At the Goldman Sachs Technology Conference held in San Francisco on September 12 , Tesla executive Martin Viecha introduced Tesla’s future products. There are two important information points. In the past five years, Tesla’s cost of making a single car has dropped from $84,000 to $36,000; in the future , Tesla may launch cheaper electric vehicles in addition to the Robotaxi service .
Cost reduction: 50% reduction in bicycle manufacturing cost in 5 years
In 2017, Tesla cost $84,000 per vehicle to manufacture. The price per vehicle has dropped to $36,000 in recent quarters. This means that Tesla’s single-vehicle manufacturing costs have been reduced by 50% in 5 years. As for cost reductions, Viecha said that hardly any of these savings come from cheaper battery costs, but instead benefit from better vehicle designs and new factory designs to make manufacturing as easy as possible.
At present, Tesla has four super factories in the world, Fremont factory, Shanghai factory, Berlin factory and Texas factory. Tesla’s first factory in Fremont, California, accounts for about half of Tesla’s production. Because the Fremont factory is close to Silicon Valley, it is not a good place for manufacturing, and the Shanghai factory, the Berlin factory and the Texas factory are relatively cheaper to manufacture. With the new factory producing more cars, Tesla will be able to produce each car for less than $36,000, which should benefit Tesla’s profitability, Viecha said.
Will Tesla lead the third revolution in the auto manufacturing industry? In the 120 years of the auto industry, Viecha sees only 2 major revolutions in manufacturing: one was the Ford Model T, and the other was Toyota’s cheaper way of producing it in the 1970s. The electric vehicle architecture is very different from the internal combustion engine, which will lead to a third revolution in the automobile manufacturing industry.
Tesla’s low-cost car or will be ahead of Robotaxi?
“Tesla ultimately wants to have a more affordable vehicle on the road,” Viecha then explained. “ If a company wants to be a high-volume automaker, it needs a broad product portfolio, and Tesla needs a cheaper product before launching the Tesla Robotaxi .” The statement hinted at Tesla’s plans to launch a cheaper electric car.
Viecha clarified on Sept. 13 the description of cheaper EVs and Robotaxi launch: “Never said before Robotaxi launch in 2024″. From this, it can be seen that Tesla’s low-cost car may be on the road, but not too soon.
The Tesla Model Y may be the best-selling car in the world in terms of sales, but the all-electric crossover is still a premium electric vehicle out of reach of most car buyers. If Tesla wants to dominate the auto industry, it needs to expand its product matrix and release a low-priced electric vehicle to meet the needs of entry-level consumers.
Rumors about the low-priced Tesla electric car have never stopped, and there is news that it may be the Model 2, but Tesla officially denied it. In recent months, Musk has hinted that Tesla is only releasing a purpose-built, futuristic Robotaxi rather than a more affordable electric car . Tesla’s Robotaxi will take place with autonomous driving in mind, and in the Q2 2022 update letter, the car is actually listed as “in development.”
Viecha described the Model X and S platforms as the first generation of Tesla’s platform, the Model 3 and Y as the second generation, and the Robotaxi platform as the third generation .
In addition, Tesla FSD was also mentioned. Viecha said that as Tesla collects more data from human intervention, it will solve various problems and roll out software updates to improve the system. This iterative process will Finally let Tesla achieve true self-driving. Now that FSD Beta 10.69 has been pushed, a key improvement in this latest version of the software is improved unprotected left turns.
In the field of electric vehicles, whether it is global layout, product services, autonomous driving technology, etc., Tesla is in a leading position, and we can see that Tesla is still expanding its product matrix, constantly improving FSD, Robotaxi, etc. Keep going.
Post time: Sep-20-2022