Musk made an appearance on Tesla and answered questions from investors about car production, new factories, self-driving cars, humanoid robots, and Musk himself.
three-for-one stock
At the general meeting of shareholders, the proposal for a three-for-one stock split was approved. In March of this year, Tesla revealed its stock split plan, and in June announced the latest stock split plan, that is, 1 share becomes 3 shares, and the number of shares tripled (4 billion shares) to 6 billion shares.
This will be Tesla’s second stock split, having previously conducted a 1:5 stock split in 2020.
Tesla stock was priced at $17 a share when it went public in 2010. At one point earlier this year, Tesla shares topped $1,200, giving the company a market value of more than $1 trillion. But then the stock price began to decline, as low as $620.
The stock split will not affect the fundamentals of the company, but it will lower the threshold for stock purchases and make the stock more affordable for small and medium investors, so it is often accompanied by a rise in stock prices. In 2020, after Tesla’s 1:5 stock split, the stock price rose nearly 80% in five months.
At the close of U.S. stocks on August 4, Tesla reported $925.9. Based on this calculation, Tesla’s stock price will be $308.6 after the stock split, and the investment threshold will be greatly reduced.
The number of factories exceeds ten, and 100 million vehicles will be built in ten years
Musk said that last week Tesla ushered in its 3 millionth car off the assembly line. And 10 years ago, Tesla only made less than 3,000 cars. Looking at the next 10 years, Musk believes that Tesla’s cumulative production of vehicles will reach 100 million.
Tesla’s cumulative production scale
To support such a huge capacity, more super factories are bound to be needed. Tesla currently has 4 super factories in California, Shanghai, Texas, and Berlin. Musk said that eventually Tesla is expected to have 10-12 gigafactories, each with a capacity of about 2 million vehicles.
Compared with the long-term “big cake”, the “next factory” is undoubtedly more concerned by investors.
As early as a few years ago, Musk said that Tesla may build a new factory in the northeastern United States. In recent years, there have been rumors that Tesla will build new super factories in China and India.
In this regard, Musk revealed that Tesla may announce the location of the new factory this year. When asked by the audience where Tesla’s next factory should be built and whether it will be built in Canada, Musk did not give a clear answer. He joked, “I’m half Canadian, so…”
Regarding sales expectations for the second half of the year, Musk maintained his forecast on the second-quarter earnings conference call a few days ago, saying that Tesla will usher in record production. It is reported that in the first half of 2022, Tesla has delivered 564,000 vehicles worldwide.
Tesla set for record production in second half
It is worth mentioning that Musk once again publicly praised the Shanghai Gigafactory: “There will be healthy competition among the three factories in Austin, Fremont, and Berlin, but the Shanghai Gigafactory is difficult to surpass. I must admit that we The Shanghai team is really good.”
very rich, very profitable
Facing a group of shareholders, Musk will undoubtedly show off his ability to make money.
He introduced that Tesla has abundant free cash flow. At the same time, Tesla has achieved “making more money than it spends.” He also emphasized that Tesla’s profitability will increase in the future.
Tesla’s cumulative profit
Tesla Free Cash Flow
Musk joked that the charts shown, while they looked like they were made up to meet investors, were actually happening.
In the just past second quarter, Tesla achieved revenue of $16.934 billion, net profit of $2.259 billion, and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.27. Although affected by factors such as the epidemic and the supply chain, Tesla’s performance still exceeded analysts’ expectations. Its gross profit margin in the second quarter was 27.9%, slipping below 30%, but it still outperformed a number of traditional auto companies.
Musk said that about five years ago, traditional car companies looked down on electric vehicles, and now they are all embracing electric vehicles. Tesla wants to show the industry that electric cars can also make money, “We did it, and that’s important.”
In addition, Tesla’s high gross profit also benefits from the ultimate pursuit of cost control. One-piece die-casting technology enables Tesla to achieve a higher degree of simplification. Taking the Model Y produced at the Austin factory as an example, the previous 171 separate parts have been simplified into 2 large die-cast single parts, reducing more than 1,600 solder joints. At the same time, the number of robots required to produce the Model Y at the Austin and Berlin Gigafactories will be reduced to about half of the Fremont factory, and the Fremont factory will also require about half as many robots as the Model 3.
more than car companies
On many occasions such as Tesla’s Artificial Intelligence Day, Musk has emphasized that Tesla is not just a car company.
At the shareholders meeting, Musk bluntly stated that in the long run, the Optimus robot will be more valuable than the car and will completely change the economy.
Optimus Prime is a humanoid robot previously released by Tesla. According to the plan, the prototype of the robot will be officially released on Tesla’s AI Day this year. Musk has said he hopes to start production of the Optimus Prime in 2023.
At the shareholder meeting, Musk released a poster for the AI Day (Artificial Intelligence Day) event, and the picture may be a new image of Tesla’s Optimus Prime.
AI Day event poster
Musk also said that Tesla is both a hardware company and a software company. Its software capabilities include not only cars, but also Tesla factories.
In terms of car products, he said that Model Y may be the model that will bring Tesla the most revenue this year, and it is expected that Model Y will still be the best-selling model next year.
When asked about shareholders and the electric pickup Cybertruck, he said that due to inflation, the Cybertruck’s specifications and prices will be different from those first announced in 2019. He revealed that in the next few months, the first Cybertruck production equipment will be installed in the US Texas Gigafactory.
On Autopilot, Musk reiterated his intention to rapidly develop Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system, known as Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta. “We’re over 40 million miles now, and I suspect we’ll be over 100 million miles by this year,” Musk said, “and we’re still very much focused on the widespread deployment of the FSD beta in North America this year.”
For the Robotaxi robo-taxi, questions were asked about pilot cities for Tesla’s Robotaxi program. Musk noted that there may not be pilot cities, as Tesla aims to provide a universal solution for autonomous driving.
Musk: I will stay at Tesla as long as I am useful
In addition to Tesla, Musk, who has his own traffic, has also become the focus of shareholders’ attention. He still owns 15.6 percent of Tesla after selling millions of shares last year, according to Reuters.
At the shareholder meeting, someone asked again about Musk’s retention. “Even if I get abducted by aliens, or go back to my home planet, Tesla will continue to do well,” he joked.
But he said, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not leaving Tesla.”
Musk noted that he can play the biggest role in Tesla product design and manufacturing. Tesla has a product roadmap that will last a long time, and execution will be difficult because many of them are not made by others. Musk said he will stay at Tesla as long as he is useful.
In addition, investors asked about Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, and Musk said, “I have to be careful about this topic.” He candidly admits that he often fires and digs his own grave on Twitter, but he thinks he can promote Twitter is going in a better direction because “I use Twitter a lot and I know the product well.”
But at the same time, he still expressed his position to abandon the acquisition of Twitter. He said he had a big idea of what X.com could have once been, and that Twitter could accelerate that process by 3-5 years, but it didn’t necessarily take Twitter to do it.
It is reported that X.com is a financial service brand founded by Musk in 1999. It was merged by Confinity in 2000. The merged company was renamed PayPal in 2001. In 2017, Musk bought back X.com from PayPal.
At the meeting, Musk praised Tesla employees around the world many times. At the same time, he also revealed that Tesla and its rocket company SpaceX are the two places where today’s engineering students most want to work. Tesla received 3 million jobs last year. job application.
