Elon Musk often called the production of Tesla's first mass-produced car “excruciating.”
While his production company electric vehicles struggled to ramp up Model 3 production, the billionaire barely left the factory floor, working 120-hour weeks and sleeping in his office.
“Model 3 production was three years of hell. Honestly, these are some of the worst years of my life,” he said on Wednesday.
“I, like many, still have mental scars from those three years.”
However, now that Tesla is faced with a number of new threats, Musk is preparing to do it again.< /p>
The entrepreneur and his company promised a new, even cheaper car. And, he hopes, it will finally come with a symbolic price tag of $30,000 (£23,600) or less.
Production is scheduled to begin next year in Texas, Musk said, before adding : “I can emphasize that practically we will sleep on the line.”
“Actually, not practically. We will.”
The project, internally codenamed “Redwood”, comes as his company faces its biggest competitive threat from Chinese brands such as BYD, which recently overtook Tesla as the top-selling company. Brand of electric vehicle.
At the same time, while Tesla enjoys strong loyalty among investors (many of whom are retail shareholders), Musk and the company face accusations that his attention is too divided. following its high-profile takeover of social network X, formerly Twitter, and recent forays into artificial intelligence and servant-like robots.
Critics say he should instead focus on his car business, where red warning lights flash on the dashboard.
Sales in the finale For the three months of 2023, the figure was just 3% higher than a year earlier. , and amounted to $25.2 billion, which is lower than analysts’ forecasts of $25.6 billion.
This was after Tesla produced 494,989 vehicles but delivered only 484,507. Although the company had previously promised to increase annual deliveries by 50% per year, for the full year it only managed to increase sales by 38% (to 1.85 million). , and did not set a target for 2024 at all, saying only that growth would be “noticeably lower.”
As the disappointing numbers began to emerge among investors, the company's shares fell 13% on Thursday, putting the stock on track for its worst day since 2020.
Investors were further spooked by Musk's failure to respond to Tesla's worldwide price cuts during the company's earnings report, preferring instead to speculate on fantastic technology ideas.
“We were completely wrong , waiting for Musk and his team. step into the room like adults and provide a strategic and financial overview of ongoing price declines, margin structures and demand fluctuations,” wrote Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.
“Instead, we were lauded for Tesla's level, long-term view of yet another train wreck conference call.”
Ives said his firm remained optimistic, but added: “This is a key period for Musk. will help Tesla get through it, and it will help shape (or chase) its electric vehicle future.”
Part of the problem, Musk acknowledged, is that demand for electric vehicles is declining as consumers face rising prices , protect their wallets and refuse high interest rates.
Most EV purchases are financed with loans, so higher rates discourage consumers who can't afford higher monthly payments.
At the same time, like the rest of the industry, Tesla is considering how to respond to the flood of low-cost Chinese cars that are arriving in the rest of Asia and Europe.
In the face of these problems, Tesla is cutting prices because of the threats: the price of its most popular car, the Model Y, has dropped by a quarter. Despite this, the price difference between Musk's cars and those of his Chinese competitors remains huge.
BYD, for example, has just launched the Dolphin electric model in the UK with a starting price of around £25,500. Tesla's cheapest offering, the Model 3, starts at £40,000.
Musk once ridiculed BYD by asking, “Have you seen their car?” But on Wednesday he took a much more serious tone: “In our observation, Chinese auto companies are the most competitive auto companies in the world.”
“Frankly, if trade barriers are not put in place, they will virtually destroy most other auto companies.” companies in the world.”
Musk pointed to Tesla's battery, solar and service divisions as equally important parts of his business and suggested they would drive growth as he prepares for the next big shake-up in the auto sector.
But as traditional American and European auto giants In addition, Tesla is trying to catch up, Tesla is gradually losing its first mover advantage in the field of electric vehicles and will be forced to show what makes its cars different from the rest, analysts say.
For a long time, the company has prided itself on extended range, attractive design and impressive on-board technology that allowed drivers to receive continuous software updates even after they leave the sales store.
And although Tesla says it plans to improve battery technology and introduce more semi-autonomous driving features, the company faces even stiffer competition on these fronts.
The company has also suffered from negative publicity surrounding fatal crashes allegedly involving vehicles with Autopilot engaged, and U.S. regulators last year announced they were investigating reports of manufacturer steering wheels being torn off while customers were driving.
< At times, however, Musk has shown less interest in automotive issues than in his sci-fi project to create a human-shaped robot, dubbed Optimus. He jokingly compared the device to the self-aware and sometimes murderous androids from the television series Westworld.
“We are truly building the future. “Optimus's lab looks like a Westworld set,” Musk joked on Wednesday, before quickly admitting, “Admittedly, it wasn't a super utopian situation.”
He also complained that people think of Tesla as a car company when they should think of it as an “artificial intelligence robotics company.” That is why, according to the billionaire, it was important for him to firmly hold his position as the largest shareholder.
“I see a path to creating an artificial intelligence and robotics giant with truly enormous capabilities and power. he told analysts.
“Obviously, Optimus is a very new product, an extremely revolutionary product, and I think it can significantly outperform the value of everything else in Tesla combined.
“The artificial intelligence technologies we have developed that are designed for a car can easily be translated into a humanoid robot, because a car is just a robot on four wheels.”
These remarks will be even more surprising as sales Tesla electric vehicles are slowing down. But investors who were disappointed by this week's news are now pinning their hopes on Musk laying another golden egg in the auto market.
“Essentially, it comes down to a very simple question: Do you believe electric vehicles are the future?” Gene Munster, managing partner of Deepwater Asset Management, told CNBC.
“If you believe in the future, this punkish, bland guidance they're giving for this year will end up being noise, because that's all, what Tesla is doing is building the next generation car platform, everything they've done in their investment in autonomy. – all of this comes at a time when traditional cars are in retreat.
“If you believe in electrification and autonomy, Tesla is actually in a better position in the long term.”
Meanwhile however, they may have to wait a while. Musk, prone to bravado, often overpromises when it comes to delivery.
“I don't want to blow your mind, but I'm often optimistic about the times,” the billionaire joked. during the earnings call.
As shareholders become restless and another round of manufacturing hell looms, he may not be joking anymore.
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