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Fascinating interview. Thanks you for posting this!
He also didn't acknowledge one way or another the interviewers comment that Gen3 would cost roughly half the cost of the Model S. Smart move.
He said that the Chevy Volt is "essentially a conversion" of a Chevy Cruz, and Nissan LEAF is built on a Nissan Versa platform.
I think that is a bit unfair to them. Yes, they used those related vehicle chassis as mules when developing the drivetrains, but I think of Volt and LEAF as nearly "ground up" vehicles. It would have been more fair to point the "existing platform" finger at Ford Focus, ActiveE, Fiat 500, Daimler A/B, Smart, and even Toyota/Tesla Rav4EV
Thanks for posting. Always interesting to hear other senior Tesla employees besides Elon talk about their experiences and the company.
Noteworthy that he was very conservative with Gen3 numbers. (200k/yr). There are too many people, especially in the media hyping 500k+ per year.
Much better to set more reasonable expectations. He also didn't acknowledge one way or another the interviewers comment that Gen3 would cost roughly half the cost of the Model S. Smart move.
The interesting part was when he confirmed that Tesla will be building its own battery factory. Elon has mentioned needing to build a giga-factory, but always left it ambiguous as to who would build it. It sounds to me like Tesla has recently made an internal decision to build it themselves and not rely on Panasonic, Samsung, etc. to build it. Strategically it makes sense to me. Obviously there is a lot of information about intellectual property rights to battery chemistry and design that we don't have. I also thought it interesting that he said they weren't wedded to the 18650 form factor. So, sometime in the next year or so, look for a Tesla announcement that they will be building their own battery mega-factory in the US. It will use updated battery chemistry and have a new form factor...
The interesting part was when he confirmed that Tesla will be building its own battery factory. Elon has mentioned needing to build a giga-factory, but always left it ambiguous as to who would build it. It sounds to me like Tesla has recently made an internal decision to build it themselves and not rely on Panasonic, Samsung, etc. to build it. Strategically it makes sense to me. Obviously there is a lot of information about intellectual property rights to battery chemistry and design that we don't have. I also thought it interesting that he said they weren't wedded to the 18650 form factor. So, sometime in the next year or so, look for a Tesla announcement that they will be building their own battery mega-factory in the US. It will use updated battery chemistry and have a new form factor...
The interesting part was when he confirmed that Tesla will be building its own battery factory. Elon has mentioned needing to build a giga-factory, but always left it ambiguous as to who would build it. It sounds to me like Tesla has recently made an internal decision to build it themselves and not rely on Panasonic, Samsung, etc. to build it. Strategically it makes sense to me. Obviously there is a lot of information about intellectual property rights to battery chemistry and design that we don't have. I also thought it interesting that he said they weren't wedded to the 18650 form factor. So, sometime in the next year or so, look for a Tesla announcement that they will be building their own battery mega-factory in the US. It will use updated battery chemistry and have a new form factor...