Q1 FY2024 Earnings Call
TSLA · Preprocessing Report
2024-04-23
Quality
100%
130
Turns
13
Speakers
4
Sections
7
Exchanges
501
Claims
Quality issues

Entities by group 41

automotive company 1
Teslacompany
company executives 4
Elon MuskpersonLars MoravypersonAshok ElluswamypersonMartin Viechaperson
analysts 7
Vaibhav TanejapersonAlex PotterpersonShreyas PatilpersonToni SacconaghipersonAdam JonaspersonMark DelaneypersonColin Ruschperson
driver assistance features 2
FSDproductAutoparkproduct
electric vehicles 3
Model 3productCybertruckproductModel Yproduct
battery cells 1
4680 battery cellsproduct
government incentives 1
Inflation Reduction Actcompany
sell-side firms 1
Piper Sandlercompany
humanoid robots 1
Optimusproduct
AI accelerators 1
H100 GPUproduct
earnings quarters 1
Q1event
cloud providers 1
Amazoncompany
investment banks 1
Bernsteincompany
telecommunications 1
Nokiacompany
consumer smartphones 1
iPhoneproduct
energy storage systems 1
Megapackproduct
onboard compute hardware 1
Hardware 3product
robotaxis 1
Cybercabproduct
mobile operating systems 1
Androidtechnology
large language models 1
LLMtechnology
consumer electronics 1
Applecompany
semiconductor memory 1
DRAMtechnology
government-linked organizations 1
The Internet Research Agencycompany
Ungrouped 6
OEMotherEVotherUnited StatesotherautomakersotherIrish Republican ArmyotherRoth IRAother
REPORTING 43PROJECTING 26POSITIONING 177EXPLANATORY 70ANALYST 50

Topics 96

battery×37autonomy×24autonomous driving×21compute×20vehicle×19price×11model 3×10licensing×10revenue×9headcount×9operations×8phone×8voting control×6cost×5cash flow×5product×5organization×5inflation reduction act×5electric vehicle×4energy×4

