At an annual meeting, Elon Musk presented both Tesla’s results and outlook, but also answered questions from shareholders, not all of which were easy to deal with. This is what we took from it.
Tesla held its annual shareholder meeting on August 4, 2022 at the Gigafactory in Austin. After the voting phase, Elon Musk took the floor to present some important points of Tesla’s evolution, before starting a question and answer session with shareholders.
In front of a white-hot audience, Elon Musk shared some fairly appropriate information about the future of the brand. Amid a lot of hesitation, embarrassed laughter and waiting for the applause to stop, here are the 8 things that really stood out to us.
100 Million Tesla in 10 years? Why not according to Elon
Tesla has just passed the milestone of the 3 millionth car produced. In 10 years, the brand has gone from just under 3,000 cars manufactured (Tesla Roadster and first Model S) to 3,000,000 vehicles. Alongside an exponential curve worthy of an unrealizable business plan, Elon Musk was pleased to have achieved this result.
When asked about the outlook for the next decade, an audience participant offered a suggested answer: 300 million Teslas. Elon Musk thought and answered in the negative, but 100 million is not impossible according to him.
A new Gigafactory will be announced soon
The location of this new XXL factory is not yet fixed. The announcements will be made a little later in the year, but this Gigafactory will most likely concern the North American continent. In the states of the North or close to the Mexican border, nothing is excluded, not even the possibility of installing a Gigafactory in Canada.
Elon Musk did not hide that there is still a lot to do on the existing Gigafactory to improve them. We must solve the 10,000 small problems that are still slowing down the rise of sites like Austin or Berlin. However, the Shanghai and Freemont factories are cited as examples. Elon Musk expects the various production sites to be able to manufacture between 1 and 2 million vehicles each, but new sites will be needed to achieve the desired growth targets.
Tesla has already passed the milestone of 1.5 million vehicle products for the year, and aims to reach 2 million by the end of 2022.
FSD: autonomous cars that work like elevators?
For Elon Musk, Full Self Driving (Tesla’s autonomous driving technology) is already working well. But, there are still a lot of improvements to be made, and the teams are working intensely on the subject to improve this.
Elon Musk compared the car of tomorrow to an elevator: “ You press a button and the elevator goes where it’s supposed to go “. He is working to achieve the same with cars. Everything will be imagined by improving the safety of passengers on board.
Currently, 100,000 users have access to these advanced features in the United States. By the end of the year, Elon Musk would like that might want to test FSD in his Tesla to be able to do so.
IA and Optimus are going to be summarized in detail on September 30
Among the interesting things to remember about the robot Optimus is the fact that Elon does not understand why the public does not believe it. For him, “The Optimus robot could be much more profitable than cars in the long run “.
If the robot was initially to confine itself to repetitive tasks, it could eventually open up to other possibilities. Elon Musk invites us to attend IA day on September 30, 2022 to learn more about his robot. If the robot looks like the event illustration, it might be interesting to follow.
Cybertruck prices will be much higher than announced in 2019
In 2019, Tesla announced pricing for Cybertruck that the brand ultimately won’t be able to honor. We expected it. ” Specs and price will be different, I know that’s bad news “added Elon Musk.
The prices will therefore be much higher, once because of inflation than following many technical changes to the model, but Elon Musk assures him, it will be an extraordinary vehicle.
It confirms the given deadline for a production which will begin in mid-2023, it remains to know the new prices of the machine. We could be settled on the issue in the coming weeks.
USA vs China situation: peace and respect
The shareholders did not hesitate to ask particularly sensitive questions. A request regarding Tesla’s view of the geopolitical situation between the US and China somewhat embarrassed Elon Musk.
A question in the face of which he could only kick in touch, answering first with an embarrassed laugh: “ What could go wrong answering this question? “, before adding:” Let me just say that I hope for peace and respect. »
For once, we can’t accuse Elon Musk of adding fuel to the fire.
Recession: Towards a drop in Tesla prices in about 6 months
Some time ago, Elon Musk was rather alarmist about a possible lasting demotion. Between a wave of layoffs and the rise in prices of the various models in the catalog, the company seemed to be preparing for a long period of crisis.
During this meeting, Elon Musk was a little more optimistic, indicating that he suggested that the peak of inflation had passed, and that within 6 months, prices could again be brought down.
What if we had to ditch Tesla’s leadership for Twitter?
“Tesla said to be fine, even if I were to be abducted by aliens… or if I had to return to my own planet (laughs). »
Specifically, Elon Musk has indicated that he will stay as long as he is useful to Tesla. The strategic plan is still dense and there are many things to optimize in terms of design, products and production. The subject of Twitter is thorny and Elon Musk cannot therefore respond as he would keep it, because of the ongoing legal proceedings.
During this long public intervention, the themes of robot taxis, superchargers, 4680 batteries, the production of Model Y, The Boring Company, solar production (Tesla Solar Roof), the ecological approach were also retained. of the company. In any case, Elon Musk shares an optimistic vision of how the company fits into the center of ecology and the future. If you want to know more, you can watch Elon Musk’s full speech on YouTube: