Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that the automaker might design and engineer a small electric hatchback in Germany.

Earlier today, Electrek reported that Volvo bought a Tesla Model Y in the US and brought it to Sweden, presumably to reverse engineer it.

Commenting on the story, Musk said:

Berlin Model Y is the one to watch. That is a revolution in automotive body engineering (finally).

The CEO seems to imply that Volvo should instead take a look at the version of the Model Y that Tesla plans to build at Gigafactory Berlin since it will be greatly improved though its not available yet so they cant really do that.

Following the comment, Musk was asked if Tesla could build a smaller European style hatchback and the CEO responded:

At the very least, it sounds like Musk is interested in the idea.

Lately, the CEO has been discussing not only building cars where they are building new factories, in Germany and China, but also designing and engineering cars in those markets.

In China, Tesla has been taking design submissions for a Chinese-made small electric car.

Musk already announced plans for Tesla to open a European design center in Germany.

Now it sounds like the design and engineering team that Tesla plans to hire at the location could end up designing a smaller electric hatchback.

Tesla fans have been asking for a small electric hatchback for years now and I think this is the first time that Elon has openly talked about the possibility.

It looks like we might be getting it from China based on the drawing that the automaker released for a Chinese-designed Tesla vehicle, but now it sounds like this new German-designed Tesla car could be a whole separate vehicle program.

Those vehicles are also exciting because they likely mean that Tesla is thinking about going downmarket from Model 3, which is something that Elon has pushed against in the past.

Could you imagine a Tesla 5-door hatchback with 250 miles of range starting at $30,000? That would be a killer.

Tesla could also offer a dual motor Performance version for $40,000+ to create a hot hatch that would just be an autocross machine.

I basically want Tesla to do their own version of the Zoe RS hot hatch that Renault has been teasing for years but never released.

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Tesla electric hatchback: Elon Musk says new car might be designed in Germany - Electrek