Elon Musk began by explaining that his ultimate goal is to completely eliminate fossil fuels.

And this, "without destroying natural habitats" or "without forcing us to be austere and stop using electricity".

"Earth can and will transition to a sustainable energy-based economy in our lifetimes," said the entrepreneur.

According to him, this involves the electrification of the car fleet, but also of boats and planes, the development of renewable energies or the generalization of heat pumps.

In rather technical presentations, various Tesla officials explained how the group could participate in this mission, for example via the simplification and automation of manufacturing processes – the third stage of Elon Musk’s “master plan”.

Several of them referred to a new generation vehicle whose manufacturing cost would be reduced by 50%, stressing however that it would be presented later.

The development of autonomous driving, the need to develop charging infrastructure and the way the group wants to secure its supply chains were also discussed.

Officials also stressed the need to open new factories, batteries and vehicles.

Elon Musk has confirmed that Tesla is going to build a giant factory in Mexico, near Monterey.

The Mexican government had said earlier on Tuesday that the company planned to invest about $5 billion to build the world's largest electric vehicle factory there.

The goal remains to produce 20 million vehicles a year by 2030, Tesla said.

Fluctuations on Wall Street

Tesla, which initiated the electric revolution and remained the world's largest seller in this category in 2022, faces growing competition.

Chinese groups like BYD are rapidly gaining momentum while many traditional manufacturers like General Motors, Volkswagen or Stellantis are launching their electric versions.

And some observers are wondering about Elon Musk's ability to lead the group in this complicated period even though he currently seems more focused on Twitter, which he took over at the end of October.

Investors were a cool welcome to the presentations, with the stock falling nearly 5% in electronic trading following the close of formal trading on Wall Street following presentations from Tesla officials.

They were probably expecting more concrete announcements to keep the stock rising.

After a big slump in 2022, the manufacturer's stock is up around 65% since the start of the year, boosted by lower car prices to attract customers and new rules on grants from the US government.

Elon Musk has once again become the richest man in the world.

The multi-billionaire detailed the first phase of his master plan in 2006, explaining why Tesla was focusing on making a sports car before using the profits and technologies to build increasingly affordable vehicles. .

Tesla's cheapest car, the Model 3, currently sells for $43,000 in the United States.

He presented the second stage of his plan ten years later, in 2016, revealing various ambitions, on solar panels, on autonomous driving, on the manufacture of a whole range of vehicles, including buses, and on carpooling.

It has indeed triggered a vast transition to electric vehicles and made Tesla the most expensive automaker on the stock market.

But several elements of the second stage remain behind, such as the current driver assistance systems offered by Tesla, far from full autonomy, and the subject of several investigations by the American authorities.

© 2023 AFP