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NEW YORK (REUTERS) – Investors slashed $ 50 billion (S $ 68.4 billion) from Tesla’s market value on Tuesday (September 23) despite CEO Elon Musk’s promise to cut vehicle costs so radically electric that a $ 25,000 self-driving car will be possible. but not for at least three years.
Tesla’s market capitalization fell $ 20 billion in just two hours after the close of business on Tuesday, when Musk and other Tesla executives presented their new battery and manufacturing strategies. The shares closed down 5.6 percent and fell another 6.9 percent after hours.
“Nothing Musk discussed about batteries is a done deal,” said Craig Irwin, an analyst at Roth Capital Partners. “There was nothing tangible.”
Investors expected two major announcements on Musk’s much-touted “Battery Day”: the development of a “million mile” battery valid for 10 years or more, and a specific cost reduction target, expressed in dollars. per kilowatt-hour, which will ultimately lower the price of an electric vehicle to that of a gasoline car.
Musk offered neither. Instead, he promised in the next few years to cut battery costs in half with new technologies and processes and deliver an “affordable” electric car.
“In three years… We can build a $ 25,000 car that will be basically on par (with), maybe a little better, than a comparable gasoline car,” Musk said.
He acknowledged that Tesla does not have its ambitious new vehicle and battery designs and manufacturing processes fully complete. Tesla has frequently missed production targets set by Musk.
Tesla hopes to eventually be able to build up to 20 million electric vehicles a year. This year, the entire auto industry expects to deliver 80 million cars worldwide.
Building an affordable electric car “has always been our dream since the inception of the company,” Musk told an online audience of more than 270,000 people.
Tesla also introduced a new Model S Plaid on Tuesday, a 520-mile-range sedan that can reach top speeds of up to 200 miles per hour (320 km per hour), with deliveries beginning in 2021. The Plaid was listed on the site. Tesla website on Tuesday at a price close to $ 140,000.
BATTERY RECYCLING
At the opening of the event, Musk took the stage in a black T-shirt and jeans as some 240 shareholders, each sitting in a Tesla Model 3 in the company’s parking lot, honked their horns in approval.
To help lower the cost of the vehicle, Musk outlined a new generation of batteries that will be more powerful, durable, and half as expensive as the company’s current cells.
Tesla’s new, larger cylindrical cells will provide five times more power, six times more power and a much greater driving range, Musk said, adding that full production is about three years away.
To help cut costs, Musk said Tesla planned to recycle battery cells at its Nevada “gigafactory” while reducing cobalt, one of the most expensive battery materials, to near zero. It also plans to manufacture its own battery cells in various highly automated factories around the world.
Shares of two Tesla battery suppliers, South Korea’s LG Chem and Japan’s Panasonic Corp, fell after the announcement.
Tesla will produce the new battery cells initially on a new assembly line near its vehicle plant in Fremont, California, and planned production will reach 10 gigawatt-hours a year by the end of 2021. Tesla and its partner Panasonic Corp now have a production capacity of around 35 gWh in the Nevada battery “gigafactory”.
Tesla aims to rapidly increase battery production in the coming years, to 3 terawatt-hours a year, or 3,000 gigawatt-hours, roughly 85 times the capacity of the Nevada plant. Musk said Tesla could supply batteries to other companies.
As automakers shift from horsepower to kilowatts to meet stricter environmental regulations, investors are looking for evidence that Tesla can increase its lead in electrification technology over the legacy automakers that generate the most energy. your sales and earnings from combustion engine vehicles.
While average prices for electric vehicles have declined in recent years thanks to changes in battery composition, they are still more expensive than conventional cars, with batteries estimated to account for between a quarter and a third of the cost. of an electric vehicle.
Some researchers estimate that price parity, or the point at which electric vehicles have the same value as internal combustion cars, is reached when battery packs cost $ 100 per kilowatt hour (kWh).
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