Tesla is set to announce details of its next-generation platform, which could underpin a new entry-level model and a robotaxi.
It will also discuss its capital allocation and long-term expansion plans at the Investment Day event, which will take place on March 1, 2023 and be streamed live from Gigafactory Texas.
The company hasn’t revealed any further information about its planned announcements, other than referring to the new platform as “3rd generation”, but before that it talked about two vehicles that they are developing beyond the Roadster and Cybertruck coming soon.
Tesla has hinted at a line of smaller, more affordable entry-level models to fall into the “2nd generation” category. sample 3 and Model Yas well as robotaxi.
“[An entry-level vehicle is] is clearly the main focus of our new vehicle development team,” CEO Elon Musk said on a conference call after announcing Tesla’s Q3 2022 financial results.
“At this point, we have completed the engineering for the Cybertruck and Semi. So obviously that’s what we’re working on, the next generation vehicle, will probably be half the cost of the 3 and Y platforms. Obviously it’s going to be smaller.”
Musk said during the Q1 2022 earnings call that it will announce the Robotaxi in 2023 and begin mass production in 2024, and released a mysterious teaser image of the vehicle in December. .
“[The Robotaxi will be] highly optimized for autonomy, meaning it will have no steering wheel or pedals. And there’s some other innovation around it that I think is pretty exciting,” Musk said on the call.
“That’s basically optimized to try to get the lowest fully considered cost per mile or cost per kilometer, taking everything into account.”
Since July 2019, Musk has promised that Tesla “may” have a million robot axles on the road by mid-2020, something that has not materialized.
It also has has not yet received regulatory approval for its autonomous driving technology, and its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Beta systems were controversial and, reportedly, criminal investigation from the United States Department of Justice.
3rd generation vehicles can boast Tesla’s new 4680 battery, first announced in 2020, which is said to be both more energy efficient and affordable to manufacture.
The company confirmed late last month that it had reached a weekly production output of 868,000 cells, enough to power 1000 vehicles.
Although Tesla has annual shareholder meetings, this is the first event where Tesla marks Investor Day.
It could be a response to 2022 being the worst year on the stock market, down 65% after hitting a three-year high – though Tesla can still boast a market cap higher than those of auto giants such as Toyota, Volkswagen, General Motors, Ford and Stellantis.
