Elon Musk has repeatedly stated that Tesla’s major benefit would come from rapid manufacturing innovation.
This was again one of the significant themes at yesterday’s highly anticipated Tesla Investor Day event in Austin, Texas.
Tesla executives said a wide range of efficiency and cost improvements has put the company on track to launch a far cheaper electric vehicle
Statement from Financial Times
This lower-cost vehicle would be built on Tesla’s “next-generation platform” and would feature significant advancements.
New unboxed process
A view of the obvious differences between Tesla’s existing manufacturing method for the assembly line versus the company’s new “Unboxed Process” for next-generation vehicles was caught on Twitter by @strawberrywell (via a fascinating animated comparison showcased by Tesla).
Tom Zhu, head of Tesla’s China operations, said the company follows a process at each factory to “question, delete, simplify, accelerate, [and] automate” at every opportunity to improve manufacturing prowess.
In essence, Tesla evaluates each step of its production process and eliminates anything unnecessary before determining how to speed up and automate it.
EVs affordability
Looking ahead, Elon Musk stated that “affordability” was the most significant barrier to Tesla reaching a much larger market.
We weren’t sure about what the price elasticity of demand was for Tesla… [but] we found that even small price changes have a big impact on demand — very big
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla stated on Tesla’s price cuts and impact on sales
For example, following Tesla’s recent price cuts in China, Zhu confirmed Musk’s point: “we generated huge demand, more than we can produce, really.”
We’re going to move that quickly over the next couple of years
Lars Moravy, Tesla’s Head of vehicle engineering stated on Tesla production
He said the new “large-volume” vehicle would be manufactured at several of the company’s plants, including the new Mexico facility that Tesla announced earlier this week.
See Also
- Tesla will unveil “Master Plan Part 3” at “Investor Day” on March 1
- Elon Musk explains how Tesla values “investors” on Investor Day
- Tesla deploys new V4 Superchargers in Europe featuring longer cables
- Volkswagen develops a new EV production and software strategy
