electric vehicle manufacturer tesla hosted a 2023 Investor Day presentation in Austin, Texas on Wednesday. CEO Elon Musk took the stage to share his «Master Plan 3» and to discuss how Tesla plans to grow in the face of increasing competition.
The presentation was long on vision and included a review of past accomplishments, but short on details about Tesla’s new products or services.
Near the beginning of the presentation, Musk said, “There is a clear path to a sustainable energy Earth. It does not require destroying natural habitats. It doesn’t require us to be austere and stop using electricity and get cold or anything.» He added: «In fact, you could support a civilization much larger than Earth, much more than the 8 billion humans that could actually be sustainably supported on Earth.»
Musk was initially joined on stage by Drew Baglino, Tesla’s senior vice president of powertrain and power engineering. They spoke of a future in which the company would play a role in «reviving the grid with renewable fuels» as battery production ramps up, both for Tesla’s electric vehicles and for the company’s large-scale energy storage systems. company.
Tesla’s goal is to produce 20 million electric vehicles per year by 2030, the executives reiterated. The company reported full-year deliveries of around 1.31 million vehicles in 2022.
During a question-and-answer session that followed the three-hour presentation, the executives answered a question about how Tesla could increase its market share in China.
Elon Musk passed the question on to Tom Zhu, who heads global production and has run the China and APAC businesses for Tesla for years. «As long as he offers a value product at an affordable price, he doesn’t have to worry about demand,» Zhu said. «We try everything to reduce costs,» he added, «and pass that value on to our customers.»
Musk later added: «Demand is a function of affordability, not desire.» He said: «Even small price changes have a big effect on demand.»
Zhu also announced that, as of Wednesday, Tesla had produced 4 million cars in total.
“It took us 12 years to build the first million and about 18 months for the second million. The third million, 11 months. Then less than seven months to build the 4 million,” Zhu said, praising the company’s improved operating efficiency.
He said Tesla plans to build new car and battery cell factories, and also produce more cars per year at its existing factories.
Tesla’s charging leader, Rebecca Tinucci, said that by 2022 the company will provide 9 terawatt hours across all charging methods, including home charging, including 40,000 Superchargers. (For comparison, the entire US consumes about 4,000 terawatt hours of electricity per year.) Tinucci also noted that about half of the company’s superchargers in the EU are open to other vehicles, and that the company has just opened 10 superchargers in the US to non-Tesla.
Tesla Design Leader Franz von Holzhausen and the company’s Vice President of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy took the stage to showcase a series of planned manufacturing changes aimed at improving the efficiency of Tesla vehicle production. But von Holzhausen said Tesla would not reveal its «next-generation» vehicle yet.
The company’s vice president of powertrain, Colin Campbell, said Tesla’s next powertrain factory will be 50% smaller than the one in Austin, but will have the same capacity. He also said that the company is working on a new type of drive unit that is compatible with any type of battery cell and a motor that will be built without rare earth metals.
Ahead of Investor Day 2023, at a press conference on Tuesday, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tesla had agreed to build a large factory in Monterrey, Mexico. He said the company has agreed to use recycled water and take other initiatives to address water shortages in the region.
Musk confirmed the factory plans Wednesday, saying production there would complement, rather than replace, any manufacturing at other Tesla facilities.
Tesla shares have rebounded from dips throughout 2022 and are up more than 60% year-to-date. However, shares fell 1.43% on the Wednesday before the event and 5% after hours.
On Thursday morning, Tesla shares decreased even more8% discount on pre-market trading.
Analysts at Mizuho Securities maintained a Buy rating on Tesla’s shares ahead of investor day, seeing the company in a leadership position in a growing market for all-electric vehicles. They wrote in a note earlier this week: «In the near term, we see continued strength in TSLA’s market share, but we see cheaper competing EVs coming to market as potentially diluting TSLA’s share of the market.» the US electric vehicle market».
Currently, the lowest-priced Tesla available is the Model 3 sedan, which starts at a price point of around $43,000, they wrote. Seven models from other automakers are currently priced below that, Mizhuo said.
The ambitious “Master Plan, Second partIt was published in 2016, and has not been fully complied with. It included four main objectives:
- “Create stunning solar roofs with seamlessly integrated battery storage”
- “Expand the electric vehicle product line to address all major segments”
- “Develop autonomous driving capability that is 10 times safer than manual through mass fleet learning”
- “Allow your car to generate money for you when you are not using it”
Michael Bloom, CNBC contributed.