Tesla is planning on launching cheaper electric cars this year

Tesla is planning to launch more electric cars this year, including some cheaper ones, according to its latest investor relations report.

It’s likely the new cars will include variants of existing models, like the best-selling Model Y and Model 3, and potentially the more affordable, once-cancelled-maybe-now-happening Model 2.

We're told they will "utilise aspects of the next-gen platform as well as current platforms, and will be produced on the same production lines as the current line-up", according to the Tesla Q4 presentation, proving shy on finer details.

However, in the hypest of hype calls yet – where Elon Musk posited that "it won't take many years to produce 100 million Optimus robots a year" – a soft launch of the fully autonomous Waymo-rivalling Cybercab service in Austin, Texas was also confirmed for June this year.

“[The Tesla Robotaxi] is not a far-off mythical situation. It’s literally five/six months away," he said.

Shareholders were told the initial Austin-based service was going to demonstrate a fraction of the true capability of the robotaxis. Apparently, the self-driving cars are currently operating from parked spaces across Tesla's Fremont factory, completing thousands of journeys every day.

“Though we’re putting our toe in the water gently at first, just to make sure everything’s cool, our solution is a generalised AI solution, and it doesn’t require high precision maps of a locality," said Musk. More as we have it.