Tesla has outlined how it plans to slash production costs and dramatically ramp up the output of its electric vehicles in a new ‘masterplan’ – but stopped short of revealing details about its long-rumoured ‘affordable’ small model.
The American electric vehicle firm outlined Masterplan 3 at its annual Investor Day event, held at its gigafactory in Austin, Texas. The presentation, headed by company boss Elon Musk and Tesla’s senior management team, was broad in scope: the firm outlined a white paper to switch the world to a sustainable economy.
That included Musk and other Tesla executives outlining their ideas on how to switch the global economy to sustainable energy, how moving away from fossil fuels will reduce energy demands and even how humanoid robots could, in Musk’s view, eventually outnumber humans. Which is... interesting.
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As ever with a Tesla presentation, ahead of the Investor Day event there had been lots of speculation that the firm was set to outline a number of new cars, including a long-mooted ‘affordable’ EV, which would be smaller than the Tesla Model 3 and rival the likes of the Volkswagen ID 3.
Reuters had also reported plans for substantial facelifts of the hugely popular Model 3 and Model Y. But while the presentation did make numerous references to the firm’s next-generation vehicle platform – including an image that hinted at least two new machines would arrive in the coming years – firm details were hard to come by.
The two images perhaps hinted at a small EV and a van – another much-tipped future Tesla vehicle – but it was hard to tell given both were essentially renders of cloths draped over cars.
Tesla did outline the changes to production processes and technical innovations that it says would underpin its next-generation vehicles, with engineering chief Laws Moravy saying the machine “would not be a Model Y”.
The firm did say that new machines would learn from production processes developed for the long-awaited Tesla Cybertruck – which it said would absolutely, definitely go into production later this year –which would allow for significantly smaller factories and cost savings of up to 50 per cent.
That would happen by minimising the amount of work done on the car at each stage of the production process, such as mounting the seats directly to the under-floor battery pack before that it raised up into a body shell that has been painted in sections. The firm’s bosses acknowledged some of the learnings came from the “production hell” experienced when the Model 3 was launched.
Upgrades to Tesla’s motor and battery technology will also dramatically reduce the amount of silicon carbide used to produce them, and mean future cars could accept any type of battery chemistry. Meanwhile, future powertrains will be reworked to avoid using any rare earth metals, and would be around £830 cheaper per vehicle.
Plenty of interest then, even if there was no new model revealed. But then given in recent years Tesla has been criticised a bit for revealing cars and then repeatedly delaying putting them into production – still waiting for more news on that second-gen Tesla Roadster – that might be for the best. Although it didn’t stop Tesla’s share price falling sharply after the event…
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