At 5:30 a.m. on March 2, Beijing time, Tesla held the “2023 Investor Day” at the Texas Gigafactory. Elon Musk unveiled Tesla’s “Investor Day” at the press conference. The third chapter of “Secret Grand Plan”.
In the field of film and television culture, there are many classic trilogies, such as “The Lord of the Rings Trilogy”, “The Matrix Trilogy”, “Infernal Affairs Trilogy”, etc. These works usually have an obvious thread. The first part shows the powerful strength of the protagonist and the villain. The second part presents thrilling adventures and confrontations. The villain tries every means to hinder the decent, while the decent character overcomes the difficulties with his own ability and courage. In the end, The victory of justice over evil even triggers deeper thinking in the audience.
Of course, there are many film and television works and novels that are “multi-part”, such as “A Song of Ice and Fire”, “The Chronicles of Narnia”, “Harry Potter”, “Pirates of the Caribbean” and so on. These works are relatively long. In order to keep the audience’s attention, surprises must be constantly introduced to stimulate the nerves of readers and viewers, so as to maintain the “longevity” of the works. Most of the works mentioned above will adopt a common routine, which is to let the protagonist gradually grow up. For example, Harry Potter grew from a middle school student to an adult, Snow grew from a “young master” to a “king”, and even Jack gradually showed justice and love in the first step of “cynicism”.
Judging from the information released by Musk this time, the “Secret Grand Plan” series seems to fall into the latter category. In the first chapter, Tesla demonstrated its strength through Model S/X; in the second chapter, it actively responded to market opportunities and challenges and launched Model 3/Y, solar power generation, energy storage, and autonomous driving technology. The third chapter does not seem to be a satisfying “finale”, but more like the first step towards Tesla’s transformation and growth.
A new chapter starts with new cars
Friends who have played World of Warcraft are familiar with the famous saying: “Each version has its own god, and each successive version has its God of Law.” For Tesla, the “Dharma God” in the first two chapters is model products. Whether it is the Model S3XY series, Cybertruck and Semi, they are important displays of Tesla’s technology and strength, and they are also the focus of everyone’s attention.
However, in the third chapter, Musk did not immediately talk about new cars, and the expected Model Q/2 did not arrive on time. Instead, Tesla executives began to focus on things surrounding the vehicles.
For example, they plan to further optimize the integrated die-casting process to improve the final assembly process from “serial” to “parallel”, reduce vehicle assembly steps, improve vehicle manufacturing efficiency, and reduce costs and required factory space. They hope that the production factory space of the new generation model will be reduced by 40%, and the production cost will be significantly lower than the current Model 3/Y.
In addition, Tesla said that the next generation power system will reduce the use of silicon carbide transistors by 75% and will even achieve “zero rare earth”. These measures can not only effectively reduce production and procurement costs, simplify production links, and save factory space, but also enable Tesla to escape the influence of rare earth or ore market fluctuations. In this way, car manufacturing costs and terminal selling prices will not be forced to fluctuate accordingly.
Tesla also announced that a new Gigafactory will be built in Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo León, Mexico. Tesla will start producing new platform models from here, and other production bases will follow accordingly. Therefore, when the third chapter of the “Secret Grand Plan” is actually implemented, the gigafactory in Mexico may become the focus of global attention.
In terms of technology, Tesla said that all model products represented by Cybertruck will be developed and produced using 100% Tesla’s self-developed 48V electronic architecture, thereby further reducing incubation and production costs. Tesla will continue to upgrade its autonomous driving technology, including AI, algorithms and learning capabilities, and strive to achieve full autonomous driving as soon as possible.
In terms of charging and energy replenishment, Tesla stated that it will implement an “open strategy” in the future and open the charging and energy replenishment network to all third-party brands, including models of friendly brands. Tesla has already started to implement this initiative at some super charging stations in Europe and the United States. If it is fully opened, it will undoubtedly be a good thing for the majority of electric vehicle users. In addition, the fourth generation of superchargers is also under development, which will be equipped with longer and more convenient charging lines and is expected to be launched first in Europe.
New Chapter: Tesla and the Mission of Sustainable Development for the Planet
Tesla’s story is not limited to the automotive field, but is about the sustainable development of the planet. Although the improvement of manufacturing efficiency and the improvement of the charging network are important measures for Tesla to achieve sustainable development, they are only the cornerstones of Musk’s “grand plan”. Just as realizing the dream of “going to Mars” requires ensuring the continued development of SpaceX, Musk’s “big picture” on Earth is to move towards the goal of fully sustainable development.
At a recent investor day event, Musk laid out the key ingredients for a sustainable energy economy: 240TWh of energy storage, 30TW of renewable electricity, $10 trillion in manufacturing investment, less than half the energy needed to fuel the economy demand, less than 0.2% of renewable energy infrastructure footprint, sustainable energy investment reaching 10% of global GDP by 2022 and overcoming all resource challenges.
Musk believes that thermal energy, electricity and hydrogen energy are three types of sustainable energy. In order to achieve the above goals, he plans to comprehensively promote electric vehicles, use heat pump technology in homes, businesses and industries, and adopt high-temperature energy storage and green hydrogen energy in industry. , apply sustainable energy to aircraft and ships, and drive existing power grids with renewable energy.
The plans are well thought out, Musk seems to be enjoying them and, as evidenced by his previous entrepreneurial experience, he is passionate about taking on the mission of sustaining the planet and all of humanity.
On the other hand, if we combine Tesla’s plan with the sustainable development elements proposed by Musk, we will find that Tesla is playing the role of “pathfinder” and “pioneer”. If Tesla can succeed, the world will also succeed.
Tesla’s efforts, for example, are consistent with its goal of “overcoming all resource challenges” and they want a new generation of permanent magnet motors that will not use rare earths and reduce the use of silicon carbide. Reducing the cost of pure electric products and improving production efficiency are aimed at reducing energy demand and demonstrating the use of sustainable energy for aircraft and ships.
In addition, Tesla also plans to build a fleet of 1.4 billion electric vehicles and produce 20 million electric vehicles per year by 2030. There are even ideas about robots assembling robots. All these efforts are aimed at promoting global sustainable development.