{"id":239666,"date":"2023-03-02T13:35:22","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T18:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=239666"},"modified":"2023-03-02T15:17:34","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T20:17:34","slug":"tesla-teases-but-fails-to-show-cheap-ev-and-stock-falls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2023\/03\/tesla-teases-but-fails-to-show-cheap-ev-and-stock-falls\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla Teases but Fails to Show Cheap EV and Stock Falls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Everyone watched the Tesla Investor Day livestream with bated breath to see the company\u2019s new affordable vehicle, the Model 2 \u2014 and waited and waited. It never came, instead investors and observers were treated to a road map to Tomorrowland \u2014 and the stock is paying for it now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Drew
Tesla SVP Drew Baglino, left, and CEO Elon Musk talk about the company’s latest version of its master plan at Tesla’s 2023 Investor Day.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The stock closed Wednesday at $202.77 and after nothing more than a few veiled references and plenty of rhetoric about making the world a better place, after hours traders beat the stock down overnight. It opened Thursday at $186.74. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a bit of a rally, the stock has settled in at the $189-$190 range in lunchtime trading, down 6.5% on the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the company\u2019s \u201cMaster Plan 3\u201d did contain a few items that Tesla fans and investors should be pleased to hear, none more substantial than the claim the company will cut production costs by half, in large measure by simplifying and automating more of the assembly process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Master Plan 3<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During the event, CEO Elon Musk rolled out several members of the company\u2019s top management to help flesh out the latest iteration of the \u201cmaster plan,\u201d including Franz and Lars, who talked in some detail about the company\u2019s vehicle assembly process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of that work is already in process, the pair noted, such as making the floor the vehicle battery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Chief Engineer Lars Moravy, left, and Franz von Holzhausen, design chief, also took to the stage during Investor Day.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe simplified assembly with the Model Y\u2019s structural battery, where we decided the floor should be a part of the car,\u201d said Lars Moravy, Tesla\u2019s chief engineer. \u201cThe battery is the floor. We put the seats in the interior on the battery, and we bring it up through a big open hole and we assemble it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis allowed us to do things in parallel, fully rethinking the process \u2014 and reducing the final assembly line by about 10%. And we thought maybe we could do this other places.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moravy went on to describe the assembly process for future EVs, which he called an “unboxed” model. He said it would deliver cut costs by snapping together sub-assemblies and reducing complexity and time in assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other executives came on to the stage to explain how the company cuts costs in other ways, such as eliminating sunroofs because no one used them. In all, they speculate they can cut the costs by half, much of that resulting in headcount reductions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s coming. They laid it all out. 50% less cost to build. Would get you a $25-$30k EV!” tweeted Tesla investor Ross Gerber, who is co-founder, CEO and CIO of investment firm Gerber Kawasaki. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Gerber<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Saying but not showing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While laying out how you can make a cheaper EV is fine for many, the massive turnout for the livestream hinged on the debut of the \u201c$25,000 Model\u201d that Musk touted in 2020. In fact, he predicted it would be a self-driving EV ready for this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several of the executives who spoke made reference to the \u201cnext-generation\u201d vehicle, adding it would be shown later this year. However, they spent much of their time make the case for an all-electric future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key component to that lower-priced, longer-range next-gen vehicle is Tesla\u2019s new 4680 battery that the company is still struggling to scale up to full production. However, once the company gets that right, it opens up not only more possibilities for their vehicles as well as future cell development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the game changer. 4680 cell production,\u201d Gerber tweeted. \u201cThey are still ramping and working on it. But the real deal is this. The size of the production area for these cells is way smaller than 2170. This allows them to scale way faster and easier.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many thought they were going to get a look at the rumored Tesla Model 2, the low-cost car, during Tesla\u2019s Investor Day yesterday. Well, the three-hour long livestream came and went with nothing more than a few references to it and investors showed their displeasure driving the stock price down overnight, reports TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4389,"featured_media":239667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,1608,10,1164,4344,2648,1347,9],"tags":[990,9989,9988,386,6810],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239666"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239666"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239681,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239666\/revisions\/239681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239666"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=239666"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=239666"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=239666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}