‘Master Plan Part 3’ teased

Electric vehicle maker 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 debate how Tesla plans to scale up within the face of accelerating competition.

The presentation was long on vision, and a review of prior achievements, but short on specifics about any recent Tesla services or products.

Near the start of the presentation, Musk said, “There may be a transparent path to a sustainable-energy Earth. It doesn’t require destroying natural habitats. It doesn’t require us to be austere and stop using electricity and be within the cold or anything.” He added, “In actual fact, you could possibly support a civilization much larger than Earth, far more than the 8 billion humans could actually be supported sustainably on Earth.”

Musk was initially joined on stage by Senior Vice President of Powertrain and Energy Engineering at Tesla, Drew Baglino. They discussed a future during which the corporate would play a job in “re-powering the grid with renewable fuels” as they ramp up battery production, each for Tesla’s electric vehicles and for the corporate’s utility-scale energy storage systems.

Tesla’s goal is to provide 20 million electric vehicles per yr by 2030, executives reiterated. The corporate reported full yr deliveries of around 1.31 million vehicles in 2022.

The corporate’s manufacturing leader, Tom Zhu, announced that as of Wednesday, Tesla had produced 4 million cars. “It took us 12 years to construct the primary million, and about 18 months to the second million. The third million, 11 months. Then lower than 7 months to construct the 4 millionth,” Zhu said touting the corporate’s improving operational efficiency.

He said that the corporate plans to construct recent automotive and battery cell factories, but in addition to provide more cars per yr at its existing factories.

Tesla charging leader, Rebecca Tinucci, said that in 2022 the corporate provided 9 terawatt hours across charging methods, including AC home charging and away-from-home charging points, including 40,000 Superchargers. Your complete U.S. consumes about 4,000 terawatt hours of electricity per yr. Tinucci also noted that about half of the corporate’s Superchargers within the EU are open to other vehicles, and that the corporate just opened 10 Superchargers within the US to other vehicles.

Tesla design leader Franz von Holzhausen and vp of auto engineering Lars Moravy took the stage to point out off various planned manufacturing changes meant to enhance the efficiency of Tesla vehicle production. But von Holzhausen said that Tesla wouldn’t yet reveal its “next gen” vehicle.

The corporate’s powertrain vp, Colin Campbell, said that Tesla’s next powertrain factory will likely be 50% smaller than the one in Austin, Texas, but could have the identical capability. He also said the corporate is working on a recent sort of drive unit that’s compatible with any battery cell type, and a motor that will likely be built with none rare earth metals.

Ahead of the 2023 Investor Day, at a press conference on Tuesday, Mexico president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Tesla had agreed to construct a big factory in Monterrey, Mexico. He said Tesla agreed to make use of recycled water and take other initiatives to address water-scarcity within the region.

Tesla shares have rebounded from declines during 2022, and are up greater than 60% for the yr up to now. Nonetheless, the stock dropped 1.43% on Wednesday prior to the event, and nearly 3% after hours.

In accordance with Ortex, a brief interest tracker, “After delivering $4.5 billion in profits to short sellers in January, TSLA’s 19% rise in February has helped pile on losses for TSLA bears. ORTEX estimates that TSLA shorts incurred $3 billion in losses for February, the largest short lack of the month by a meaningful margin (#2 was NVDA with a $1.5 billion loss for shorts).”

Mizuho Securities analysts maintained a buy rating on shares of Tesla ahead of Investor Day, seeing Tesla in a leadership position in a growing marketplace for fully electric vehicles. They wrote, in a note earlier this week, “Near-term, we see continued strength in TSLA’s market share, but see cheaper competitor EVs coming to market as potentially dilutive to TSLA’s share of the US EV 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 noted.

Musk’s ambitious Master Plan Part Deux was published in 2016, and has not been completely fulfilled. It included 4 essential objectives:

• “Create stunning solar roofs with seamlessly integrated battery storage”
• “Expand the electrical vehicle product line to handle all major segments”
• “Develop a self-driving capability that’s 10X safer than manual via massive fleet learning”
• “Enable your automotive to earn a living for you if you aren’t using it”.

— CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.