diff --git a/.changes/version-req-error.md b/.changes/version-req-error.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..523d6f1c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changes/version-req-error.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+tauri-cli: patch:bug
+---
+
+Fixed an issue that caused the cli to print errors like `Error Failed to parse version 2 for crate tauri` when there was no `Cargo.lock` file present yet. This will still be logged in `--verbose` mode.
diff --git a/crates/tauri-cli/src/info/plugins.rs b/crates/tauri-cli/src/info/plugins.rs
index 989abe356..a5080caf1 100644
--- a/crates/tauri-cli/src/info/plugins.rs
+++ b/crates/tauri-cli/src/info/plugins.rs
@@ -72,7 +72,10 @@ pub fn installed_tauri_packages(
         crate_version(tauri_dir, manifest.as_ref(), lock.as_ref(), crate_name).version?;
       let crate_version = semver::Version::parse(&crate_version)
         .inspect_err(|_| {
-          log::error!("Failed to parse version `{crate_version}` for crate `{crate_name}`");
+          // On first run there's no lockfile yet so we get the version requirement from Cargo.toml.
+          // In our templates that's `2` which is not a valid semver version but a version requirement.
+          // log::error confused users so we use log::debug to still be able to see this error if needed.
+          log::debug!("Failed to parse version `{crate_version}` for crate `{crate_name}`");
         })
         .ok()?;
       Some((crate_name.clone(), crate_version))