CEO Talks at Investor Day 2021/2022: A Story about Musk, Tesla, and the Road Towards Electricity, Planes, and Ships
But not anymore. In the past year I test drove many fantastic new E.V.s that hit the market in 2021 and 2022 — cheap ones, expensive ones, big ones, small ones, strange ones, boring ones. Ford’s F-150 Lightning, the electric version of the longtime best-selling vehicle in America, and its Mustang were terrific inside and out — nicely designed, roomy and fun to drive. The Kia EV-6’s striking, futuristic exterior had strangers stopping me to ask what cool ride I was driving. There are also great models by Chevy, Mercedes and Rivian. Although I liked the Teslas I drove — the uber-expensive Model S Plaid, which can launch from 0 to 60 mph in about two seconds, was terrific fun — the truth is that many of the best electric wheels on the market today are not made by Musk.
The new competition makes Musk’s recent role as the town crier for the redpilled online right especially puzzling and, for his car company, perilous. The turbulent tenure of Musk as the Chief Executive of Twitter seems to be battering the brand of Musk and his company. The Wall Street Journal reported last month on a survey by Morning Consult showing that perceptions of Tesla have been falling steadily since May, shortly after Musk began his bid for Twitter; between October and November, the period when Musk took ownership of Twitter, sentiment among Democrats toward Tesla plummeted, while favorability among Republicans rose slightly.
Someone in the audience at Investor Day tried to bring Musk back to the day when he was a visionary and CEO of both companies. From a stage at the Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, Musk had announced an ambitious “Master Plan 3” to save the world. For $10 trillion in manufacturing investment the world could move to a renewable electricity grid, power electric cars, planes, and ships.
What, an investor asked the company’s executives, would that vehicle be? Musk declined to share. He said that the company would hold a separate event to introduce the mystery vehicle down the line if they answered the question. Slides shown during the presentation just showed images of car-shaped forms under gray sheets.
17 executives from 17 companies shared some tidbits about the vehicle during a round of presentations focusing on everything from design to supply chains to manufacturing to environmental impacts and legal affairs
The next- generation vehicle won’t be just one car, but an approach to building vehicles that areaffordability and desirability, according to the vice president of vehicle engineering. It will be built at a new factory in Mexico, which was announced at the event Wednesday. The next generation vehicle would have a 40 percent smaller manufacturing footprint and reduce production costs by 50 percent.
The Power of a Model 3? A Comment from a Former Admirer of the Musk-Stokes “SEXY” Mr. Musk and Tesla
“The much-anticipated theme of Master Plan 3 left me with more questions than answers,” Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, said in a note to investors.
Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights atEdmunds, an auto industry research firm, commented that Musk and company failed to put the cherry on top– an actual look at a lower-pricedTesla.
A second master plan was published in 2016 which promised self-driving cars and shared robotaxis, as well as promoting the company’s solar panel business. There isn’t yet a prototype of a humanoid robot being built by Tesla, but there was a glimpse of it at Wednesday’s events.
It made cars that performed animatronic holiday shows using their lights and power-operated doors. There’s a climate control system that stays running for dogs in a parked car, a gps linked air suspension that remembers where the speed bumps are, and a fart mode, where the car makes fart sounds.
If you don’t like the party killers over at Ford, then you wouldn’t. Ford thwarted Mr. Musk’s “SEXY” gambit by preventing Tesla from naming its small sedan the Model E, since that sounds a bit too much like a certain famous Ford, the Model T. It depends on how much you venerate the company, as Mr. Musk went with the Model 3 that either ruins the joke or enhances it. I count myself as a former admirer of Mr. Musk and Tesla, and in fact put a deposit on a Model 3 after my first drive of one.
The more I dealt with it as a reporter, the more skeptical I became. It was obvious to anyone who I talked to at the company that they were very scared to say the wrong thing. I wanted to know the engine power of the Model 3, but in case the Feds were listening, nothing was said. I said, “Well, I read that this car has a lot of power and I wouldn’t object to that.” The person from the company replied, “I wouldn’t disagree with that.” This is not how healthy, functional companies answer simple factual questions.