The focus has completely turned to autonomous driving.
In its latest impact report, Tesla removed the previously set target of 20 million vehicles sold per year by 2030. This may be another sign that Musk is focusing on driverless taxi services.
In 2020, Tesla CEO Musk said that the company hopes to achieve annual sales of 20 million vehicles by 2030, which is double the annual sales volume of Toyota, the world's largest car company at the time. This target also continues to appear in Tesla's 2021 and 2022 impact reports.
At the beginning of this year, however, Tesla's strategy changed. According to media speculations, Musk shelved plans to launch a new cheap model with a price of 25,000 US dollars and instead listed autonomous driving technology as the main driver of future growth. A driverless taxi press conference is also scheduled to be held on August 8.
In an interview with the media this week, Nvidia CEO Hwang In-hoon praised Tesla's autonomous driving technology:
Tesla is far ahead when it comes to autonomous cars, and one day every car will have to be capable of autonomous driving... it's safer, more convenient, and more fun to drive.
Tesla's stock price has dropped nearly 30% so far this year. Slowing growth and fierce competition in the electric vehicle market have had an impact on Tesla's demand. In the first quarter of this year, Tesla's sales volume experienced a year-on-year decline for the first time in four years. To cope with the pressure, Tesla has announced more than 10% layoffs and disbanded the team responsible for building the fast charging station network.
While attending an event this Thursday, Musk said that driverless taxis and the humanoid robot Optimus will have a “profound impact” on Tesla, but he declined to answer questions about cheap models.
Leverage Shares (Leverage Shares) believes that Tesla's sales target of selling 20 million vehicles by 2030 was largely supported by affordable models selling at $25,000. Currently, although Tesla officially promises to launch “more affordable” models in the future, “more affordable” does not equal an affordable model of 25,000 US dollars, which shows that Tesla NIO's product strategy is uncertain.
Coupled with the fact that Tesla has now voluntarily abandoned this sales target, it also means that the market will probably not see a $25,000 affordable car.