Tesla will invest in the development of the next generation of vehicles

Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed during the recent Investor Day held at the Texas site that the news about Tesla building a new Gigafactory in Monterrey, Mexico, which was revealed by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is indeed true. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the next generation of vehicles will also be invested in. With the addition of this new Gigafactory, it is expected that Tesla’s vehicle production capacity will increase to 3.5 million units.

In addition to the new Gigafactory being built in Mexico, other factories will be added to produce the next generation of vehicles. By 2030, Tesla’s vehicle lineup is expected to increase to 10 models, with the goal of achieving an annual sales target of over 20 million units.

However, Tesla did not reveal the appearance of the next generation of vehicles at this Investor Day event, only revealing that it will be unveiled in the second half of the year. From the information disclosed, it appears that Tesla’s next generation of vehicles will not be limited to a single model, but will encompass a full range of vehicles with adjustments made to the technology, manufacturing processes, software and hardware, supply chains, and production lines.

Regarding production costs, Tesla stated that the next generation of vehicles will have manufacturing costs up to 50% lower than the current Model 3 and Model Y, mainly due to new linear adjustments in parts stamping, body painting, and subsequent assembly processes, making the overall production process more streamlined and reducing the time and cost involved.

Moreover, the next generation of vehicles will reduce the use of silicon carbide material by 75%, and adopt more battery designs, even increasing the proportion of self-made control components. For example, 85% of the control components in the Cybertruck electric pickup truck are self-made by Tesla, and the next generation of vehicles will use 100% self-made control components. It will even provide dedicated control components for the previously mentioned fully automated taxi fleet.

In addition to improving the process, Elon Musk also explained that the size of the next factories will be greatly reduced by 50% in proportion to the improvement of the process technology, and the carbon footprint will be reduced by 40%.

Tesla stated that the performance improvement of vehicle power transmission efficiency from 2017 to 2022 showed that the usage rate of rare earth elements in the Model 3 has been reduced by 25%, and the next generation of vehicles will fully eliminate the use of rare earth elements by adopting permanent magnet motors, thereby reducing the impact on the environment.

Regarding the development of the “Master Plan” Phase Three, Elon Musk believes that a sustainable energy economy is indeed possible, but the prerequisite is that battery technology must be in place.

For example, in the current target, the battery capacity must be able to achieve a scale of 240TWh through stationary energy storage systems, electric vehicles, and solar and wind power and the land area must be reduced to 0.2%.

With this goal, renewable energy will continue to provide the charging needs for charging stations, and it will also promote the full electrification of vehicles in the future, even with higher levels of automation. At the same time, Elon Musk also expects that the use of geothermal power generation through heat pumps will become the mainstream source of electricity for businesses and households, thereby reducing the proportion of fossil fuel use.

Other aspects include the ability to store excess renewable energy in advance and use it as backup energy when needed, as well as making the production of hydrogen energy more environmentally friendly and manufacturing aircraft and ships that can operate using renewable energy.

Elon Musk believes that once these developments are realized, the cost of obtaining energy is expected to be reduced by 60% compared to the current situation where fossil fuels are the main source of energy.