Your Tech Story

Tesla

Gigacasting

Why are other automakers chasing Tesla’s ‘Gigacasting’?

Toyota Motor announced this week that it is going to employ a technology powered by Tesla called “Gigacasting” as an element of a plan to increase the efficiency and reduce the price of potential electric vehicles (EVs).

Toyota is not the only company imitating Tesla’s innovation.

Gigacasting
Image Source: reuters.com

Here’s an overview of Gigacasting along with how the invention is pushing car companies to compete with Tesla:

Tesla has implemented the Giga Press which is an aluminium die-casting device, in its facilities in the United States, China along with Germany. The home-sized machines can create aluminium components that are much larger than anything previously used in the auto industry.

Also Read: Google launches AI-powered advertiser features

An average vehicle body is made up of over one hundred separately pressed metal pieces that have been soldered together.

According to experts, Tesla’s industry-leading economic viability has been attributed to fewer components, cheaper costs, and a streamlined manufacturing facility.

Tesla claims that by using just one part in the back of the Model Y, its most popular model, it was able to reduce associated costs by 40 per cent.

Tesla purchases its presses from IDRA in Italy which is a division of LK Industries since 2008 in China.

According to an AlixPartners estimate, the overall market for aluminium die-casting was over 73 billion USD last year and is expected to reach a value of $126 billion by 2032.

Along with Toyota, other automakers employing the technology include Hyundai Motor, General Motors, and also, Volvo Cars, Polestar along with Zeekr, all of which are subsidiaries of China’s Geely.

For the multifunctional van that it sells in China, Zeekr has begun using enormous aluminium die casts, while the company has stated that it would also use the approach for other kinds of vehicles.

Volvo stated last year that it will spend over 900 million dollars to renovate its facility close to Gothenburg in Sweden so that it would feature mega press technology.

Only the Model 3 as well as the Model Y represent the majority of Tesla’s revenues. It is simpler to justifiably invest in innovative manufacturing methods when there are high sales volumes on just two platforms. That benefit also applies to other Electric vehicle startups.

Experts have stated that it can be difficult for traditional automobile manufacturers to decide whether they should invest hundreds of millions of bucks in new casting technologies because they have more complex product lines and production machinery that has previously been amortised.

Tesla

Tesla Could Start Making Cars in Mexico Next Year, Governor Says

Tesla corporation may start manufacturing cars next year in Mexico, with the electric vehicle manufacturer near to receiving final approvals enabling factory development to start in Nuevo Leon, adjacent to the US-Mexico boundary, the governor of the state stated on Monday.

Tesla
Image Source: mexico-now.com

“They are waiting for the final permits … once that’s done, they can start, hopefully, this very month, in March,” Nuevo Leon Governor Samuel Garcia said in an interview.

“I think by next year, in 2024, there will be the first autos.”

Source: reuters.com

Also Read: Tesla’s ‘Master Plan’ Fails to Impress Investors: What Went Wrong?

A request for clarification was not promptly returned by the firm.

 Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, officially confirmed the financing the other week, asserting the Austin,  company based in Texas had chosen Mexico to build its next “gigafactory,” with the goal of manufacturing a “next-generation vehicle.” 

Also Read: Germany planning to ban Huawei, ZTE from parts of 5G networks

Mexican officials have stated that the manufacturing company will be the world’s largest for producing electric vehicles, with an investment of 5 billion dollars. 

Garcia stated that future stages of the plant could include the manufacture of parts such as chips & batteries.

“That’s why they bought a very large plot of land,” he added.

Source: reuters.com

According to the city politician, the location in Santa Catarina, close to the state capital of Monterrey, extends so many thousand acres.

Garcia stated that the funding would act as an “anchor” hoping to attract Tesla distributors and that the approval granted after the latter showed concerns about water scarcity, sent a positive signal to other potential investors. to Tesla Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who is the President of Mexico. 

“It’s like a kind of guide, that when they want to come set up here, it’s very important they follow the law,” he said, noting he had sent Lopez Obrador technical memos about the state’s industrial water supply.

“The president, by authorizing and backing Tesla, sent a message to the world that they should come to Mexico.”

Source: reuters.com

Also Read: Taiwan’s TSMC to recruit 6,000 engineers in 2023

It is anticipated that by 2025, 20 percent of all emerging world car sales would be electric, increasing to 40 percent by 2030. As per investment bank UBS, nearly all cars worldwide sales will be electric by 2040. According to a Thomson Reuters study, even if all sales of new cars are electric by 2040, half of the cars on the roads will still be fueled by gasoline or diesel.

Master Plan

Tesla’s ‘Master Plan’ Fails to Impress Investors: What Went Wrong?

On Thursday, Tesla’s stock dropped about 7% after CEO Elon Musk and his team’s nearly four-hour talk fell short of the expectations of investors hoping to learn more about a new, reasonably priced electric car.

At Tesla’s investor day on Wednesday, Musk and more than a dozen execs unveiled brand-new plans to slash assembly costs in half, invest in a new factory in Mexico, and talk about the business’s innovation in operations management.

master plan
Image Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

The EV manufacturer’s “Master Plan 3” was unveiled at the event, but Musk provided few details about the ideas’ timelines or any potential new Tesla products. Merlin Investor’s founder Guido Petrelli noted, “The biggest surprise coming out of Tesla investor day is that there wasn’t a surprise.”

Also Read: Tesla is getting cheaper. Is it a good move by Elon Musk?

Musk stated that Tesla will construct its upcoming auto plant in Mexico, close to Monterrey, but he didn’t offer any additional information besides the fact that the next-generation vehicle will be produced there.

Tesla’s senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering, Drew Baglino, verified that construction on the company’s lithium refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, has begun.

Musk claimed that AI makes him anxious and that a regulatory body is necessary to ensure that this “quite hazardous technology” serves the greater good.

The valuation of Tesla’s shares, which had decreased by roughly two-thirds in 2022, has increased by over 60% this year. “The markets were primed for a big announcement, perhaps on something like a more affordable new model. It may just have been a case of failing to live up to the hype”, AJ Bell’s investment director, Russ Mould, said.

In the past, Tesla events have made waves online, with Musk’s dance moves at the company’s Berlin plant opening in 2022 and an occasion in China in 2020 getting viral on social media. STMicroelectronics and Wolfspeed Inc., two suppliers and manufacturers of semiconductors, were affected by the company’s strategy to use 75% fewer silicon carbide vehicles while maintaining the performance and efficiency of the vehicles. In particular, STMicro will be negatively impacted by the reduction strategy, according to brokerage Equita.

In a move that mirrors the evolution in mobile phone billing, the business also intends to provide limitless overnight home charging in Texas for $30 per month. The company also praised its growing capacity for setting up production facilities rapidly.

The Corpus Christi lithium plant hopes to begin production within a year. Again, Tesla confirmed that the Cybertruck would be released this year, with mass manufacturing beginning in 2024.

Also Read: Elon Musk sells another $3.58 billion of Tesla shares

The US electric vehicle marketplace leader’s transformation from a niche player to a well-known automaker is the foundation of the new corporate strategy. Tesla released its two prior strategic plans in 2006 and 2016.

More than ten years ago, Musk released his first Master Plan, which outlined Tesla’s go-to-market plan of developing an electric sports car first, followed by a line of more affordable vehicles. With the Roadster, the Model S, and finally the Model 3 sedan—its least expensive model with a starting price of about $43,000—the business has carried out this vision.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk to unveil Tesla’s ‘Master Plan 3.’ What to expect for us?

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, said on Twitter on Wednesday that he will unveil the eagerly anticipated Master Plan 3 on March 1 at the company’s investor day.

Tesla announced it will discuss its next-generation vehicle platforms at the forthcoming investor day, which will be held at its gigafactory in Texas. Elon Musk has said that these platforms would result in a car that costs around half as much as Tesla’s current vehicle underpinnings. The session will be broadcasted live.

Elon Musk
Image Source: hypebeast.com

The company said that some retail and institutional investors will be welcome to attend in person. According to the company, investors will be able to tour its manufacturing facility and speak with members of the leadership team about issues such as the company’s long-term expansion goals, its generation 3 platform, and capital allocation.

Also Read: Tesla is getting cheaper. Is it a good move by Elon Musk?

Musk originally made vague promises to increase Tesla operations to “extreme size” in his Master Plan 3 hints from last March. He also touched on issues like AI and said that his other companies, SpaceX and The Boring Company, would be a part of this next phase of the plan.

On Wednesday, there was a new update. He tweeted, “Master Plan 3, the path to a fully sustainable energy future for Earth will be presented on March 1.”

In 2006, Musk published a blog entry on Tesla’s website explaining what he referred to as the Master Plan. The four-step approach began with the development of a high-priced, low-volume vehicle, and then used the proceeds to fund the creation of a medium-volume, lower-priced car.

An affordable, high-volume car would be produced with the money made from the medium-volume car. The plan concluded with the phrase “provide solar power.”

Part two, or Part Deux, was introduced in 2016 with the goal to “create stunning solar roofs with seamlessly integrated battery storage,” expand Tesla’s EV product line to include all key market segments, and provide self-driving technology that is ten times safer than manual.

Also Read: Why is Meta shutting down Echo VR?

The plan also claimed that owners will be able to use ride-sharing to leverage self-driving technology and profit from their unused vehicles. In part two, Tesla did not check off all the boxes. The Cybertruck, which is apparently a part of the strategy to extend the EV line of products, has not yet been released.

Despite the branding, its advanced driver-aid technology does not drive itself, so owners cannot convert their cars into money-making robot axis. Musk appears to be prepared to continue with Part 3 anyway.

Last year, Tesla shares experienced their worst yearly performance as a result of Musk selling Tesla shares to pay for his acquisition of Twitter and other shareholders losing faith in his commitment to the automaker, whose sales growth fell short of expectations.

Tesla

Tesla is getting cheaper. Is it a good move by Elon Musk?

Following a series of price cuts last week in Asia, Tesla reduced prices across the US, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Analysts viewed this move as a direct jab at both its smaller rivals who have been bleeding money and the traditional automakers who are hurriedly ramping up their production of electric vehicles.

Tesla
Image Source: reuters.com

According to adjustments made to the pricing of vehicle listings on its website on Thursday, the EV company has lowered costs on some of its popular models, such as the Model Y SUV and Model 3, by close to 20% across the USA and Europe. Even while the cars are still rather pricey, the premium pricing has significantly decreased.

Additionally, it’s a hint that Tesla is defending itself after months of gradually raising the prices of its cars. Price reductions follow the company’s failure to meet market expectations for deliveries last year, which coincided with an economic slump that reduced its market valuation from a peak of $1 trillion to less than $400 billion.

Customers from the United States and France may benefit from the federal tax credits and discounts offered in each nation for specific electric vehicle purchases.

Also Read: What Does Twitter’s 200 Million User Email Leak Actually Mean?

Before a $7,500 federal tax credit became available for several electric vehicles on January 1, those price reductions—which might reach as high as 30%—were already in place. Tesla also reduced the price of its Model S sedan and premium crossover SUV in the US.

Without identifying which costs were decreased, a spokeswoman for Tesla Germany claimed that cheaper price inflation was also a contributing element in price reductions in its top European market.

Tesla reduced the cost of the Model 3 and the Model Y in Germany by anywhere between 1% and approximately 17%. The most popular Model Y will now cost 44,890 euros ($48,499), which is a decrease of 9,100 euros.

Additionally, it brought down costs in Austria, Switzerland, and France. Customers in France purchasing the Model 3 for 44,990 euros will now receive a further discount thanks to a 5,000 euro government subsidy on an electric vehicle programme with a 47,000 euro threshold.

Since taking over Twitter, Musk has progressively expressed his displeasure with the Fed’s strong interest rate hike strategy to drive inflation down slightly to its objective of 2% on the network.

Also Read: Why Are US States Banning TikTok from official devices?

Tesla has suffered because of the increase in interest rates. Its stock lost favour with investors for the same causes that tech stocks as a whole are down; speculative businesses that gamble on the future are currently less enticing to investors than safe-haven value assets like commodities.

Since taking over Twitter, Musk has progressively expressed his displeasure with the Fed’s strong interest rate hike strategy to drive inflation down slightly to its objective of 2% on the network.

Tesla has suffered because of the increase in interest rates. Its stock lost favour with investors for the same causes that tech stocks as a whole are down; speculative businesses that gamble on the future are currently less enticing to investors than safe-haven value assets like commodities.

Tesla

Elon Musk sells another $3.58 billion of Tesla shares

Tesla CEO Elon Musk publicly released one other 3.6 billion USD in stock purchases on Wednesday, bringing his combined score this year to nearly 40 billion USD and upsetting investors since the firm’s shares slumped to two-year lows.

According to a US securities filing, he sold 22 million shares in the world’s most profitable automaker over three days, from Monday to Wednesday.

Tesla
Image Source: foxbusiness.com

This is the second large stock sale he has made since his 44 billion USD acquisition of Twitter in October. It’s unclear whether the purchases are linked to the Twitter purchase, but they irritate investors who believe he’s shifting his attention and resources away from Tesla.

“It doesn’t put a lot of confidence in the business, or speak volumes for where his attention is at,” said Tony Sycamore, an analyst at brokerage IG Markets, where Tesla is a popular stock among small-time investors.

“It’s not a good situation. I’ve spoken to a lot of investors who have Tesla shares and they’re absolutely furious at Elon.”

Source: deccanherald.com

Tesla did not respond immediately to a Reuters request seeking comment, and Musk did not respond to an email sent outside of business hours. According to Refinitiv data, Musk’s 13.4 percent stake in Tesla is down from around 17 percent a year ago.

Read More: Elon Musk’s Twitter Dissolves Trust And Safety Council

Tesla’s stock price has gotten halved this year, trailing both automobile manufacturers and the wider tech-heavy Nasdaq, which is down approximately 30 percent in the present year. Musk’s overall sale over the last year is worth nearly $40 billion.

“It will start to be tiring for investors,” said Tareck Horchani, head of the prime brokerage dealing at Maybank Securities in Singapore.

Source: deccanherald.com

Musk’s fortune, which is mostly invested in Tesla stock, has fallen in value this year, and he temporarily lost his label as the world’s wealthiest person last week, as per Forbes, when he was defeated by Bernard Arnault, CEO of Louis Vuitton.