"Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" February 8 (editor Zheng Yuanfang) The third chapter of Tesla's grand plan is finally about to appear.
Today, Musk announced that he will launch the third chapter of Tesla's Master Plan Part 3 on March 1 (investor day), which will be a road to a "fully renewable energy future", and the road ahead is bright.
What is the specific content of the third chapter, Musk did not say much. However, some of his previous related statements may be glimpsed one or two.
On March 17 last year, Musk's sentence "the third chapter of the grand plan is being formulated" aroused curiosity from the outside world, which was also the first "clue" of the third chapter to be made public.
He later revealed more information in his reply: Tesla's main thrust included scaling to the "extreme", which is what humanity needs to get rid of fossil fuels; There are also AI, SpaceX, Tesla and Boring segments.
At the company meeting last June, Musk gave more details about the third chapter, and "scale" seems to have become the keyword of the third chapter:
The third chapter of Tesla's ambition focuses on "achieving very large scale"—a very high scale that must be required to transform the entire energy infrastructure and transportation infrastructure on the planet.
How large is it and what is the actual tonnage? For example, if we go backwards from the installed capacity of 300TWh power batteries, then from the mining and refining links, how do we achieve this scale in an environmentally friendly way?
In short, this is the third chapter of the ambition – how can there be enough scale to truly transform the entire energy infrastructure on Earth?
▌The first chapter has become a great undertaking The second chapter is almost over
Tesla's ambition has always been an important part of the company's planning, and to some extent, it can even be seen as the cornerstone of Tesla's achievements today.
Looking back at the first two chapters, the first chapter of Tesla's grand plan was announced on August 2, 2006, and Musk introduced Tesla's four-step plan in the blog post "Tesla Motors' Secret Macro (Don't Tell Others)":
(1) Build a sports car; (2) use the money to develop a car that people can afford; (3) use the money to develop a cheaper car; (4) Provide sustainable energy while carrying out the above three steps.
It can be seen that the goals of the first chapter have been fully achieved, and the above four steps correspond to Tesla's sports car Roadster, Model S/X, Model 3/Y, and Tesla's solar business.
Ten years later, Musk released the second chapter of Tesla's grand plan on July 20, 2016:
(1) Build a solar roof with integrated batteries; (2) Expand the electric vehicle product line to cover major market segments; (3) Through a large amount of vehicle driving data, autonomous driving has been developed that is 10 times safer than manual driving; (4) Make your car earn you money when not in use.
Correspondingly, most of the current ideas have also been achieved, and related products include Tesla rooftop photovoltaic and Powerwall, Model 3/Y, Cybertruck, Semi, FSD system, etc.
In a blog post at the time, Musk explained that the grand plan was released to clarify the company's current strategic location and the planned nature of the company's actions.
The aim of all planning and actions has always been to accelerate the arrival of sustainable energy, so that we can imagine the future and still have a better life. This is what "sustainability" really means. It's not a stupid, hippie thing, it's about each and every one of us.
Essentially, we must achieve a sustainable energy economy at some point, otherwise fossil fuels will run out and human civilization will collapse... Therefore, the faster the sustainability can be achieved, the better.
▌New car? Wind and solar energy storage? Or AI?
The details of the third chapter of Tesla's grand plan can only wait for March 1 to be revealed. However, at present, there has been speculation from many parties.
Some netizens started from the investor day poster, thinking that the background is full of car castings, and the third chapter may be related to new cars. It is worth mentioning that Tesla has previously said that the company is developing a next-generation car platform, and more details will be shown at this investor day. At that time, foreign media speculated that this model was likely to be a previously rumored economic electric vehicle, priced at only $25,000.
Some people also started from Musk's earnings call at the beginning of the year, believing that it is related to wind and solar energy storage. At the time, Musk said that the three pillars of a sustainable energy future are electric vehicles, solar and wind energy, and energy storage. With these three things, it is possible to transition to a fully sustainable state that is many times larger. "There is a path to a fully sustainable future, and Tesla's goal is to move as fast as possible on that path."
In addition, the Not a Tesla App website also gives some predictions for the third chapter, including:
(1) developing the best AI-trained supercomputers to solve real-world problems, which will go far beyond the technology of autonomous driving;
(2) By building millions of Tesla robots, battery manufacturing is no longer a limiting factor in car production to eliminate the need for dangerous, boring, repetitive work (mining) synergy.
(Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, Zheng Yuanfang)