At this year’s investor day, Tesla boss announced ambitious goals. In the future, the car manufacturer’s batteries will no longer contain rare earths. In addition, it is planned to reduce assembly costs by half. However, Musk is not presenting a new car to investors.
With his vision for a sustainable energy supply and cost savings, CEO Elon Musk wants to inspire skeptical investors after the Twitter takeover at Investor Day for Tesla. “There is a clear path to a fully sustainable earth with plenty,” Musk said Wednesday in Austin, Texas. The next generation of batteries will no longer contain rare earths, and the “hard work” of electrification will be done by iron-based cells in the future. The costs of vehicle electronics are to be reduced with the switch to 48-volt systems. Overall, the assembly costs are to be reduced by 50 percent with the next generation.
Despite the planned savings, Musk did not reveal concrete plans for new, lower-cost vehicle models, as expected. Tesla also did not present any new financial targets for the current fiscal year. At the presentation at the company’s Texas headquarters, all of the company’s senior management sat alongside Musk on the podium – a nod to Tesla’s attempt to establish the strength of its leadership beyond Musk as the face of the company.
Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn said the company would need to invest six times more than it has previously to meet its long-term goal of increasing production to 20 million vehicles a year — a tenfold increase from current capacity. The cost could total around $175 billion, he said.
Tesla manager Tom Zhu, who is the new global head of production and is responsible for sales, supply and service and all giga factories, said global capacity is currently two million vehicles a year. The ambitious goal of the e-car pioneer: In the future, a Tesla should roll off the assembly line every 45 seconds. In addition to the giga factories in the USA, Germany and China, further production facilities are required for this. Musk confirmed the construction of a new plant in Mexico.
Entering the mass market is crucial for Tesla to increase deliveries 15x by 2030 – towards the target of 20 million vehicles. According to Musk, Tesla only needs ten models to achieve annual sales of 20 million vehicles. That would correspond to average sales of two million vehicles per year for each model series.
For comparison: The Japanese group Toyota, the world’s largest automobile manufacturer by number of units, sells just over a million Corollas a year worldwide. The automaker currently produces four models, all of which are at the top end of the market. The Cybertruck, the launch of which has already been postponed several times, is scheduled to be launched later this year, Tesla said.
Prominent Tesla investor Ross Gerber tweeted that the presentation was a “huge hint” with the fence post for the next generation of vehicles. “They laid it all out. 50 percent less build cost. That would allow for an EV in the $25-30,000 price range!” However, investors were unimpressed by the lack of new models: Tesla shares fell more than five percent in after-hours trading.
