Today, March 17, this year’s Tesla Shareholders’ Meeting was held. A meeting with investors where the North American manufacturer usually advances some of its upcoming projects. The person in charge of breaking the news has been Elon Musk himself, who has confirmed that Tesla is already working on two new models that will reach a production of more than 5 million units a year between them.
Musk began by talking about one of the issues that is arousing the most concern in the production of batteries and motors for electric cars. It is child labor in lithium or cobalt mines, where in many cases situations of forced labor occur.
They have also indicated that they want to tackle this root problem, so they will install cameras in many of the lithium mines that supplies them, at the same time that it will carry out random checks on the rest to seek sustainable production from an environmental point of view, but also a humanitarian one.
One of the most interesting sections is that the production and sales of the Tesla Model Y goes full sail, and according to Musk, the electric SUV pushed by recent price drops it will become the best-selling car in the world already this year.
New Tesla models
But the American manufacturer does not want to rest on its laurels with this milestone, and according to Musk himself they are already working on it. two new vehicles that “far more will be designed and built than anything else in the industry,” and he anticipates that annual production between the two models will exceed 5 million units.
One of them should be the future economic model, unofficially called Model 2. A proposal for which they have even given a small preview, and which will be produced at the Tesla plant in Mexico.
The big question is what will be the second. Having covered the F segment both saloon, Model S, and SUV, Model X, and the D segment, Model 3 and Model Y, and the Model 2 as a representative in the B-SUV segment, thus we would have a gap in segment B, that of the compacts. A segment where European brands are preparing major launches in 2024-2025, such as the Renault R5, Volkswagen ID.2 or FIAT Panda, and where Tesla could fully enter and take advantage of its production potential to attack a volume segment.
These will benefit from Tesla’s new production technique which, as we announced yesterday, takes up 40% less space than the current one. With this, it will be possible to manufacture an electric propulsion system with a 50% of current sizewith a reduction in silicon carbide consumption by 75%, no rare earthsand also reduce the production cost of the propulsion system by $1,000.
Tesla Roadster 2.0 in 2024
Elon Musk has also had space to talk about the eternal return of the touring car. A sports model that is already a few years late, and that according to the head of Tesla, expects to complete engineering and design of the Roadster this year, start mass production next year. Musk himself added that: “the Roadster isn’t just the icing on the cake, it’s the icing on the cake«.
Regarding another of the upcoming releases, the Cybertruck, this already seems much closer, with a production that will start this summer at the Texas plantalthough his escalation will not arrive until the next one either.
An exercise where Musk has indicated that they hope to carry out some 250,000 truck units. Something that tells us that the last ones on the waiting list will have to sit patiently and wait until 2025 at the earliest they will not receive their unit.
Tesla and advertising
Another section on which Musk has been questioned during the shareholders’ meeting is on the issue of Tesla’s non-advertising.
A section that until now the manufacturer had been clear about. But in the question round, Musk himself has hinted that something might be changing, and that they are considering doing some experimental advertising to see how it works.
