Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy by producing products far superior to fossil fuel alternatives and sourcing and manufacturing them sustainably. Tesla released its 2023 Impact Report yesterday, discussing their ongoing impact on the environment and the improvements seen.
Displacing Fossil Fuels
In 2023 alone, Tesla’s impact on the environment through its vehicles, Powerwall, and Solar Roof has been massively impactful – Tesla customers avoided releasing the equivalent of 20 million metric tons of CO2e into the environment. That is the equivalent of 51 billion miles of driving an average internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle.
Each Tesla vehicle that is on the road avoids an average of 51 tons of CO2e emission into the environment. After just 3 years of driving, a Tesla’s lifetime emissions are lower than those of a comparable ICE vehicle. After the average lifespan of a vehicle in North America – 17 years – a single Tesla will have exceeded that value 5.5 times over.
Integrated Ecosystems
Tesla offers comprehensive ecosystems of products to address clean energy and transportation needs, from Megapack, Solar Roof, and Powerwall, to the Model S, 3, X, Y, and Cybertruck.
On the software side, products like Autobidder, Full Self-Driving, and the upcoming Robotaxi work to maximize the productivity of electricity that is stored in vehicles, helping to further displace fossil fuels in a single ecosystem of well-designed products.
Tesla's ecosystem depicted.
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World’s Best EVs
Tesla’s Model Y is still the best-selling vehicle in 2023, a trend likely to continue in 2024. And it’s not for little reason. It is the world’s most efficient EV, capable of running Autopilot/FSD, and is considered one of the best safety picks in both North America and Europe. Tesla’s data has also proven that they are, on average, 7.63 times safer than a traditional vehicle when running Autopilot.
Additionally, the Model Y is priced $3,000 USD below the average new vehicle in the US before the Federal EV Tax Credit – a difference of $17,000 after factoring in the credit and gas savings over 5 years.
Battery Degradation
Model 3/Y battery degradation over time
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Battery degradation is often brought up as a concern for EVs and the environment. Batteries fade away, become useless, and cannot be recycled. According to Tesla’s data and experience, this is far from the truth.
Another interesting fact is that Tesla vehicles in particular – are 8 times less likely to be victim to a vehicle fire, compared against the US average.
Sustainable Sourcing
Sustainably sourcing materials is essential to reach Tesla’s vision of a world with reduced environmental impacts. In 2023, Tesla recovered enough battery materials to produce 43,000 Model Y RWD vehicles, while also sourcing Gigafactory Berlin with 100% renewable energy.
Overall, Tesla solar owners generated enough energy to power all Tesla locations, including all the Mega and Giga Factories, and all other facilities – over 3 times.
Tesla has also reduced water use by 25% over the last 5 years for vehicle production, marking a new milestone low – at 2.48 cubic meters of water, versus 3.37 cubic meters of water for an average ICE vehicle.
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During Tesla’s shareholder meeting, Elon Musk was asked if FSD transfers could return for existing owners. He hemmed and hawed, but eventually gave in when an audience member asked if they could return for just one more quarter.
Final Chance?
This could be the last chance for FSD owners to transfer their FSD capability to a new vehicle. Elon Musk mentioned that it removes revenue from upcoming vehicle sales. Every time Tesla offers FSD transfers, it impacts Tesla’s potential earnings.
On the flip side, it does incentivize current owners to upgrade to newer vehicles, especially if it’s a limited-time offer. Tesla previously offered FSD transfers in Q3 of 2023. FSD transfers are expected to be limited to North America where FSD software is currently available.
When Will Tesla Offer FSD Transfers
Musk nor Tesla mentioned a timeline for when FSD transfers would begin. Tesla owners looking to upgrade their vehicles would likely wait for this offer to be available before buying their new Tesla. Since this would reduce some vehicle sales, it seems that Tesla wouldn’t want to wait too long before making FSD transfers available again.
FSD Transfers in the Future
While Elon Musk didn’t seem to be too enthused with the idea of continuing transfers but gave in to “just one more quarter”, there could be more down the road.
Musk has said that Tesla has various demand “levers” they can use to increase or slow demand as needed. FSD transfers and Tesla’s referral program are prime examples of those levers. Although Musk says Tesla will only offer FSD transfers one more time, Tesla won’t hesitate to offer it again if they need to increase sales. Tesla faced this situation when the new Model 3 was unveiled in China, but it took several months for it to be offered in North America.
Additional FSD Trials
Elon Musk confirmed that two free weeks of FSD would be given to all vehicle owners whenever a major FSD update hits. We don’t expect another trial of FSD with the upcoming update of v12.4, but perhaps with v12.5 or 12.6, especially if Tesla adds new features such as ‘Actually Smart Summon,’ which will be the first time Smart Summon is available on a vehicle without ultrasonic sensors.
Did you miss the Shareholder Meeting? Want to know what Elon Musk said?
We’ve got an easy-to-read recap for you below, split by sections. We’ll be writing more in-depth about many of these topics over the upcoming days as we unpack all the awesome news!
Robotaxi
Fleet monetization planning is ongoing.
Owners will be able to send their cars to the Robotaxi fleet and summon them back when they need them.
Tesla will take a margin, but most of the income will go to owners.
Tesla has plans to solve driverless interventions in the future, but expects them to be edge cases of edge cases.
FSD
Headed towards Unsupervised FSD!
New subversions are essentially new full versions; 12.4 and 12.5 are massive updates.
Expect a 2-5x increase in performance between versions.
Major versions will include a 2-week free trial.
10 thousand miles between interventions for some internal builds.
Hardware 4 training will begin later this year, Hardware 3 will continue to be developed.
Hardware 5 is 18 months from retail release.
Optimus
Optimus will be able to do many simple and difficult tasks:
Teaching
Companionship
Babysitting
Factory Work
Tesla expects 2 humanoid robots per person in the future.
Tesla expects 1000-2000 robots working in its factories by next year, with a limited production run.
22 degrees of freedom in the next generation hand, one new major hardware revision coming this year.
Cybertruck
China and Europe-compliant Cybertruck coming after production is scaled and costs are reduced.
Foundation series ending soon, non-foundation series starting next quarter.
Semi
Semi is in low-volume production, high-volume production starting soon.
Companies are actively choosing Semi due to economic advantages.
Massive potential impact on carbon emissions
Big impact on the profitability.
Other New Products
New products are coming soon, and Tesla is working hard on them.
Possible 12-passenger van, added to the “To-do” list.
Supercharger
58K global sites, and continuing to grow.
More superchargers deployed this year than the rest of the industry combined.
Tesla is providing adapters to other car companies and providing them with support for Supercharger access.
Tesla is moving to fill gaps and relieve congestion where possible.
Battery Production and Stationary Storage
New 4680 innovations, best cell from a manufacturing and efficiency standpoint.
4680 will be a continuing focus to improve over time.
Tesla has made their battery supply chain stronger and is working on further vertical integration.
2023 had 15GWh of Megapack production, 2024 is looking closer to 40GWh.
100-200% growth rate in the energy storage market.
Tesla is constrained by Megapack and Powerwall 3 production, can’t keep up with demand, even as they scale rapidly.
AI and Compute
AI growth is on a weekly basis, with Tesla taking in video and training on decision-making faster than ever.
Tesla is not compute-limited for FSD, but scenario-limited.
There is an AWS-style opportunity for parked vehicles to run distributed inference and compute.
Tesla intends to introduce LLMs with customizable learning personalities to Optimus and its vehicle lineup.
Investor Facts
Elon Musk expects $5-10 Trillion valuation for autonomy, and $20 Trillion for Optimus.
Musk mentioned that Ark Invest has the closest scenario – with Robotaxi releasing in 2025 or 2026, for a 110x valuation increase.
Elon’s stock award isn’t cash, and he has no intent to cut-and-run and is with Tesla for the long haul to accomplish the mission.
Other Items
Tesla Home HVAC, with a built-in HEPA filter, humidity control, super-efficient, super-quiet, with Powerwall integration – one day.
Kids Factory Tour Event – for children under 12!
If you’d like to watch the shareholder meeting, you can view it here, along with all the stockholder vote results.
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