Tesla to grow up to 40% this year

Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting and Battery Day event was held in a car park with the audience in Tesla cars because of COVID-19 restrictions.

The unusual format meant people used microphones to ask questions of Tesla representatives such as chief executive Elon Musk and technology senior vice president Drew Baglino, leading to beeps of approval for key points rather than applause.

While the “million-mile” battery didn’t eventuate, the pair explained how Tesla is reinventing the battery from the mine up and expects to have a lower cost and higher energy density battery in production shortly.

The battery cost is expected to near US$100 a kW/h which would put an EV on price parity with an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle, although Musk says that may be a couple of years away.

Both outlined how Tesla’s battery manufacturing works, including using iron, nickel and lithium but without cobalt for various battery scenarios – Musk adding Tesla will continue to work with its battery partners.

Tesla’s plan is to have batteries which increase its EVs’ range by up to 54% while reducing the cost per kW/h by 56%, a 69% investment reduction and providing an affordable and mainly autonomous US$25,000 Tesla by 2023.

If Tesla can produce sufficient battery cells it will supply them to other companies, the company also prepared to supply some of its patents, Musk adds.

He also says Tesla has experienced 50% growth in 2019 and he expects Tesla’s growth to be 30-40% this year in spite of difficult circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic, wildfires, and some production issues.

In the drive for sustainable transport and energy. Musk says the world has only about 1% of its vehicles electric, so he says there’s a long way to go.

However, he says solar is rapidly gaining ground and can be incorporated into homes and EVs.

On vehicle to grid (V2G) scenarios, Musk says using batteries like Tesla’s Powerwall are better for energy storage as bidirectional charging is difficult in the US and people may find they thought their EV was charging overnight when it might be discharging to the grid instead.

Likening Tesla to both a software and hardware company (as well as essentially a “hardcore” engineering firm), Musk says much of the difficulty has been in designing “the machines which make the machines” so that Tesla can produce as much in one factory that would take 10 factories to achieve. He talks about having a separate cathode production facility as well.

Musk also confirms earlier suggestions the Cybertruck will be smaller for markets other than North America to meet various market requirements, adding that more than 500,000 orders have so far been received globally, with the aim of making about 200,000 to 300,000 annually.

The Battery Day and shareholders meeting was livestreamed and recorded.