One more question for the Annual Meeting: When will an AC-DC inverter be incorporated by Tesla into the powerwall?
Two part question relating to U.S. states that ban or partially ban Tesla from doing direct sales or service: A. Mr. Musk, do you feel that Tesla's team dedicated to fighting the various legal and legislative battles in these states is large enough and has sufficient resources to get the job done, and do you expect any victories or setbacks this year with regard to those battles? B. Given the accelerated production schedule for Model 3, how does Tesla propose to provide service to a huge influx of new customers in the numerous states that ban Tesla from even offering service centers?
It's been 2 years since you opened up your patents. I've been describing the Supercharger as "an open standard that any car company can use, but no-one has designed their car to use it yet." What other manufacturers have decided to use Superchargers, if any?
Seems that between a "4th-generation" "even more affordable" car, a truck, and a new roadster, the latter would achieve the least amount of greenhouse gas reduction vs. the first two. Certainly for the USA, the truck might eliminate more GHG than an inexpensive car. Which would you work on next? The "4th-generation" "even more affordable" car, or the truck, or the new roadster?
Will seat options from the Model X like the cooling and perforations make their way to the Model S ? And the premium non-leather material?
At the Model 3 reveal Elon stated that the number of Service Centers and Superchargers would double by the end of 2017. Given the acceleration of Model 3 delivery targets, have the plans for more SCs and Superchargers also been accelerated?
What is the future of the resale value guarantee program. At the moment, the uptake for this seems very low and the financials show a very unlikely contingent liability. This state of affairs will only get worse if it is offered to model 3 buyers choosing to finance with Tesla. Are there any plans to limit this to just S and X or better still, terminate this program altogether. I say this as a model 3 reservation holder and also a share holder.
With the Model 3 (family) Tesla's original master plan will be complete. We have heard some plans on the M3 family (Roadster 2, Truck, Y), but not much beyond that. Does Tesla see itself as the manufacturer of sporty, premium vehicles (i.e. the BMW of the 21st century) exclusively and will leave even more mainstream ($15-25k) EVs to others, or can we expect Tesla to evolve into the next GM or VW with multiple brands at multiple price points?
Indeed. Maybe we could open this up a bit more and ask it like this: Can you give us a high level plan/timeline (year/quarter & GWh or % of full building size?) of the GF1 construction schedule?
Thanks! Yeah, I've seen that interview, but that was a standalone, vague "eventually g4 and more affordable" comment. I am hoping we can learn something more about where Tesla is going. G4 can be a BMW 1 series competitor or can be the next VW Golf "killer". Will Tesla Motors step out of the premium car brand category in the future e.g. via sub-brands?
Dave, maybe opening this one out as well? Something like: Does Tesla have any aspirations to get into the commercial trucking or city bus industry itself, or would it consider/has it bean approached to provide drivetrains for such projects?
It's been said that you're planning on moving to a slighly larger battery cell format, something like 20700-cells. Will you be producing this next-gen format at the Gigafactory when cell production starts up, or is this further out in time?