Nearly 4 hours into Tesla’s marathon Investor Day, somebody within the viewers tried once more to convey Elon Musk, the Tesla (and Twitter and SpaceX) CEO again to the current day. From a stage on the Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, Musk had introduced an formidable “Master Plan 3” to save lots of the world. For $10 trillion in manufacturing funding, Musk stated, the world might transfer wholesale to a renewable electrical energy grid, powering electrical automobiles, planes, and ships.

“Earth can and will move to a sustainable energy economy, and will do so in your lifetime,” Musk proclaimed. More particulars can be revealed in a forthcoming white paper, he stated.  But the presentation was quick on specifics on the one a part of the electrical transition that’s in Tesla’s present: the next-generation automobile it has been teasing for years, promising one thing that’s extra inexpensive, extra environment friendly, and extra effectively constructed than something in its present lineup. The automobile, or group of autos, can be essential to hitting Tesla’s purpose of promoting 20 million autos in 2030; it bought 1.3 million in 2022.

What, an investor requested the corporate’s executives, would that automobile be? Musk declined to share. “We’d be jumping the gun if we answered your question,” he stated, explaining that the corporate would maintain a separate occasion to roll out the thriller automobile someplace down the road. Slides proven throughout the presentation simply confirmed photographs of car-shaped varieties below grey sheets.

Instead, 17 firm executives shared some tidbits on the automobile throughout a spherical robin of displays specializing in all the things from design to provide chains to manufacturing to environmental impacts and authorized affairs. 

The next-generation automobile received’t be only one automobile, however an method to constructing autos specializing in “affordability and desirability,” stated Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vp of auto engineering. It can be constructed at a brand new manufacturing facility close to Monterrey, Mexico, which was introduced on the occasion Wednesday and can be Tesla’s sixth battery and electrical automobile plant. Executives stated the next-gen automobile would have a 40 p.c smaller manufacturing footprint and would reduce manufacturing prices by 50 p.c. 

Wall Street seems to have anticipated a bit extra element. By Thursday morning, the corporate’s inventory worth was down 5 p.c. 

“The much-anticipated theme of Master Plan 3 left me with more questions than answers,” Gene Munster, managing accomplice at Deepwater Asset Management, stated in a notice to traders.

“Musk and company failed to put the cherry on top—an actual look at a lower-priced Tesla, if only just conceptually,” Jessica Caldwell, govt director of insights at Edmunds, an auto trade analysis agency, stated in an emailed commentary. 

A really inexpensive electrical automobile has lengthy been a goal for the corporate. Tesla’s first Master Plan—printed in 2006, earlier than Musk was CEO—was easy however, on the time, radical: Build an electrical sports activities automobile, and use that cash to construct cheaper and cheaper electrical automobiles. The firm touted its second electrical sedan, the Model 3, because the battery-powered ride for the masses, however the automobile solely bought at its target price of $35,000 for a restricted time. Its base mannequin now sells for $43,000. In the meantime, legacy automakers impressed by Tesla’s imaginative and prescient have stepped into the hole: The Chevrolet Bolt as we speak begins at $26,500, and the Nissan Leaf at $28,000. 

A second Master Plan, printed in 2016, promised self-driving automobiles and shared robotaxis, and it promoted the carmaker’s (now struggling) photo voltaic panel enterprise. The robots on wheels haven’t proven up but—although Wednesday’s occasions did embody a cameo from Optimus, a still-clunky prototype of a humanoid robot additionally being constructed by Tesla.

Musk rarely meets his self-imposed deadlines, however he’s at all times excelled at marshaling others to his trigger with grand pronouncements and sprawling visions. Now he’s trying past automobiles, and even robots. “I really want today to be not only about investors who own Tesla stock, but anyone who is an investor in Earth,” he stated.