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In March 2023 Tesla hosted an Investor Day conference where the future plan, named Part 3 was announced. This took place in the state of Texas and Elon Musk unveiled the major turning points in the history of Tesla, the largest and most successful EV manufacturer in the world. This followed on from previous future plans that were announced in 2006 and 2016.

Tesla’s investors were expecting to discover the announcement of new models of electric cars, even the release of a more affordable Tesla. However, this was not the case, much to their dismay. What did transpire however was that Tesla’s share price fell by 5% at the end of the conference.

A disappointing conference for investors maybe, but three announcements still caught the attention of the media and some investors.

The first point announced by Musk was his commitment to a fully sustainable energy future.

He outlined part of a vision he has for the years to come, based around the total decarbonization of the world. He then mentioned that 80% of global energy comes from fossil fuels and that nearly 80% of this energy is then lost in heat with thermal engines. He gave this as the reason to demonstrate the importance of moving towards a totally electric energy transition.

With this as a baseline, Tesla’s ambition is to move more and more to solar and wind energy for manufacturing and storage. This solution had been already presented in 2016 in his Master Plan Part 2. Indeed, the Tesla group was already planning to deploy solar panels capable of storing energy in batteries.

It all sounds straight forward until you start looking at the costs involved. Some analysts are sceptical about the numbers relating to the cost for companies or even countries to transition to an all-electric energy supply linked only to wind and solar. The figures for this type of transition depending on the size of the company or country could be as high as 10 trillion US dollars overall. You read that right, a massive amount, actually this would be close to 10% of the worlds GDP.

Secondly Musk announced that Tesla is in the business of additional services, not only selling vehicles. Tesla is already the world leader in terms of sales volumes, and the group is doing everything possible to continue to be at the forefront. Tesla published a profit of nearly 30 billion US dollars for the year 2023. Musk wants Tesla to stand out from the competition, so has launched a subscription-based program, making it easier to recharge a Tesla at home.

For a monthly subscription each Tesla owner will have the ability to recharge their vehicle over-night. This service was rolled out in Texas, and the group are able to supply 100% green energy from a number of wind and solar facilities within the state of Texas. According to Musk this type of premium services should allow them to sell up to 20 million cars per year by 2030. A figure that represents 15 times more than the current level.

The third part of the master plan is the introduction of Artificial Intelligence or AI. Musk has already expressed his uncertainty with AI. He has categorised this as scary technology, especially in the wrong hands.

Who would have imagined that one day Artificial Intelligence would be seen in this light by one of the greatest visionaries of this era.

Musk expressed his fears about the preponderant use of AI technology by saying that, “we need some sort of regulatory authority or something that oversees the development of artificial intelligence, to make sure it works in the public interest. It’s a pretty dangerous technology”.

However, this technology is destined to end up in the vehicles we will own, rent, share and drive in the future.

April 2024