds, quick enough to beat the Honda Civic Type R by half a second, and it’s possible that this lighter car with its clever batteries could be even quicker.

How much will the new Tesla compact EV cost?

Tesla’s self-proclaimed Techno King Elon Musk has already confirmed that the new compact EV could cost around $25,000, or £22,000. That’s £5,000 cheaper than the MG 4, and it’s almost £10,000 less than a BYD Dolphin.

So how is this car going to be so cheap? Well aside from a raft of new battery and motor tech, Tesla is also working on some new, more efficient manufacturing techniques which should lower the cost of production.

The Tesla Model 3 and Model Y make their way up the production line as a whole car, requiring bits to be assembled and disassembled multiple times along the way for things like painting and wiring.

This new car will be built differently. Teams of people and robots will work on fully assembling separate parts of the car, before marrying them together at the end in one go. For example, the doors will be built, painted, wired and the door cards assembled off the car, before being bolted on at the end of the line. This means the car is only fully built once.

Musk claims that this will yield a 30% improvement in time, space and efficiency, as well as make this car around 50% cheaper to build than the Model 3 and Model Y.

In addition to this, a lot of work is being done to reduce the amount of wiring. All new Tesla models will use a 48V electrical system as opposed to a 12V setup, allowing for smaller and lighter wires to be used. A lot of wiring will also be removed completely, using wireless networks to control certain things instead.

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