Tesla (TSLA) shares traded lower following its Investor Day, with the main disappointment being the automaker did not reveal its next generation 3 car design, though it did reveal that two upcoming models will be joining the Tesla product portfolio and that it will build its next factory in Mexico.
After a rather extended delay in getting started, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and various execs addressed topics including Musk’s "Master Plan 3," vehicle design evolution, A.I., charging infrastructure, and supply chain issues, from its Gigafactory Austin.
Here are the main takeaways from Tesla’s meeting with investors:
Master Plan 3
Musk took the stage early and began his presentation with Tesla SVP of powertrain Andrew Baglino. Musk started off with his broad, all-encompassing vision of how to take humanity to a sustainable future. “There is a clear path to a fully sustainable earth, with abundance,” Musk said. “What we’re trying to convey is a message of hope and optimism.”
Musk noted that requires a vast amount of battery energy storage, and the Earth needs 240TWh of storage, which is a lot. This includes electric vehicles and standalone battery storage, Musk said. As batteries become more efficient and increase their energy density, Musk believes all forms of transport will use batteries.
The main way to do this — in Musk's and Tesla’s vision — is a multi-stage process in which humans will need to build a renewably sourced power grid (i.e. solar and wind), transition all cars to EVs, switch to heat pumps for heat generation, use hydrogen for high temp heat applications, and use sustainable fuel and energy for planes and boats.
With regards to the transition to EVs, Tesla showed a slide (below) of its future vehicles (meant to hit a 20 million in run-rate by 2030), and the slide showed two unannounced vehicles. One vehicle appears in the trucks area above the Cybertruck, and this appears to be a van or SUV-like vehicle. The other one appears at the far right, which and looks to be the generation 3 platform.
Vehicle design
This brought the presentation to vehicle design, and discussion of the generation 3 vehicle.
In a disappointment to investors, Tesla Head of Design Franz von Holzhausen said the next generation vehicle will be unveiled at a later date, and Tesla would only be discussing the platform.
Design is key to the platform, von Hozhausen said. Tesla engineers had to think different about building a vehicle like the Cybertruck. With no stamping needed or paint for the panels, the manufacturing footprint to build the Cybertruck is smaller, Tesla said.
Tesla wants to rethink manufacturing — It started it with the Model Y, with the battery being a structural part of the vehicle floor. Tesla said this type of design will cut costs by 50% and reduce factory footprint by 40% — which will all be part of the generation 3 platform design.
Tesla also noted that it won't design and build motors that use rare-earth metals for the generation 3 platform’s drive unit.
New factory, new milestone, charging infrastructure
During the Q&A portion of the presentation, Tesla announced it would be building its next factory in Monterey, Mexico. As of the end of 2022, Tesla projected an installed annual capacity of around 1.9 million vehicles, and Musk has speculated Tesla will need 12 gigafactories in total to produce 20 million vehicles a year.
Tesla did reveal earlier today that it built its four-millionth vehicle, a huge milestone though a fraction of its goal to hit that 20 million annual run rate.
In addition, Tesla’s head of charging infrastructure revealed over 50% of European charging ports in Tesla’s network are open to non-Tesla vehicles. Tesla says it has 10 U.S. supercharger sites that are open to non-Teslas for fast-charging. Tesla’s opening of its charging network was a prerequisite for it to access the White House’s EV charging infrastructure funding.
—
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Download the Yahoo Finance app for Apple or Android
Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and YouTube