Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has officially unveiled his “masterplan” for the company’s future, with increased emphasis on solar power, autonomous car-sharing networks and electric trucks. The vision for the future would begin with production of a high-priced sports auto: the Roadster, before moving onto progressively more affordable vehicles; the Model S luxury sedan and Model X SUV would come next, and ultimately to the affordable $35,000 mass-market sedan. But it doesn’t stop there.
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You can read Musk’s entire blog post here.
Musk is also hoping to make a big impact with his Tesla Motors – alongside the high demand for the firm’s Model 3 vehicle – Musk feels the only way to really make electric vehciles work in the current auto industry is to aim for the premium market, such as the Tesla Roadster, and then trickle that success down to more affordable tiers and models.
Of the latter two, Musk said both are in development and will be unveiled next year. Every release goes through extensive internal validation before it reaches any customers.
In a nod to critics of Tesla’s Autopilot system, Musk said the software, when used correctly, is “already significantly safer than a person driving by themselves”.
Without revealing much about what he has in mind, Musk managed to tantalize his followers with minor tidbits for 10 days, before unveiling an ambitious plan Wednesday to expand the company into electric trucks and buses, ride-sharing business and solar energy systems. He said the feature will continued to be labeled as a “beta” version until it is 10 times safer than USA vehicle average.
In fact, he implies that private ownership won’t even be necessary, in a somewhat contrary position to what one might expect of a vehicle company owner, writing: “In cities where demand exceeds the supply of customer-owned cars, Tesla will operate its own fleet, ensuring you can always hail a ride from us no matter where you are”. Musk continues that the fusion of Tesla and SolarCity was necessitated to achieve this point.
He added that SolarCity, which the company bought for $2.8bn (£1.9bn) last month will be combined with Tesla. “That is why Tesla engineering has transitioned to focus heavily on designing the machine that makes the machine – turning the factory itself into a product”, Musk says.
For that, Tesla and SolarCity need to merge, Musk believes.
“With the Model 3, a future compact SUV and a new kind of pickup truck, we plan to address most of the consumer market”.
Musk didn’t give a financial update in his plan.
Musk revealed that he had lofty ambitions for his autonomous vehicles, with the company refusing to officially bring it out of its beta stage until “Autopilot is approximately 10 times safer than the U.S. vehicle average”.
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The announcement comes in the wake of heavy scrutiny surrounding Tesla after a fatal accident involving one if its vehicles that was in the semi-autonomous “autopilot” mode.
