Tesla Motors is a company that is much admired by people all over the world. While others pitch the idea of renewable energy and financing alternate sources of energy, Tesla does its bit without talking much. The company has been leading the clean energy drive from the front. Founded by a few visionaries and able entrepreneurs and sustained by the desire and drive of Elon Musk, the company has done stellar work over the past few years. The coming years are going to be no less than what we have seen so far.
Tesla Motors Plans for Future
Elon Musk has revealed a few things that Tesla is working on. He has set targets for the company, which are not too preposterous but ambitious nevertheless. However, Musk has explained that all the targets are quite achievable, and have been set in accordance with Tesla’s current market presence and brand value.
Below are some of the things that Tesla Motors has planned for the next few years. It’s not all about all electric cars. As Musk said, Tesla is something more than a car manufacturing company. It is a renewable energy company. Following are the main plans for its future.
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Increase Tesla Cars Range to 1,000 km
Tesla cars run on battery, and they need to be charged once the battery is drained out. Currently, Model S, the company’s sedan, has an official range of 265 miles per charge. While the record for a Model S is at 800 kilometres, Musk feels that the company can push that up to 1,000 kilometres, or 621 miles by the end of 2017. He even believes that it could go up to 745 miles by the end of 2020.
This would help users to drive for much longer without worrying to charge. The number of Tesla charging stations is not that high as of now. This means that people have to plan their journey thoroughly, lest they find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere due to the battery being drained out.
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Mass Production of Model 3 by 2017 end
Model 3 will be the first mass market car produced by Tesla Motors. The car, priced at around $35,000, has a range of approximately 200 miles per charge. Bookings for the car have been encouraging, and Musk has said that he plans to begin manufacturing in late 2017. That would allow him to begin deliveries in the beginning of 2018.
There is also news of another car to be out. The Model Y is a crossover of Model 3. However, this news is unconfirmed, for Musk deleted his tweet about it.
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Fully Autonomous Cars by 2018
Tesla is already the frontrunner in the autonomous car industry. Their all electric cars have semi-autonomous functionalities. Elon Musk has said, though, that Tesla plan to produce full autonomous cars by 2018. These cars will have level 4 autonomy. Level 4 refers to a car where the humans are nothing but passengers, or alternatively, where humans will be the cargo. The car will be a self-directed and self-functional machine.
Although Musk has confirmed that Tesla will create such cars by the end of 2018, he was sceptical about the rules and regulations matching his pace. It could be a while before proper rules and regulations for the self-drive car industry are put in place. As it stands, it could delay the arrival of Tesla’s fully autonomous cars. However, Musk has stated that the company would have finished working on the technology.
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Target to Produce 1 million cars by 2020
This announcement was preceded by Musk stating that Tesla is planning to produce 500,000 cars per years by the end of 2018. The company delivered 50,000 cars in 2015 and close to 100,000 cars in 2016. Even if one was to go by those figures, the target is quite ambitious. However, Musk has said that he sees it as quite doable.
The decision to produce 1 million cars per year by the end of 2020 was made after seeing the demand of Model 3. In the first week of taking deposits, the car manufacturer received 325,000 reservations. This figure then went up to 400,000, leading Musk to believe that their goal of producing 500,000 cars per year by 2018 could be doubled in two more years. It even led Elon Musk to believe that the day when Tesla Motors would be regarded in the same league as General Motors and Toyota is not far away.
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Finish the Gigafactory Project
Tesla has been working on its Gigafactory in Nevada, USA for a while now. The 5.5 million square feet structure will make production of Tesla cars a centralized and self-sustained project. The primary objective behind this project was to reduce the cost of batteries. This would be done using waste reduction, innovative methods of manufacturing, as well as doing everything under a single roof.
Once the project is finished, Tesla’s Gigafactory will supposedly make more batteries than all the other manufacturers combined in 2013. The project is aimed to be completed by 2020, and will help Tesla reduce battery costs by 30%.
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More than just cars
Musk has always stated that Tesla Motors is a sustainable energy company. His vision has always been on the renewable and clean energy areas. While Tesla only make all electric car thus far, their operation is set to expand enormously over the next few years.
For instance, Musk has already revealed his desire to acquire the solar power company Solar City. It is incidentally owned by Musk’s cousin, and Musk himself is the chairman at Solar City. That would be the first step to making Tesla a sustainable energy company. It would help realize Musk’s goal of doing everything, from generation to transport.
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Increase number of Superchargers
Tesla Superchargers are pumps where Tesla’s all electric cars can be charged. The superchargers have the ability to give the car a charge to last for about 200 miles in just 30 minutes.
Musk said that he plans to increase the number of superchargers from 4,000 in 2016 to 7,000 in 2018 globally.
Conclusion
In this article, we talked about the future of Tesla Motors. As can be seen, Elon Musk and his partners have a vast vision for Tesla Motors. The car manufacturer is set to expand its operation and produce efficient cars on a large scale. While Musk has conceded that some of his goals could require funding from others, he is confident that all these goals can be met within the timeframe he has given.
As for the operation of Tesla Motors, the company will look to broaden its reach to become a sustainable energy company not only in name and on papers but in operation as well. While their current focus is on the Gigafactory and finishing working on the fully autonomous cars, the next thing on their agenda list is to increase their area of operation and become a fully sustainable energy company. The future looks quite bright for Tesla as it is, and with such goals in mind and a determined leadership and taskforce, Tesla Motors could become one of the biggest companies on the planet.
