While many consider Tesla to be spearheading the electric vehicle movement, which has steadily been gaining traction for some time now, it still doesn’t offer the most affordable vehicles. Aside from a rare few and suitably interesting models, EVs don’t come cheap.

Elon Musk’s green-energy automaker has been playing with the idea of a more affordable model for some time now, but new leaks from the historically reliable Weibo suggest that it may hit roads sooner than we think.

A Tesla that won’t break the bank

This model, rumoured to be called the Model 2 or Model Q, is a compact vehicle developed by Tesla China, and is set to debut with an asking price of $25,000. Now, local availability and shipping will definitely have an effect on that depending on where you live, but if we do a 1-to-1 translation into Rands it comes out at R363,737.

This is by no means a budget buy, but it’s certainly affordable by EV standards. For reference, the next cheapest Tesla is $41,190, or just under R600,000.

Again, keep in mind that this, technically, still counts as a rumour — but as InsideEvs points out, Weibo‘s leaks turn out to be mostly accurate more often than not.

Tesla China President Tom Zhu confirmed earlier this year that a Chinese-built Tesla would be designed and manufactured at the automaker’s Giga Shangai facility and that this model would be sold all over the world.

Again, take all this with a cautious grain of salt. Rumours are still rumours. But we’re willing to bet on the reliability of this one. A cheaper Tesla could set a precedent for other automakers across the globe: you don’t need to sell a kidney to drive on green energy.