The electric vehicle maker didn’t make any dramatic announcements on its Investor Day, but it did take the opportunity to show that there was a great talent pool around Elon Musk.
Much ado About Nothing.
Elon Musk, the capricious CEO of Tesla, promised that Tesla Investor Day would be a unique moment in which he intended to make announcements about a “bright” future.
This statement had raised expectations about this anticipated event on March 1. Tesla investors and fans began dreaming up spectacular announcements and promises, as only the king of techno can do. They expected Musk to show off the mass-produced version of the Cybertruck, Tesla’s first truck.
Others anticipated the launch of the Model 2, a low-cost, $25,000 vehicle to win over the masses. This vehicle, analysts say, is key to helping Tesla meet its goal of producing 20 million vehicles per year by 2030. Last year, the Austin, Texas-based group produced 1.37 million cars.
This means that expectations were high for this event that took place in Austin, the headquarters of the automaker. But for more than three hours, neither Musk nor the Tesla executives, who paraded on the podium for this presentation, made a spectacular announcement.
They certainly spoke of an economy dominated by sustainable energy.
‘Product event’
“We are trying to convey a message of hope and optimism based on real physics and real calculations,” Musk said at a livestream event. “No, it’s not wishful thinking. Earth can and will move towards a sustainable energy economy and will do so in its lifetime.”
But the presentation of version 3 of Tesla’s famous “Master Plan” has disappointed investors. Because despite the fact that Tesla has announced a new vehicle manufacturing platform, the New Gen vehicle, which is supposed to reduce production costs by up to 50%, the automaker has not given any image of this platform.
He also declined to say if it will be implemented in Tesla’s current factories. The only thing we know about this platform, which will make it possible to manufacture cars in a different way, is that it will be implemented in the group’s new plant to be built in the city of Monterrey, Mexico.
Otherwise, Musk declined to respond.
“I have some follow-ups on the next-gen vehicle. First, when do you think we’ll see it?” an analyst asked Musk during the question-and-answer session. “Maybe a second prototype, is there any detail that you think you can share in terms of size, content, performance? And then third, I think you mentioned that you would produce it in other plants besides Mexico. Should you understand that Does that mean you can launch it in an existing plant before you finish building the new plant in Mexico?”
Musk, who usually doesn’t mind answering questions, chose not to answer them.
“I think we’ll probably have to reject that answer,” the billionaire said.
He then announced that Tesla “will have a proper kind of product event, but we’ll rush if we want to answer your questions.”
Basically nothing to report. The billionaire and his lieutenants spent nearly four hours talking about how they intended to cut costs and make their operations more efficient. Nothing about the next generation vehicle platform and nothing about the car or cars that will be built there.
A parade of executives
In fact, there are no spectacular headlines.
Not surprisingly, Tesla shares fell nearly 6% in post-close trading on Wall Street.
Tesla, on the other hand, wanted to use the opportunity to show that there was a huge pool of talent around Musk. This seems like a response to criticism from some shareholders and investors who believe that without Musk, Tesla would be lost. Some 16 executives shared the podium with the billionaire. Tom Zhu, the company’s manufacturing leader, revealed that Tesla had produced 4 million cars as of March 1.
“It took us 12 years to build the first million and about 18 months for the second million. The third million, 11 months. Then less than 7 months to build the 4 millionth,” Zhu said.
The executive, who has run Tesla’s operations in China, also responded to a question, directed at Musk, about how the automaker can increase its market share in the country.
“As long as you offer a value product at an affordable price, you don’t have to worry about demand,” Zhu said. “We try everything to reduce costs.”
The parade of executives prompted some vocal retail shareholders, such as Ross Gerber, to say that Tesla was presenting the succession plan to Musk.
“Looks like we found out who is second in command of production. Tom Zhu is now head of global production. So it looks like Drew, Zach and Tom are the succession plan. #tesla $tsla,” Gerber posted on Twitter.
“Drew” is Drew Baglino, Tesla’s senior vice president of powertrain and power engineering, while “Zach” is Zach Kirkhorn, chief financial officer.
