I've been thinking about Elon's decision to participate in the 2021Q1 Conference Call on Wednesday. Now, a lot of you may say (and rightly so) that
CFO Zach Kirkhorn is more than capable of leading a Conference Call, and that Elon's announcement of Robotaxi by '24 was not urgent (at least for the short-timers who we laughingly call '
analysts').
But I think there was a more important, underlying reason why Elon made the right choice in participating in the Conference Call. With this week's drama over the Twitter take-over, tender offers, margin loans, and X-holding companies, it might be easy to get the impression that Elon is distracted, and Tesla is rudderless. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Instead, we heard a relaxed, engaged, and informed CEO, displaying his usual level of insight and understanding of the current operational challenges faced by Tesla, and with a firm opinion on how it will be resolved in the near term. Further, year-end guidance could not have been better, and is actually MORE bullish than Tesla guided for just 3 months ago. Elon showed he is MORE than capable of handling this work-load, and he is happy and productive, living his dream life in wide-open Texas. BAF.
Particularly, the strategic decision to add 2170-based Model Y variants at both Berlin and Austin signals that Tesla has an ample supply of battery cells, and intents to MAXIMIZE production going forward. Berlin in particular will save the 3 week shutdown in 2022H2 to convert to 4680 production, and will simple ADD to existing 2170 production (specs can easily be engineered to match).
All this means more batteries for Cybertruck next year, and accelerates the introduction of Semi. The tease of Robotaxi produced in volume in 2024 is just icing on the cake for those of us that know FSD margins (and know that Elon means business).
So bring on the AGM, which should be held in early June, and Elon's next appearance on a Tesla conference call.
BULLISH!