“/>Picture credits: Screenshot/Tweet of Elon Musk
Tesla’s Investor Day is upon us, an occasion where shareholders and super fans will make their pilgrimage to the company’s Gigafactory Texas near Austin – while the rest of us tune in via broadcast live on YouTube or Twitter – to hear exactly what CEO Elon Musk has planned for the future.
Tesla’s Investor Day is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. ET or for those on the ground in Austin, 3 p.m. CT. Historically, that doesn’t mean Musk will be on stage at the top of the hour. But hey, you never know!
Earlier this year, Musk tweeted that he would present the long-awaited and oft-teased Master Plan 3 at the company’s Investor Day, to be held at the company’s Gigafactory Texas located near Austin. Those attending in person will be able to view its production line and speak with its management team about topics such as the company’s long-term expansion plans, Generation 3 platform and capital allocation, according to the company.
The majority of people who won’t be there in person can watch Tesla Investor Day (aka Master Plan 3 Revealed) on the the company’s Twitter page or Youtube.
What will Musk announce? Take out your bingo cards.
TechCrunch has a few theories and wishes.
Musk first hinted at Master Plan 3 last March with vague goals to scale Tesla’s operations to “extreme scale.” He also delved into themes like AI and noted that this next stage of the plan would include his fellow companies SpaceX and The Boring Company. Later that year, Musk revealed more details about part three of his master plan. In a company-wide meeting, the rationale for the plan is, “How do we achieve sufficient scale to actually displace Earth’s entire energy infrastructure?”
Musk will likely discuss plans to build a new factory in Mexico, which the country’s president publicly confirmed yesterday. Musk may also hint at or even show off a prototype of a new electric vehicle, because showing new future products is like catnip for investors.
We would like updates on existing products, like the status of the Cybertruck, the robot (remember that?) and the plans for the beta version of the “Full Self Driving” branded software which was recently recalled after the Federal safety regulators have warned that the system could allow vehicles to act in dangerous ways. Tesla has since postponed rolling out further FSD installations to customers until it releases a software update that fixes the issue.
For those wondering, what is Master Plan 3? Is there a master plan 1? Yes indeed.
Musk posted a blog on Tesla’s website in 2006 outlining what he described as the master plan. This four-step plan started by creating an expensive low-volume vehicle, then using that money to develop a mid-volume car at a lower price. Profits from the mid-volume car would be used to create an affordable, high-volume car. And finally, the plan ended with “providing solar energy”.
Many noted that the master plan didn’t exactly go to plan. Tesla didn’t use the profits to fund the Model 3 (it wasn’t profitable at the time) and that its high-volume car isn’t affordable. But Tesla produced the Roadster, then the Model S and X (the mid-volume car) and finally the Model 3, which can still cost over $40,000 but has proven to be a high-volume seller.
Part Two, or Part Two as the name suggests, came in 2016 with a plan to “create stunning solar rooftops with seamlessly integrated battery storage”, expand Tesla’s EV product line to address all major segments and develop self-driving capability that is 10 times safer than manual driving. The plan also promised that owners would be able to take advantage of this self-driving carpooling so they could save money on their car when not in use.
Tesla has not completed many of the items on this second part of the to-do list. There are no driverless Teslas roaming the streets picking up passengers and the Cybertruck, presumably part of the plan to expand the EV product line, has yet to launch.
So maybe Master Plan 3 will commit to finishing everything Tesla started.