Is Musk really crazy? The main car business is about to be abandoned, and he is betting on a new business. Tesla will no longer be the Tesla of the past, and there has been a major shift in strategic focus, what signal does this send? What exactly is Musk concerned about? Or what is he planning?
Recently, Tesla has made several big moves, all of which can be said to be directly aimed at the shift of strategic gravity.
The first is to directly highlight the market's unexpected abandonment of the Model 2, an entry-level model that has been in the making for 4 years and positioned lower than the Model 3. Originally, this Tesla's cheap model will be a powerful weapon for Tesla to cultivate new profit growth points, and it is expected to be put into production in 2025. As a result, Musk gave up directly. This is a surprise to the market.
The second is to fully invest in the development of Robotaxi and FSD, that is, robo-taxis and unmanned driving. This is a very unusual signal. This means that Tesla's future strategic focus or main direction of attack, or even all bets on Robotaxi and FSD. The production and manufacturing of the new energy vehicle model series will no longer be the mainstream of Tesla, and even become something that can be discarded.
The third is the big layoffs. According to Tesla's recent plan, it will lay off 10% of its workforce, up to 14,000 people, or even more. The direct reason is that the sales are not good, but in essence, it is actually to focus on the development of robo-taxis and unmanned driving.
So the question is, why did Tesla's strategic focus suddenly change 180 degrees, what is Musk worried about?
In my opinion, there may be several factors.
First, the competition for electric vehicles is increasing, Tesla's advantage is no longer there, the moat has been broken, and the profit margin has been repeatedly reduced. This should be an objective fact that is beyond doubt at present. With the continuous rise of China's electric vehicles and the continuous maturity of technology, China can be said to be the de facto leader in the entire new energy electric vehicle industry. And even in the upstream battery of electric vehicles, the supply of raw materials is almost in an absolute hegemonic position.
To this end, the continuous improvement of the industrial chain has also stimulated the continuous investment of various new energy vehicle manufacturers in China. BYD, Ideal, NIO, and even Xiaomi are all fighting to catch up, and BYD, which Tesla used to look down on at all, has now surpassed it to become the largest electric vehicle manufacturer. Even forced Tesla to use BYD as a benchmark now.
This means a lot of things. This shows that Tesla's technology and other siege advantages have been caught up and even surpassed. Therefore, the prices of Tesla's various series of products have fallen again and again recently, and this is also the reason. That's the first point.
Second, electric vehicles are still manufacturing in nature, and the future will inevitably have low profit margins and great competition. The current combustion engine vehicle is a typical example of this. With the continuous improvement and stability of technology, the competition is getting bigger and bigger, and every car sold is earning some hard processing fees. This is also in line with the development law of the new energy vehicle industry in the future.
So if Tesla wants to circumvent this, it will have to turn to something new and more technologically advanced that can represent the frontier of the future direction of humanity. In this way, if it can succeed, it will stand at the highest point of the industrial chain in one fell swoop, with a deep moat and a high profit margin.
That's why Musk is betting so unhesitatingly on robo-taxis and driverless. The concerns behind it are inevitably inseparable from the consideration of the above two factors.
After all, Musk is really different, he is a magical existence!