Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a lot more in store than the latest Model 3
After Tesla reported earnings on Wednesday, Elon open the lid on his box of secrets.
Musk cracked
While most investors focused on rising costs and execution risk as he prepares for his most important product launch, the CEO dropped a pile of hints about what new adventures may be in store for the darling of America’s electrified future. Here are some noteworthy nuggets. Model 3 is ‘close to the bullseye’ As Tesla approaches the July launch of its first mass-market car, Musk provided details that may assuage nervous investors (and reservation
holders). The newest Schuler press line has been powered on, paint shop prep is complete, the welding and assembly lines are coming together, and there have been no major hiccups with the test cars. “It’s been pretty close to the bullseye,” Musk said. “I don’t know anything that would prevent us from starting production in July and exceeding 5,000 units a week by the end of the year.” The Model Y is coming in 2019 Tesla plans to launch its follow-on car to the Model 3, a compact SUV called the Model Y, in late 2019 or 2020. Musk said the Y will be built on an entirely new platform from the 3, which surprised a number of analysts and may be partly responsible for the stock falling 5 per cent on Thursday. Building a new vehicle from scratch costs more and takes longer than a more subtle redesign, but Musk said doing so will allow Tesla to dramatically increase the rate of production with a new level of robotic manufacturing. Tesla’s pickup truck may be coming sooner than you think. Tesla recently announced that it would unveil its all-electric long-haul semi truck in September. But there was still no word on the pickup truck Musk mentioned in his “Master Plan, Part Deux” blog post last summer. Interestingly, Musk said the semi isn’t as complex as most people assume and is made largely from Model 3 parts, including “a bunch of Model 3 motors” powering up in unison.
Reservations for the Model 3 are increasing The response to the Model 3’s unveiling last year was unprecedented, with 373,000 deposits of $1,000 just in the first six weeks. Since then, Tesla has been trying to convince reservation holders to upgrade to a Model S, a practice Musk calls “anti-selling” the Model 3. He anti-sold things so much on the call that analysts wondered if Model S sales might be faltering. The company hasn’t provided an updated number of Model 3 reservations since last year, but Musk said that “net reservations continue to climb week after week ... every week.”
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