AUSTIN, Texas — Elon Musk is looking to win Tesla Inc. TSLA -2.76% investors on his strategy to outmaneuver the competition as the electric vehicle leader strives to become the world’s largest automaker.
The Tesla CEO is poised to make his pitch at an investor event at the company’s factory near the Texas capital on Wednesday.
Tesla has proposed providing updates on a range of topics, from manufacturing schedules to its long-awaited Cybertruck pickup and internal battery cell efforts. The event comes a day after Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the company plans to build a manufacturing facility in northern Mexico’s industrial hub of Monterrey.
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The top priority for Wall Street is how — and when — Tesla might launch a new, cheaper passenger car that would expand the company’s mass-market reach. The cheapest Tesla currently available in the US costs over $40,000.
Tesla has announced that a webcast of the formal portion of the event will be streamed on Mr. Musk’s Twitter and YouTube beginning at approximately 4:00 p.m. ET.
Tesla shares have rallied nearly 70% in the past two months after a tough 2022 as the company has demonstrated it’s ability to spur demand by straining some of its financial strength. Amid higher interest rates and economic uncertainty, Tesla slashed vehicle prices in January, some by nearly 20% in the U.S. Since then it has pushed some prices back up.
These price changes have put pressure on competitors, some of whom have responded by offering their own discounts or price cuts.
Tesla aims to sell 20 million vehicles annually by 2030, up from around 1.3 million in 2022.
Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News
Tesla’s stock price surge took shares back to $205.71 at Tuesday’s close, about the level they were trading at last fall but about halfway from their record high. The stock lost about 1% in early trading on Wednesday. The recent rally also helped Mr Musk reclaim the top spot in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index this week after relinquishing the unofficial title of world’s richest person in December.
Now investors are looking for clarity on how Tesla intends to maintain its lead over the longer term. The company aims to sell 20 million vehicles annually by 2030, up from around 1.3 million in 2022. (Toyota Motor Corp. was the world’s top-selling automaker in 2022 with 10.5 million vehicles sold.)
The key to Tesla’s success, according to many on Wall Street, will be the introduction of a more affordable electric car. Tesla currently offers four passenger models, with a fifth — the Cybertruck — slated to launch later this year. The cheapest of these vehicles in the US starts at $42,990 before taxes and fees.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the location of the company’s new global engineering headquarters in February. The facility will be located in the former building of the computer manufacturer Hewlett Packard in Palo Alto. Photo: Tesla
In September 2020, Mr Musk outlined plans to produce a $25,000 car, which he said would be ready in about three years. In January 2022, however, he downplayed those efforts, saying the company was busy and not working on the car.
Mr Musk, with his usual pageantry, has promised an event not only for Tesla shareholders but also for “investors in the earth” where the company will chart a path to transitioning to more sustainable forms of energy.
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This vision is expected to be presented in the form of a “Master Plan 3”, he said. Previous iterations served as mission statements for the electric vehicle manufacturer, setting out Mr Musk’s strategic vision and explaining the rationale for certain decisions.
The first plan, released in 2006, outlined Tesla’s ambition to build a high-end electric sports car that would help spark interest in battery-powered vehicles — and help fund more affordable models. The second came a decade later, shortly after Tesla offered to buy home solar company SolarCity in 2016. That document detailed Tesla’s rationale for attempting to acquire the solar company, of which Mr. Musk served as chairman. It also detailed Tesla’s efforts to develop autonomous vehicles and eventually enter the ride-hailing business.
Tesla has yet to develop autonomous vehicles. Its advanced driver assistance technology, known as Autopilot, is designed to help drivers navigate certain scenarios, such as B. the adjustment to the speed of the surrounding traffic on the highway. The system has come under scrutiny from US auto security officials and others.
The company is also working on a humanoid robot called Optimus. Mr Musk has suggested that the robot Tesla could help make cars more efficient.
Write to Rebecca Elliott at [email protected]
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