Hey everybody Rob Merr here and today we are going to be talking about a new interview from Elon Musk in which he shares some comments on Tesla's next generation vehicle plans, also some comments on the Cybertruck, we've got a bit of news on the Cybertruck battery, Model 3, and China sales. Quick look at the stock, a little bit of volatility today but Tesla still ending up in a nice spot up 1.3% on the day to $238.72, with Nasdaq up about 3.10% of a percent.
Alright so first up today we've got a new Elon Musk interview to discuss this was from St. Cenem and Rome and RealLive, I'll link to this down in the description, but I think this happened the day after the Cybertruck event so of course some discussion on the Cybertruck we'll talk a little bit about that.
好的,今天首先我们要讨论的是一次新的埃隆·马斯克采访。这次采访来自St. Cenem and Rome和RealLive,我会在描述中放上链接。我想这是在Cybertruck事件的第二天进行的,所以当然会讨论一下Cybertruck。我们会稍微谈谈这个。
But perhaps most interestingly Elon did share some comments on Tesla's next generation vehicle. He noted that he couldn't say a whole lot about it with Tesla being a public company, forward looking statements and all of those sort of good disclaimers, but he did share a little bit, said quote, we are working on a low cost electric vehicle that will be made in very high volume, we're quite far advanced in that work.
I review the production line plans for that every week and I think the revolution in manufacturing that will be represented by that car will blow people's minds. It is not like any car production line that anyone has ever seen. So this backs up comments we had previously heard from Walter Isaacson relating to the Elon Musk biography in terms of reviewing production planning each week and to hear Elon describe it as quite far advanced is both exciting and encouraging.
He did also confirm something that we had previously heard also from the biography that the first production line for the next generation vehicle is going to be at Gigatexus, said Gigamexico would be the second place and that quote, it would take too long to complete the factory in Mexico and quote, referencing the possibility of having the first line there instead.
Now you could interpret that and some people are interpreting that to mean that the next generation vehicle so far along that they just had to pull it into Gigatexus because it was happening so quickly. And I suppose that's possible but I think it was more so pulled into Gigatexus so that it can happen as quickly as possible rather than that being an indication of being ahead of any particular schedule.
Also watching the full interaction to me it kind of seemed like the Mexico comment from Elon was kind of thrown in there to address a comment that Sandia had made about Mexico and although Elon didn't explicitly say Mexico would take too long at this point that was more so my interpretation of what he was trying to say.
Regardless Gigatexus confirmed Walter Isaacson had previously said that one of the main drivers of that decision was just co-locating with Tesla's engineering team which of course makes a lot of sense.
The other comment Elon had on the next generation vehicle was quote, the thing that's most interesting about this is its production system. It's a level of production technology that is far in advance of any automotive plant on Earth. This is also very exciting but we do have to remember that with revolutionary new technology sometimes comes challenges.
We've seen that consistently in Tesla's history from the Model 3 and the over automation of the production line during that phase. Elon's of course talked about it a lot recently with the Cybertruck, the Model X ramp for those that remember that. All challenges that Tesla overcomes and leave Tesla in a great spot but just worth keeping in mind relative to expectations particularly around timing.
Speaking of timing one of the things that Monroe asked Elon about was what are the biggest challenges in actually getting this vehicle now to market and I think reference the amount of time that it's been which kind of led Elon down that direction and he said really during that period it was a relevant for Tesla to bring another car to market because they didn't have enough parts to build.
The other cars that they were already producing at that time, the Model 3, the Model Y. The unveiling event was late 2019. The earliest ever target for deliveries was late 2021 and of course right between there you had COVID and then you had huge supply chain disruptions and Tesla managed through all of that incredibly well I think but they were obviously constrained and that was reflected in the margins that we were seeing at the time and I think that's really clear in hindsight now so given those constraints and Elon was saying this throughout that period why shift resources away from that production for a new vehicle that doesn't even grow the total amount of vehicles you can sell and actually probably reduces it due to the increased complexity.
So yeah that can sound like a bit of an excuse but I think now that we're finally at Cybertruck deliveries it's important to look back and reflect on those things and I think it does make a lot of sense. It doesn't mean that they could have just done the Cybertruck earlier if they wanted to but if those constraints are at all accurate then I think Tesla very much made the right call during that period.
