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☆ Elon Musk is ready to make his biggest pitch yet that Tesla is more than just a car company
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-07 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Elon Musk has a big task this week: convincing investors that Tesla is more than just a car company. It may do so once again as Elon Musk prepares to use the studio lot to tell another story: that Tesla is more than just a car company. The long-awaited event — originally scheduled for August — is meant to give weight to the electric vehicle maker's pitch that it is a tech company first and a car company second. Meanwhile, in July, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives claimed the "Tesla AI story could be worth $1 trillion-plus and is the most undervalued AI name." Michael Macor/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty ImagesHowever, what's critical to note is the timing for Tesla's robotaxi push.

Persons: Elon Musk, Tesla, Tesla's, —, Musk, Sam Altman, Andrej Karpathy, Dan Ives, Michael Macor, Caspar Rawles, Rawles, Donald Trump, Elon, Ross Gerber, Gerber, Uber, it's, Cruise, Paul Miller, Forrester Organizations: Service, Warner Bros, Elon, Robotaxi, EV, San Francisco, Getty, Elon Inc, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, Twitter, Gerber Kawasaki Wealth, Investment Management, Baidu, GM Locations: Burbank, California, Tesla's, Palo Alto, Elonville, Chinese, China, Wuhan

A Model 3 starts at $40,240 and the price may fall to $25,240 when the $7,500 federal tax credit and another $7,500 from the California tax rebate kick in, depending on income and other requirements. SUPPLY CHAIN TWEAKSAnalysts said Tesla may have tweaked its battery supply chain to meet both battery mineral and battery component requirements for federal subsidy. Tesla used CATL's LFP battery cells for its Model 3 Rear Wheel Drive and nickel-based cells from an unidentified supplier for its Model 3 Long Range, analysts said. CATL and other suppliers like LG Energy Solution (373220.KS) do not have factories to make Tesla cells in the United States. Tesla has also started delivering China-made Model 3s and Model Ys to Canada, freeing up some capacity for U.S.-made models.

Persons: Tesla, Biden, Caspar Rawles, CATL, Morgan Stanley, Adam Jonas, Hyunjoo Jin, David Shepardson, Zoey Zhang, Mark Porter Organizations: FRANCISCO, Toyota, Panasonic, U.S, Mineral Intelligence, BMI, LG Energy, Panasonic Holdings, Tesla, Thomson Locations: WASHINGTON, California, Nevada, KS, United States, North America, U.S, China, Canada, Shanghai

2 producer Chile to nationalise its lithium sector may curb long-term supply growth, but it is not expected to have an immediate impact, analysts said. Battery-grade lithium carbonate prices in China rose 10.6% from a week earlier to 182,500 yuan ($26,380) a tonne, the first weekly increase since November 2022, data by Fastmarkets on Refinitiv Eikon showed. But prices tumbled 72% after China curbed EV subsidies in January, demand faltered and inventories rose. Global EV sales jumped 55% last year to 10 million and are expected to climb another 35% this year. Chinese state-backed research house Antaike expects lithium carbonate prices to average 220,000 yuan a tonne this year, down 54% from 2022, it said at a conference last week.

☆ Cheaper Teslas are hurting profits, but Elon Musk plans to keep slashing prices. Here's why.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Tesla's profit margins plunged last quarter after the EV maker made aggressive price cuts. Musk could sacrifice short-term profits to grow Tesla's market share. Tesla disappointed its shareholders on April 19 when it revealed how its aggressive price cuts have affected its business. But these cuts have eaten into Tesla's profit margins. While price competition isn't uncommon in the auto industry, car companies might struggle to match the size of Tesla's cuts without hurting their own profit margins.

☆ The EV revolution has never felt farther away as inflation, rocky supply chains, and Tesla threaten billions of dollars of investment
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In the United States, automakers face major headwinds as they look to establish an all-new EV supply chain, catch Tesla, and win over skeptical buyers — all on top of an increasingly negative economic backdrop. The extent of China's role in the EV supply chain, including with lithium, is coming to light. "The epicenter of where minerals reside, where processing resides, where EV production resides, all are outside of the US," Douglas Kent, EVP of corporate and strategic alliances at the Association for Supply Chain Management, said. Tesla was long past the worst of its production snafus by the time other automakers got serious about EVs. By the time other automakers got serious about EVs, Tesla was long past its biggest manufacturing snafus and profitability challenges.

☆ Tesla has declared a price war on electric-vehicle and traditional automakers alike. There are signs Elon Musk's company is making early gains.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( George Glover | Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The automaker has slashed Model 3, Model Y, Model X, and Model S prices in 2023. While it's too soon to call a winner in the price war, there are signs Tesla is making early gains. Tesla also lowered prices for its Model S sedan and Model X SUV in January, then reduced them again in early March. The basic Model S now retails at $89,990, down 14% from the start of the year, while the entry-level Model X costs $99,990, down 17%. "Price cuts also annoy customers," Caspar Rawles, the chief data officer at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a price-reporting agency, told Insider.

☆ Analysis: CATL's 'price war' shows its power, and China's EV edge
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

"It's very much a market share game," said Caspar Rawles, chief data officer at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd - more widely known by its initials - is the dominant global supplier with a 37% share of the EV market. For CATL, the discount is a way to head off a bid by Chinese EV makers to seek alternatives. CATL batteries power Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) I.D. "The reductions that CATL is offering would help the Chinese EV industry," said James Frith, a principal at battery-tech focused venture capital group Volta Energy Technologies.

It wants 3.8 billion pounds ($4.4 billion) to build a gigafactory in northern England but its plans are hanging by a thread as it struggles to lure enough investment. French battery startup Verkor, for example, announced on Wednesday that it had raised 250 million euros ($249 million) to fund a megafactory. The European Battery Alliance (EBA) acknowledges Asian firms, and Chinese companies in particular, are likely to increase their market share in the coming years, helped by their track record and offtake agreements. "Even if we have the production in Europe, it doesn't mean we have the know-how or the control," she said. The EU has approved 6.1 billion euros since 2019 in funding by member states for battery research and innovation while Britain has a 1 billion pound fund to support investments in EV supply chains.

☆ Here's the 28-page pitch deck that landed battery startup OneD a $25 million Series C to help power GM's $35 billion pivot to electric cars
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

OneD is a battery startup racing to improve EVs' battery range, cost, and charging speed. Check out the 28-page pitch deck it used to raise a $25 million Series C round. Founded in 2013, OneD Battery Sciences is laser-focused on that. OneD also plans to license this tech to automakers and their battery manufacturers and has a small-scale pilot line going. Pluvinage shared the pitch deck OneD used to pitch its vision.

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