Tesla Motors Inc plans to boost production of electric cars to “at least a few million a year” by 2025 from fewer than 40,000 last year, chief executive officer Elon Musk said on Tuesday.
Speaking at an industry conference in Detroit, Michigan, Musk said Tesla may not be profitable until 2020. In addition, Tesla sales in China were unexpectedly weak in the fourth quarter. He blamed a misperception by city-dwelling Chinese consumers that they might have difficulty charging their electric cars.
“We’ll fix the China issue and be in pretty good shape probably in the middle of the year,” he said.
Photo: Bloomberg
Tesla shares fell 7 percent in trade after hours to US$190.22 from a close of US$204.25 on the NASDAQ. Throughout last year, Tesla stock rose nearly 48 percent.
Musk, who last year said Tesla will begin phasing in “autopilot” features on its Model S sedan, predicted that the company would be first to market with a fully self-driving car, but likely not until after 2020. While Tesla may have a driverless car ready in five years, the vehicles may not receive regulatory approval for another two to three years after that, he said.
Musk also said the company’s long-delayed Model X sport utility vehicle will be launched this summer, while the lower-priced, higher-volume Model 3 is on track for a 2017 introduction.
The Model 3 will be critical to Tesla’s goal of reaching an annual sales level of 500,000 vehicles per year by 2020, a target which Musk also reaffirmed.
If Tesla hits its target of a few million vehicles by 2025, it would put the company on par with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which sold 2 million vehicles last year in the US.
Musk said Tesla likely would not achieve profitability using generally accepted accounting principles until the Model 3 ramps up to full production in 2020, although it may report non-GAAP profits before then as sales volume rises.
Musk told attendees at the Automotive News World Congress that “we could make money now if we weren’t investing” in new technology, and vehicles such as the Model 3 and expanded retail networks.
On another topic, Musk said he was open to partnerships with retailers to sell Tesla vehicles, but not until after the company no longer has production bottlenecks.
“Before considering taking on franchised dealers, we also have to establish [more of] our own stores,” he said.
Musk said “we will consider” franchising “if we find the right partner.” He did not elaborate, but said Tesla “is not actively seeking any partnerships” with other manufacturers, “because our focus is so heavily on improving our production” in Fremont, California.
Last year, Tesla delivered about 33,000 Model S sedans. Musk said the current wait for delivery is between one and four months. Tesla already has presold every Model S that it plans to build this year, Musk said.
He said he did not see the Chevrolet Bolt, a low-priced electric car planned by General Motors Co for 2017, as a potential competitor to the Model 3.
“It’s not going to affect us if someone builds a few hundred thousand vehicles,” he said in reference to the Bolt, which GM expects to price to compete directly with the Model 3.
However, “I’d be pleased to see other manufacturers make electric cars,” he said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained