By Hyunjoo Jin
SAN FRANCISCO, March 1 (Reuters) – Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla Inc, is expected to outline a plan on Wednesday afternoon to make a smaller, more affordable electric vehicle in a bid to broaden the appeal of its brand and defend against competition.
Capturing the mass market is essential to Tesla’s goal of 15 deliveries – to 20 million vehicles – by 2030. To do this, Tesla will need to improve its battery technology, which Musk called a “fundamental limiting factor”. . subject of his speech on Wednesday.
Musk could also outline plans to update the company’s best-selling vehicles, after Reuters revealed his “Project Jupiter” plan to revamp its Model Y SUV.
The Investor Day event will be webcast from Tesla’s Texas factory and is scheduled to begin at 21:00 GMT.
Musk is also expected to announce the company’s “Master Plan 3” for a “sustainable energy future.” The previous two – the most recent in 2016 – announced new models.
Tesla has become by far the most valuable automaker in the world, and its billionaire CEO aims to break into the mass market and transform the electric vehicle maker into a company capable of creating a more climate-friendly world.
Tesla has outperformed the industry in recent years, rapidly ramping up deliveries despite the pandemic and supply chain disruptions.
However, the company has cut prices in recent months to boost sales, under pressure from a weak economy and growing threats from rivals in the United States and China.
The automaker only offers four models, all of which are high-priced.
On Tuesday, Mexican authorities announced that Tesla would build a factory in the northern state of Nuevo León. It would be the company’s first outside of the United States, Germany and China, and Musk is expected to provide more details on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco, editing in Spanish by Javier López de Lérida)