Produced by Elon Musk.
by Wallace Wyss –
Tesla will finally unveil a planned expansion of its “Battery Day” but in their press releases it’s “Investor Day” set for March 1st at the Gigafactory Texas, a separate event from the annual shareholder event. This is the third “battery day/investor day” in the 20 years of Tesla.
It’s going to be a real dog-and-pony show with factory tours and discussion of Tesla’s long-term expansion plans and, critical to would be investors, news on the low price generation 3 vehicle platform.
You can bet the good news stories will be designed to counter the bad news that made 2022 Tesla’s worst year in the stock market ever, where the stock plunged 65%. The plan is also called Plan 3. It was first posted in 2006 but has mutated greatly. Here”s the subjects which could be highlighted:
– Tesla Solar system for a whole country. Musk has been quoted saying a 100-square mile solar array (with another 100-square miles of batteries) would power the entire US. Because that was laughed at by skeptics he’s trying it out in South Australia in smaller scale.
– They will discuss zero emission electric power generation options but I am not sure if that meant the car can be used to power the house or the car.
– The Tesla sports car is a touchy subject, the price keeps rising, so it’s still not available, and just miffs those waiting in line. I’d leave that one under the car cover unless they have a firm production date.
– Solar roofs with seamlessly integrated battery storage will be a subject but I think these are ones for home use or are they going to put them on the cars?
Self Driving Defended
Self-driving capability will be defended, with proof presented claiming that it is 10X safer than manual as a result of massive fleet learning (cars memorizes each route and make the memory available to their relatives, the other Teslas).
The Robo Taxi Revolution
A prototype driverless taxi may be shown, with separate compartments so it can pick up new passengers along the way. Thus several people can ride to the same destination without having to interact with strangers. Far preferable to city buses or the subways where malicious strangers pose a threat.
A model for how to make money with your Tesla by renting it out once they have fully automated versions could be shown. Musk is anxious to open up car usage to the huge market of people with no license. Musk’s dream is that you, a Tesla owner, can rent out your car to make money for you whenever you aren’t using it, such as when you are sitting at your desk. Similar to an Airbnb rental property.
The Cybertruck is said to be closer to market. It has had some styling up-dates. The Semi is already in the fleet of Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay so you can bet they will be all over the show just as they were at the Super Bowl. They have beat the major Detroit automakers to the market with that. Hopefully there will be charts showing the first quarter results for running costs on the Tesla semis vs the same customer’s Diesel trucks. So far they showed the trucks but not comparative running costs.
The New Factory
The new factory location will be mentioned–Mexico the leading contender and handy because boat shipping strikes won’t affect shipping the cars to the U.S. The reason a Tesla factory needs to be in a different country each time is that production volume depends on which way the political winds blow. If his most productive plant – China – gets cut off (with its 750,000 year capacity) two 350,000 car-a-year plants in two other countries should be getting ready to fill the gap.
According to the website Electrified, no less than 11 different Mexican states are pitching Tesla to select their state for locating the assembly plant, (does Elon have time to visit 11 locations?) Also it might not be decided by March 1st.
Some mention of where all the battery materials will come from? Tesla may mention that. They already make batteries but digging the ore, that’s next. A big revelation would be some easy-to-get battery material, making all this dealing with third world countries unnecessary.
Tesla’s Virtual Power Plant program, where Powerwall owners can join a distributed network of energy storage so when your city’s grid fails, the Tesla sunroof owners can help many homeowners get power back on, backing up the grid in times of need.
YouTube has posted pictures of Musk with zaftig young ladies envisioned as Tesla Bots but YouTube posters, be warned, YouTube posters fake a lot, so suffice to say there will be bots there, but the question is will they look like Playboy models or like machines? I suspect married women would object if the Bot their husband buys looks too well, you know…
A Swat Team robot? What better way to test a militarized robot? The beauty of this would be, when it gets shot, it could radio to the warehouse for replacement parts before it even hits the ground.
Neuralink will get a mention. I think he’s close to having a device that will make it possible for handicapped people to get out of that wheelchair. The animal rights activists have thrown him some shade about using animals in tests but as a former publicist for an animal testing lab I can tell you better them than humans.
As one of the last automotive reporters groomed in the internal combustion age, I feel lucky to be on the ground in an era when there’s a Thomas Edison-style genius like Musk changing the auto industry daily. I’ll be watching YouTube March 1st to see what’s still only pie-in-the-sky promises and what’s reality…
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR Wallace Wyss reports on new cars on KPFK-FM’s Autotalk show.
Thanks for the Musky updates. Lots to look forward to. And then there’s Starlink…