Photo/Li Xing (NBD)

April 7 (NBD) -- As we head into 2023, the general public's interest in Tesla's cheaper model continues to rise.

It is reported that Tesla is planning to launch a lower-priced car and is building a production capacity of up to 4 million vehicles a year.

"There is currently no official update on the new products beyond the information released on the investors' day (March 2)," said a Tesla staff on Thursday when approached by NBD.

Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association, told NBD that if Tesla launches a lower-priced, smaller model, it will effectively dominate Europe, Japan and other markets that prefer small electric vehicles, which will have a global delivery that far exceeds that of the Model 3.

Tesla's planned annual production capacity of 4 million vehicles for the low-priced model will be mainly distributed in North America, Germany and China, with 2 million vehicles to be produced in North America and 1 million each in Germany and China, sources said. In response, the person in charge of Tesla said "we don't have a response to that".

However, NBD learned from Tesla that its new Gigafactory in Mexico will be used to build models for the next-generation platform, and other factories around the world will follow suit soon.