In an updated strategy outlined in a blog post this week, Musk said that solar power, a new range of electric vehicles (EVs) and investment in auto pools will push the automaker towards a profit – something which has so far eluded the company despite strong growth levels.
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Musk said he wanted to use the technology of SolarCity, a San Mateo, California-based rooftop solar panel installer, to help charge an expanding range of Tesla’s electric vehicles, addressing both personal and public transport as well as cargo shipping.
Musk said he wants to create a “smoothly integrated and lovely solar-roof-with-battery product that just works”, which will “empower the individual as their own utility”.
Musk wrote that there are two types of electric vehicles “in the early stages of development at Tesla and should be ready for unveiling next year”: the Tesla Semi truck and buses with more seating.
Tesla will work towards developing fully autonomous driving technology that is much safer than conventional cars.
“Enable your vehicle to make money for you when you aren’t using it”.
This would enable the company to operate autonomous ride-sharing services to challenge the likes of Uber, while it could also revolutionise the haulage industry and generate owners money when they aren’t driving the auto themselves. He indicated there will be a “Tesla shared fleet” but did not offer details of how that fleet would be managed.
Elon Musk’s just revealed his new master plan for Tesla and it’s even more ambitious than you’d expect.
In a post on the Tesla website, Musk explains how his current “master plan”, devised 10 years ago, is now nearing completion, writing: “The point of all this was, and remains, accelerating the advent of sustainable energy, so that we can imagine far into the future and life is still good”.
That was but one of the points included in his “Master Plan, Part Deux”, published a decade on from the first, famous plan which he now sees as completed.
The second goal is arguably the most interesting, with Musk articulating his desire to expand the Tesla automotive line-up to include trucks and buses.
This innovation would offset or even exceed the monthly loan or lease cost of the Tesla, Musk writes, meaning that he doesn’t need to develop a cheaper vehicle than the Tesla 3. And then there’s word of a “high passenger-density urban transport”, – which for us translates into bus. And when he draws up a plan for Tesla, almost a decade after the first one, you can only imagine what happens – the world goes into a tizzy.
Despite the shares dip, Tesla says the acquisition would push the company’s goal of sustainability forward.
Currently, the Model S and Model X operate in a very small segment near the top of the market, beyond the reach of most consumers.
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Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer and of Tesla Motors.
