Hey everybody, welcome. Back to the Elon Musk podcast.
This is a show where we discuss. The Critical.
Crossroads, the Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company and
Neurolink. I'm your host, Will Walden.
Tesla dropped a six second teaser clip over the weekend and
the Internet went wild. The footage uploaded to the
website and all their social channels, including X, showed
only a glimpse of an EV silhouette whipping past the
screen. But that was enough to stir
speculation around what Tesla plans to reveal on Tuesday.
This finally the long promise Roadster?
Or is Tesla preparing to unveil a lower cost mass market EV?
What is happening here? The teaser showed a wide stance,
sweeping headlights and a low slung shape that recalled the
original 2017 Roadster prototype.
That prototype, which was launched into space on a Falcon
Heavy, hasn't been updated in the public since.
Nobody knows what's going on with it really.
We just know that it's possibly coming, coming sometime down the
line. M KB HD cancelled one of his.
So didn't know when it's going to happen.
So he's just like, you know, I don't need to save that.
A Tesla originally claimed it would enter production in 2020,
then push it back 2022, and then later said it could arrive in
2023 and 2024. So we have no idea.
And at last year's shareholder meeting, Elon suggested a 2024
production target once again, adding that engineering had
finally been completed. But since then, Tesla has been
silent. Elon has been silent.
Now, Elon has repeatedly claimed the new Roadster will be the
fastest production car in the world ever, boasting a sub two
second zero to 60 time at a top speed over 250 mph.
He also teased something very interesting, an optional SpaceX
rocket booster thruster in a range of 620 miles.
That would be insane. 620 miles is wild, but even among Tesla
fans, you know, we don't really believe him sometimes. 620 miles
sounds like a wild thing, and for a Roadster that can go zero
to 60 in under 2 seconds, you go 250 mph.
How do they combine all those things?
That's a huge amount of range for EV, and if Tesla's Tuesday
teaser points to the Roadster, Tesla will need to show more
than a few flashy specs to rebuild confidence in the
project. It's going to be really
expensive and if you haven't already reserved one, now might
be the time, you know? Another possible possible reveal
was the Model 2, which is an affordable EV that tests the
first hinted at in his battery Day presentation in 2020.
That car, which some call the $25,000 Tesla, there's no like
nobody knows what the price is actually going to be.
It's been promised as a breakthrough product that would
dramatically expand the company's market reach and
internally, Tesla has referred to this car as part of its next
generation platform, designed to cut production costs by 50%
through a redesigned chassis and fully automated assembly lines.
Nobody's seen that yet. Nothing's been reported about
that yet, so it's possible, but we don't know.
Tesla confirmed earlier this year that it moved next Gen.
vehicle development of Texas and started building out production
capabilities near Gigafactory. It's around Austin.
Musk has said this platform could eventually support
multiple vehicle types, including a compact car and also
robo taxi. The company scrap plans for a
dedicated robo taxi in favor of merging it into this new
platform, which aims to simplify design, reduce parts and speed
up manufacturing. Now the Reuters have reported
earlier this year and they pointed out early 2025 is the
initial production window for Tesla's next Gen. vehicle, which
matches recent hiring pushes and facility upgrades in Austin.
If Tuesday's event introduces a lower cost EV, Tesla could
preempt competition from BYD and other Chinese manufacturers that
have already launched sub 30,000 EVs in global markets.
There's huge economic pressure right now.
Tesla reported shrinking margins early this year, driven by price
cuts and increased competition. Investors have been pressing for
volume growth without sacrificing profitability.
A mass market model could answer that demand if Tesla could hit
the promise price point while protecting margins through lower
costs. And right now you can get a used
Tesla for around 20 ish some places but it's an older model.
So when do you want a better newer model that has all the new
bells and whistles? But for 25 extra $5000?
Yes. But you can also just get the
new stuff. You'd also save up a little bit
longer and get a, you know, a Model 3 or Model Y or something.
It's up to you. It depends on how much money you
have and what you're willing to sacrifice to get one of these
things. But a $25,000 model or sub
$25,000 model would be incredible for Tesla.
Everybody would want one. Like why would you buy a Honda
if you could have a Tesla? Some people love Honda's.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a Honda believer.
I'd love them. I love Subarus too.
I like Tesla's, I think they're great.
But I don't have enough money right now to buy a Tesla.
Does anybody want to give me money to buy a Tesla?
I didn't think so. So I'm not going to buy a Tesla
right now. I think it would be great if
they had a $25,000 Tesla and it was a good car.
It's going to be great, I'm sure.
So the next time I look into vehicles, of course I would look
into a Tesla. It's $25,000.
That's pretty decent price for a vehicle.
I'm looking at $40,000 cars, 50,000 dollars, $60,000 cars and
I'm like man, that would be great to have.
But I don't have $60,000 to spend on a car.
It's a huge investment. If I could buy a $25,000 car and
then invest the rest of the money into my retirement, that
would be great. Or into my kid when he goes to
school, you know, when he goes off to college, when he's 18 and
he wants to start his own business, I'll have money set
aside for him. Instead of buying a $60,000 car,
about the $25,000 car, put the other money into his account.
I mean, people think like that, right?
You want to buy a house, but you also need a car.
You're not going to buy the $60,000 car.
You're going to save that money and buy that house and buy the
$25,000 car. This is how it works.
If you don't have the money for both things, there's also timing
for the teaser. Tesla rarely promotes an event
without a clear message. If this teaser happened, it's
like literally days before the event.
They know what's up, they have confidence in what's coming.
