Elon Musk’s frisky earnings name touched on the Cybertruck, Twitter, and the way forward for Tesla

For a man who as soon as stated he wasn’t going to be on many future earnings calls, Elon Musk has a tough time staying away.

Last evening, Tesla reported its third quarter earnings, and Musk was entrance and heart, making boastful claims about his firm’s future (greater than Apple and Saudi Aramco), dropping hints about Tesla’s subsequent automobile platform, hyping the much-delayed Cybertruck, and even providing some commentary on his on-again, off-again deal to purchase Twitter.

Musk defended the corporate’s efficiency regardless of lacking supply and income expectations amid fears of softening demand for Tesla’s automobiles.

“We have excellent demand for Q4 and we expect to sell every car that we make for as far as the future as we can see,” Musk stated defiantly. “So the factories are running at full speed and we’re delivering every car we make and keeping operating margins strong.”

But forgot these Wall Street-centric platitudes. Let’s speak about vehicles! And vehicles! And robotic vehicles! Yeehaw!

Tesla’s subsequent massive product launch, the Cybertruck, gained’t be till subsequent 12 months, with Musk reiterating that manufacturing gained’t begin on the Texas Gigafactory till no less than mid-2023. “We’re in the final lap on Cybertruck,” he stated.

“Yeah, that car’s gonna be sick,” Musk stated. “Hall of famer. Next level. Sorry it took longer than expected, but there were a few things that got in the way, like insane global supply chain issues.”

Tesla can be persevering with to work on a robotaxi platform, with Musk saying that the corporate has “made a lot of progress.” Musk has stated that he expects to unveil the brand new automobile, which is designed to be shared as a part of a car-sharing service, additionally in 2023.

So subsequent 12 months is shaping as much as be an enormous 12 months for brand spanking new product launches — if Musk is ready to meet his self-imposed deadlines, which he has issue doing.

Keep in thoughts that Musk has beforehand predicted absolutely autonomous automobiles during which the driving force wouldn’t want to concentrate to the driving can be out there en masse by 2020. This didn’t occur, so take his predictions a few coming robotaxi with an enormous burlap bag filled with salt.

Will the robotaxi be the primary automobile to be constructed on Tesla’s next-generation platform? It’s nonetheless unclear, however Musk did drop some hints about the associated fee financial savings the corporate is making an attempt to realize because it seems to be down the highway towards future automobiles.

This future automobile “will be probably about the cost of [the Model] 3 and Y platform,” he stated. “It will be smaller, to be clear. But it will, I think, certainly become — certainly exceed the production of all our other vehicles combined.”

The aim is to get to a spot the place Telsa can “make two cars for the amount of effort that currently takes us to make one Model 3,” Musk stated. That doesn’t imply that Tesla plans on promoting this automobile for half the value of a Model 3 — solely that it’s designing a extra environment friendly manufacturing course of so it may well make this future automobile quicker and cheaper.

“We’re on a 2-for-1 target,” Musk stated. “So, we’re trying to get to that 50 percent number again.”

Musk has stated that Tesla will finally have a $25,000 electrical automobile, although the date for that retains getting pushed. Musk likes to say all the things will come out subsequent 12 months, so let’s keep on with that.

Musk additionally reiterated plans for a nationwide rollout of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving beta program inside the subsequent few months. That signifies that each Tesla proprietor who has paid for the FSD possibility will lastly get entry to the superior driver-assist system earlier than the tip of the 12 months — if Musk’s plans maintain out.

Currently, there are roughly 160,000 within the FSD beta program testing out the driver-assist system on public roads, driving over 6 million miles. If Musk is true to his phrase, there could possibly be 1000’s extra with entry to FSD by the tip of the 12 months.

Musk famous that he drove from a buddy’s home in Austin to Tesla’s Texas Gigafactory and didn’t as soon as contact the automobile’s controls. But he additionally acknowledged that there was nonetheless an extended method to go earlier than Tesla’s automobiles will probably be absolutely autonomous.

“There is longer process of like, the cold the march of nines of like, how many nines reliability do you need before you can really be comfortable saying that the car can drive with no one in it,” Musk stated, referring to the limitless variety of uncommon edge instances that an autonomous automobile might encounter.

Tesla’s new battery format is continuous to progress, albeit slowly. Production has tripled as in comparison with Q3 2021, Musk stated, and the hope is that the corporate will be capable of begin putting in them in its vehicles very quickly.

“We are finally gaining rapid traction on the 4680 cell,” Musk stated. “And its output is growing rapidly and we’re expected to start incorporating in cars.” Crucially, the Cybertruck’s manufacturing won’t be depending on progress with the 4680 cells, Musk added.

“We don’t anticipate this being any limiting factor for the Cybertruck or anything else.” 

Unveiled throughout Battery Day in 2020, Tesla’s 4680 cells are anticipated to be a game-changer for the corporate’s subsequent era of automobiles. Since the 4680 cells are anticipated to present substantial price financial savings and a notable increase in energy to Tesla’s automobiles, expectations had been excessive that the batteries can be utilized in automobiles just like the Tesla Semi and the Cybertruck.

No earnings name can be full with out some attribute Musk bravado. The billionaire CEO predicted that Tesla would finally exceed the worth of Apple ($2.3 trillion market cap) and Saudi Aramco ($2.11 trillion) mixed, which might quantity to a valuation of about $4.5 trillion.

“That doesn’t mean it will happen,” Musk stated. “Or that will be easy. In fact, I think will be very difficult for quite a lot of work. Very creative, new products.”

After the decision, Musk’s followers on Twitter had been fast to level out that Musk made an analogous prediction in 2015 (and again in 2017) when he stated Tesla can be value $700 billion by 2025 — solely to succeed in that valuation 5 years forward of schedule in 2020. Musk couldn’t assist however pat himself on the again on Twitter.

Musk made some transient remarks about his messy acquisition of Twitter. Even although he tried to squirm his approach out of the deal and has endured months of embarrassing protection about his textual content messages and different non-public communications which have been made public, Musk maintained that he was nonetheless “excited” to personal Twitter.

“I’m excited about the Twitter situation,” he stated. “Obviously, myself and other investors are obviously overpaying for Twitter right now. The long term potential for Twitter in my view is an order of magnitude greater than its current value.”

Frankly, it’s refreshing to listen to him say one thing good in regards to the firm he very properly might personal quickly sufficient, contemplating he’s spent months shitposting about Twitter and its administration.

Still, he couldn’t assist however get another dig in, noting that Twitter has “sort of languished for a long time but has incredible potential.”