The Tesla Annual Shareholder meeting took place on 16 May 2023, giving Elon Musk the chance to talk across a wide-range of Tesla topics and answer many questions. Apart from confirming that Cybertruck deliveries would start in 2023, the Tesla founder teased the launch of two new products.

The details on these products are light, and Musk didn't dwell on them for long, but during this section of the presentation, a silhouette was shown on the display giving us an idea of the profile of the vehicle. What's more important, however, is what Musk said at the end of the segment around 52 minutes into the presentation: "Elon's guess is that we'll probably make in excess of 5 million units a year of these two models combined."

Consider that Tesla reported production levels of just over 1.3 million units for 2022 across all current models combined and that tells you something about the forthcoming car - it's going to be mass market. That suggests - and Musk did say that figure was just his guess - that this will be a smaller and more affordable model than the Tesla Model 3. It's long been suggested that there will be a Tesla Model 2, more compact and more affordable, the sort of car that might compete with the plans of the likes of VW with the ID. Life concept, expected to launch as the VW ID.2.

Electric cars have been faced with higher costs than combustion models since launch and although the gaps are narrowing - and the running costs are vastly different - many buyers find that they simply cannot afford to pay for an electric car, finding themselves facing higher fuel costs and additional pollution taxes. The next model from Tesla might help address that problem.

"We are actually building a new product. We're not just sitting on our hands here," said Musk.

"Both the design of the products and the manufacturing techniques are head and shoulders above anything else that is present in [the] industry."

Musk did confirm that there would be a proper launch event for the new products, but there's no word on when that might happen.

We're expecting the Tesla Model 2 to have a hatchback design, likely launching with a single motor driving the front wheels, but probably offering other options further down the line. It's likely that Tesla will look to save money by producing all the components itself so there's direct control of the costs with lower dependency on third-party suppliers. The silhouette shown during the presentation might not be the actual profile of the future car.

We'd expect the interior to follow on in Tesla's minimalist style, with a central display controlling all elements of the car. Of course, one of the biggest factors that Tesla could use to control the cost of the new model is having a lower battery capacity, and therefore a lower range.

There are currently no specs for this model - and no telling what the second model is - but we're pretty sure that the launch of a new more affordable Tesla, if production can hit the volume that Elon Musk suggests, could really shake up the electric car market.