Tesla (TSLA) announced the company’s Q1 2020 impressive financial results on Wednesday, after that comes the turn for Elon Musk and his team to answer the questions of journalists and investors at in the following earnings call.
Despite the global lockdown and economic crisis starting in recent months, Tesla did a good job and scored the best Q1 in its history with net positive GAAP income along with more productive figures all around (Tesla Q1 2020 Financial Results with complete PDF).
There were some interesting questions and answers in the Tesla Q1 2020 Q & A session, like the future plans for the company’s full self-driving (FSD) program, Tesla Model Y rear underbody casting, Model S & X improved range and the upcoming Battery Investor Day.
The true range of Tesla Model S for the past two months has been 400 miles
Elon Musk
Our friends over at CleanTechnica streamed the call live on their channel and later on published the following trimmed down version of it on their YouTube channel so that we could listen and be enlightened without going through all the procedures via the Tesla Investor Relations website.
We will offer full self-driving as a subscription service but it will be quite towards the end of this year.
Elon Musk
Key Points from the Tesla Q1 2020 Q & A Call
- While EPA was reviewing Tesla Model S range, they left the door opened overnight and left the keys inside which triggered the driving mode, this resulted in the loss of the car’s electric range by about 2% — in a possible re-testing by the EPA, Tesla Model S will receive the 400-mile rating (of-course Elon Musk is talking about the Model S cars with the Raven drive-units).
- Tesla Model Y SUVs manufactured later this year will have a single rear underbody casting instead of two-piece, actually, the rear 1/3 of the body will be casted in a single piece — means less time and cost needed for the Model Y production, excellent.
- In 2021 with Gigafactories in the United States, China, and Europe, Tesla will achieve the capability of producing 1 million vehicles per year.
- Tesla will be offering FSD as a subscription probably towards the end of this year but according to Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn, buying the FSD feature upfront at the time of purchasing the car will be the least expensive option.
- There is some untapped revenue potential in existing Tesla customers upgrading to FSD and the upcoming FSD subscription plan.
- The next Gigafactory announcement will come in max 3 months and it will be in the US (highly likely the Cybertruck Gigafactory in the central US).
- Tesla Robotaxi program is well laid out but there’s a long way to go with testing and regulatory approvals.
Tesla Battery Day will be one of the most exciting days in Tesla’s history.
Elon Musk