That was sort of like the cyber trucks original reveal where
Tesla dropped vague clips to fuel speculation before a full
unveiling. Stock price went wild during
those things, then after the reveal went even Wilder.
If Tesla reveals a new Roadster, there's going to be questions
about priority. When will this thing actual
launch? Launching a high end performance
car during a period of sliding demand and rising EV inventories
seems kind of misaligned right now.
Market conditions are down, the economy's weird, But a reveal of
the mass market EV would show Tesla finally shifting toward
accessible models that could drive global growth.
And of course, they are a publicly traded company.
They have to think about growth before anything.
Get those shareholders their money back.
Let's make some money. Some fans have suggested both
cars could appear on Tuesday. What if there's a Roadster and a
sub $25,000 car, the Model 2? That would be insane.
It would be unusual. They usually do one launch and
that's enough people go wild for that.
But think about if they do a roadster and the new next Gen.
compact model same day. I'm not a financial advisor in
any way, but if you think this is going to happen, right now
might be a really great time to buy some Tesla stock because
you're going to make a real quick buck off both of these
things. If they happen in the same day,
stocks going to go wild. Tesla's also used product
unveilings to manage investor expectations and shift the
narrative around its stock. 2024 has been sluggish.
They need a catalyst to keep it growing and keep it going.
A new lower cost vehicle platform with confirmed
production plans could reset the story heading into 2026.
Going forward, 2025 was an OK year for Tesla, but they want to
keep growing as fast as possible.
And of course, they're doing AI and robotics now rather than
just vehicles. So they have those other arms of
the business that they're working on and those pump the
stock up a little bit, make people some money.
If they reveal 2 vehicles in the same day, who baby, it's going
to go crazy. We don't know what's going to
happen. We're going to see what Tesla
plans to prioritize over the next two years.
Whether it's going to be performance or like a production
revolution with these sub $25,000 cars, we don't know.
I wish I knew. There's speculation going around
that it's both. And if it's both, good luck
because which one are you going to choose?
That's going to be crazy. All right, I want to say thanks
to everybody who's been listening to the show for a
really long time. This is just a little side note,
but let me know in the comments what you think about these cars
because they're going to be both are going to be amazing in their
own ways. But I want to say thanks to
everybody who's been listening for a long time.
I really do appreciate you and I'm back on track.
I've been sick for the last couple weeks and I've been
posting older clips, things like that.
I got a comment from somebody that said, you know, hey, I
don't mind the older clips, but you got to tag them as like
older clips, you know? And I was like, yeah, I got, I
tagged it as 2024 or something with that older clip that you're
that they were commenting on. And we had a little discussion
in the comments. And that's why I love you guys
to comment because I'd like to talk about things like this.
We're community here. We're, we're not just me talking
about these things. I want to hear what you have to
say. I think that's important.
That right there. I want you to be part of this.
You're part of this community. Everybody that downloads the
show. It's not just me, you know, I
want you to be part of this too. So I'm not trying to sell you
anything. Never have.
I don't want you to buy anything.
I, you know, I have a T-shirt shop called Starship Shirts
where I sell SpaceX themed T-shirts.
That's the only thing I sell. The other thing that I do is I
put ads on the show because makes me enough money to keep
the show going sometimes. Sometimes it doesn't.
The bills rack up. So you know, it takes a lot of
time to put these shows together and I've been doing it for I
think it's around 1000 shows now.
To be honest with you, I have no idea, but I just realized this.
This is a little side note. I want you guys to know about
this too. I started podcasting in 2006.
I had a skateboard company at that time and I was like, I'm
really tech guy, right? So I was early adopter for all
things Real Player. If anybody remembers Real Player
streaming media with Realplayer. I streamed some media back in
the day. I did radio shows, online radio
shows. Back then.
I forgot what I called it, but my first podcast was in 2006.
It was for my skateboard company and that company, it grew
because I knew that people listen to my podcast, They could
connect with the thing that we love.
We both, we all love skateboarding.
So they would connect and they'd leave comments because I would
embed them on our website, on my website that I built with my
only two hands. I coded it myself.
It's pretty silly. Some HTML, some some PHP, maybe
some comments somehow, I don't know, maybe I had a third party,
I don't know to do the comments, but I was connected to the
audience then and I think it's really important that we talk to
each other. So if you have comments on your
podcast platform, I know Spotify does, other podcast platforms do
too. So if you do, please leave a
comment. And also, you know what, I
really need your help. This one I'm going to ask for
you from you. If you have a second, leave a
five star review. If you like the show, I really
would appreciate that. That's all you need to do 5 star
review really helps out the show a ton and I can continue growing
the show. I want to grow the show even
more than it already is and we have a pretty good audience
right now, but I want to grow it to like 10 times this.
I think that'll be great. Haven't really tried because I
just like to do it, you know, it's been more of a hobby, but I
would really love to focus on growth.
So five star reviews really help.
Any sort of interaction really helps.
Leave a comment, any sort of good review, it's cool.
Leave a good review and the comment in a review.
I think helps to like 5 star review and be like I love the
show or hey, well, you are the best guy ever or you're the best
skateboarder ever, even though you don't skate as much anymore
as you used to. But I love your show.
Whatever whatever you want to say or you know, go SpaceX would
be great too. I love SpaceX, so please help me
out here. Five stars would be great.
OK, that's it for today. And we're going to do the normal
outro, which is like a if you like the show, subscribe.
So here you go with that. Take care everybody.
I'll see you in the next one, but listen to this too.
Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
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