Specialist
Former divisional leader at Tesla Inc
Agenda
- Trends and developments in the EV (electric vehicle) industry, including increasing competitive pressures as legacy automakers accelerate EV capacity
- Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) North America and international production outlook amid new factories ramp-up and supply chain bottlenecks
- Product portfolio overview across the automotive and energy generation and storage segments
- Medium-to-long-term execution outlook, assessing Elon Musk’s 2030 unit volume goal
Questions
1.
What 2-3 key trends or developments have you been following in the automotive and power generation industries related to Tesla?
2.
Do you have any thoughts on the US Build Back Better bill? You touched on the impact and push from governments around the world, driving EV [electric vehicle] growth on a macro level. What impact might this bill have on Tesla or the industry?
3.
What level of growth do you think is sustainable for the EV industry in the mid-to-long term, given the broader government push and any other dynamics that could drive EV demand?
4.
How do you expect market share to shift? You mentioned Tesla has a 60% US market share, and while the legacy OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] are lagging, they seem to be ramping up capacity. How can the company hold onto its share?
5.
What are your expectations for Tesla’s vehicle production capacity across its four factories over the next 1-5 and 5-10 years? You touched on the ramping up of Berlin, but there’s also Fremont, Shanghai and Austin.
6.
Could you highlight some of Tesla’s challenges, such as production bottlenecks across the factories? What levers might the company have to alleviate those bottlenecks?
7.
You mentioned Elon Musk’s goal of 20 million units by 2030. How do you expect its manufacturing footprint to expand to meet that production?
8.
How many Gigafactory locations do you expect Tesla to open by 2030, given the goal may be more for marketing? What regions might be attractive for building new Gigafactories, and what does the company search for?
9.
Could you walk me through the economics of a Gigafactory location? What’s the average build-out size and what would you estimate is the initial CAPEX requirement and start-up cost?
10.
You said that each factory ideally produces about one million units. How long does it take to build out a fully functional location on average? What is your sense of operating costs associated with running the average Gigafactory at maturity?
11.
What are your thoughts on the supply chain issues in chips and other materials?
12.
Is Tesla doing anything better than its competitors to source chips and other materials?
13.
How is Tesla prioritising semiconductors across its models?
14.
What are your thoughts on Tesla’s product portfolio? How has the fleet evolved over the past few years and how might it continue evolving?
15.
What are your expectations around the Cybertruck? What are some challenges around the model and when do you expect it to be released?
16.
Service remains an issue for Tesla, with appointments available weeks or even months out. Supercharger wait times have become untenable at some locations. What concrete steps is Tesla taking to improve customer experience in these two areas?
17.
Do you have any thoughts on charging networks such as EVgo or Chargepoint? Is it too late for large legacy OEMs to build proprietary charger networks?
18.
Do you have any additional thoughts on AVs [autonomous vehicles], batteries or solar generation systems?
19.
We’ve discussed the competitive landscape around legacy players. What are your thoughts on the younger EV companies such as Rivian, which IPO’d yesterday, or Lucid? How are they positioned vs Tesla? Might they have any competitive edges?
20.
It seem the younger EV players are taking a page out of Tesla’s playbook in owning their distribution. How should we assess the prospects of channel shifts, including potential D2C growth? How willing and able are OEMs to pursue a more D2C approach and over what timeframe could that occur?
21.
Do you have any thoughts on M&A? Might there be any consolidation? Are there are obvious or attractive targets that would make sense for Tesla to consider acquiring?
22.
What is your 3-5-year outlook for the EV industry?
23.
What are the best and worst-case scenarios for Tesla over the next 12-18 months? Is there anything we may not have done justice to?