As for timing going forward in terms of how things ramp up from here, Monroe asked Elon has said what he said before it's you know difficult to forecast how things hit on an S curve during the ramp. It hinges on the least lucky part of over 10,000 parts and processes that go into building a vehicle so nothing too new there he said it's probably not going to be material to the financials in 2024 but that it will probably be material in 2025. I don't take too much from that that doesn't mean it's going to be completely irrelevant or insignificant in 2024 but relative to the scale of Model 3 and Model Y even at full production capacity for the Cybertruck its impact on the financials are generally going to be a little bit limited especially during a ramping period.
Beyond that on the Cybertruck they talked about some of the technical details that we've already covered like the 48 volt architecture and the big step forward that that represents. Elon said a lot of these things are just pretty obvious things higher voltage, higher data rate system in the vehicle really just trying to bring car electronics into 2023. It's reminiscent of what they tried to do with the Model S in you know 2012-2013 catching automotive technology up to other consumer products at that time. Cybertruck definitely represents another big step in that regard. They also touched on steer by wire Elon said that he didn't spend much time on it in the presentation because it's difficult to really understand the value of it from someone telling you but once you drive it it's something that you immediately understand and that's something that we heard about from their reviewers as well. I wish they would have talked a little bit more about the production implications for that system but I don't think we got any new details there. Those were kind of the big notes for me.
Sandy also mentioned that he was really really delighted with the back seat and the amount of space that was back there so I know a lot of people still curious about that. Good to hear that from Sandy as well.
Also on the Cybertruck the EPA has published their certification report for the vehicle and as a part of this we get some details on the battery. I think Troy tracked this down first and I always like to do anything battery related get Jordan's take from the limiting factor. He shared his thoughts on X so in general we're looking at a battery pack size 122.4 kilowatt hours roughly 170 watt hours per kilogram in terms of energy density. A few things make that a little bit difficult to compare 100% apples to apples but as Jordan says here it's maybe a little bit shy of being on par with the best 2170s or 18650s in terms of pack level energy density but getting closer and certainly an improvement over the first 4680 model Y packs that we saw out of Giga Texas. So this is the version 2 quote unquote cyber cell that Drew has talked about on the last couple of conference calls. Hopefully on the earnings call in January we'll continue to hear a little bit more about the progress there.
Alright next we've got updated China insured vehicle numbers for the week of November 27th through December 3rd and we're seeing another really strong week another sequential increase in these numbers with 17,400 vehicles being insured during the week up from 16.7,000 the week before. This is the best individual week since March and the second best week so far this year. Quarter to date through the first 9 weeks of the quarter Tesla for Q4 is now sitting just over 104,000 insured vehicles and that pushes it ahead of Q3 for the quarter to date number which it had been trailing behind previously now up about 3.5% over that quarter to date period and up 10% over Q2 and 47% over Q1 for those same periods. This was done with again a pretty small number of model 3s only 3300 in this number so depending on what Tesla does with allocation and all that sort of stuff there would be room for this to increase. It'll take about 160,000 for the quarter to beat Q2's record we've got 4 weeks left so about 14,000 a week would do it.
Alright last item for today quick update on the EV tax credit relating to the model 3 Tesla a few days ago changed the description explaining the tax credit on the model 3 order page it now says that the $7,500 tax credit will reduce to $37.50 for model 3 real wheel drive and model 3 long range on January 1st 2024.
今天最后一个事项,关于特斯拉 Model 3 的电动汽车税收抵免的一个快速更新。几天前,特斯拉在 Model 3 的订购页面上更改了关于税收抵免的说明,现在说明中说,对于 2024 年1月1日之后购买的 Model 3 后驱和长续航版车型,7500美元的税收抵免将减少到37.50美元。
Previously the language here was a little bit less specific I think it said that credit may be reduced and I don't know if it specified exactly for which trims so it seems like Tesla has gotten more guidance or clarification on how exactly requirements will apply beginning in the new year.
As we have seen those things could still change but that seems to be the case for now.
正如我们所看到的,虽然这些事情还可能发生变化,但目前情况似乎是如此。
This will likely be mitigated to an extent by the transition over to the Highland model 3 in the US at some point but still worth noting.
在某个时候,这可能会在一定程度上通过美国转向Highland模型3来减轻,但仍值得注意。
Alright that'll wrap it up for today then as always thank you for listening make sure you're subscribed and signed up for notifications and also find me on the X at Tesla podcast and we'll see you tomorrow for the Wednesday December 6th episode of Tesla daily.