Themes 289

licensing×6fsd version 12×5autonomous driving×5affordability×5distributed×5growth×4efficiency×4updated model×4pricing×3reduction×3brand framing×3elon musk 25% goal×3reductions×3quality×3driving regulations×34680 ramp×3company framing×2cost reduction×2negative×2positive×2future prosperity×2competitive copying×2self-driving×2software improvements×2software adoption×2full self-driving neural net training×2vehicle self-driving×2safety×2ratification of deployment decision×2redundancy×2sensorless×2smart cars×2free cash flow positive×2new markets×2operational complexity×2utilization×2monetization×2idle compute×2upstream supply chain×2market outlook×2tax acronym×2executive departure×2ramp in fremont×1adoption pressure×1industry pullback×1market dominance×1deployments×1record profitability×1ai training×1upcoming line×1launch timing×1affordable models and platform mix×1same-line manufacturing×1no new plant required×1production efficiency×1vehicle production capacity×1usage mileage×1neural network approach×1human driving analogy×1human perception design×1camera-based driving×1subscription pricing×1product showcase×1capacity expansion×1capacity constraint×1capacity improvement×1installation×1training capacity×1roadmap×1version 12 reliability×1autonomous future×1non-autonomous comparison×1shift away×1future growth and profits×1company execution×1quarterly decline×1decline×1offset by lower costs×1revenue recognition×1fremont model 3 ramp and berlin disruptions×1excluding cybertruck and model 3 ramp costs×1autopark offsetting ramp and disruption costs×1model y cost per vehicle normalization×1market demand×1revenue outlook×1industry outlook×1industry strategy×1leasing×1availability×1awareness and financing×1energy record×1deployment growth outlook×1profitability contribution×1quarterly volatility×1ai and investment spending×1builds outpaced deliveries×1ai compute and initiatives×1expected reversal×1return to positive×1run-rate from headcount reduction×1improvement from cost cuts×1ai scale-up×1new models×1existing model tweaks×1new model launch×1model 3 comparison×1highland update retooling×1update timeline×1new vehicles discussion×1multi-company priorities×1elon musk involvement×1majority at tesla×1rare sunday off×1year-on-year decline risk×1higher in 2024×1future roadmap×1next-gen cheaper×1performance×1china competition×1ai robotics positioning×1auto framework×1investment thesis×1usage increase×1coming soon×1improving performance×1more than cars×1vehicle capability×1progress×1ecosystem improvement×1product comparison×1elon musk stake×1tesla thesis risk×1elon musk commentary×1future product outlook×1future opportunities×1deployment governance×1deployment strategy×1voting on deployment decision×1shareholder response×1buyback×1context×1duplication×1pruning metaphor×1stronger future×1near-term transition×1no significant concessions×1period of prosperity×1cumulative inefficiency×1corrective adjustments×1reorganization for growth×1estimate revision×1shedding legacy parts×1growth-driven restructuring×1reorganization risk×1scaling structure×1scale comparison×1bacterial composition×1corporate reorganization×1approach×1no heavy integration work×1buyer demand×1smart car×1industry shift×1limited functionality×1car transition×1smartphone transition×1flip phone decline×1niche survival×1niche product×1outdated technology×1hotel use×1hotels still have home phones×1method of survival×1oem conversations×1oem adoption timeline×1deal timing×1oem timing×1vehicle integration timeline×1three-year timeline×1lightning×1eager interest×1not required×1forward outlook×1demand elasticity×1future reductions×1cost cuts offsetting×1product pricing×1business breadth×1product positioning×1value for money×1vehicle pricing×1customer income×1income pressure×1payment sensitivity×1lease pricing×1lease start×1geographic expansion×1acceleration in expansion×1end-to-end neural net×1supervised release×1foreign market comparison×1home-country advantage×1country-specific training×1capability×1universal basics×1china enforcement×1china regulatory impact×1china driving rules×1supply constraints impact×1unit growth confidence×1q1 issues×1q1 drivers×1seasonality pressure×1operational disruption×1model 3 and cybertruck ramp×1q1 disruption×1constrained period×1issue recurrence×1q2 outlook×1ongoing disruption×1strong interest×1shipping backlog×1inventory constraints×1simplification×1purchase speed×1buying interface×1physical-world inference×1usage hours×1usage estimate×1robotaxi workloads×1vehicle workloads×1amazon web services comparison×1idle capacity×1excess capacity utilization×1idle vehicle monetization×1vehicle hardware scaling×1fleet capacity×1vehicle intelligence×1human-like operation×1workload deployment×1vehicle control×1workload distribution×1drain from distributed compute×1vehicle inference performance×1costs×1shared globally×14680 ramp-up×1supplier competitiveness×14680 production capacity×1supplier investment×1partner development×1supply risk hedge×1battery order pressure×1prices×1cost per kwh hedge×1internal production hedge×1program framing×1supplier cost increase×1stock pitch×1product understanding×1per unit decline×1next-gen vehicle estimate×1manufacturing cost mix×1powertrain savings transfer×1transfer to new products×1transferable components×1applied to current and future cars×1cost hedge×1cost advantage×1supply business×1cell sales×1order decline×1supplier pricing×1supplier excess capacity×1production cycle×1government incentives×1inflation reduction act×1acronym comparison×1retirement account definition×1incentive structure×1u.s. demand×1policy duration×1supply chain resilience×1executive transition×1career reflection×1turnaround period×1company culture×1leadership×1teamwork×1

Key Metrics 63

price×17headcount×8compute×6revenue×6free cash flow×5sales×5deployments×3profitability×3costs×3demand×3capex×3voting control×3deliveries×3performance×3cost×3growth×2capacity×2usage×2h100 gpu count×2operating expenses×2inventory×2full self-driving×2autonomy×2cells×2vehicles×2power×2cost per kilowatt hour×2cogs×2production×1adoption×1miles driven×1driving reliability×1investment×1margin×1auto margin×1cost per vehicle×1lease payment×1financing×1gross margin×1annual run-rate savings×1ai investment×1vehicle deliveries×1growth rate×1valuation×1cash flow×1inefficiency×1monthly lease payment×1cost of production×1lease price×1lease starts×1unit growth×1purchase time×1hours per week×1utilization rate×1hours×1utilization×1gigawatts×1yield×1battery prices×1battery orders×1cogs per unit×1cost reduction×1orders×1

Entities 704

Tesla×310Elon Musk×154Vaibhav Taneja×46FSD×25Model 3×174680 battery cells×17Lars Moravy×15Inflation Reduction Act×9Ashok Elluswamy×9OEM×8Alex Potter×8Shreyas Patil×8Toni Sacconaghi×7Cybertruck×6Adam Jonas×6Martin Viecha×6EV×4Piper Sandler×4Optimus×4Mark Delaney×4H100 GPU×3United States×3Q1×3Amazon×3automakers×3Autopark×2Model Y×2Bernstein×2Nokia×2iPhone×2Colin Rusch×2Megapack×1Hardware 3×1Cybercab×1Android×1LLM×1Apple×1DRAM×1Irish Republican Army×1The Internet Research Agency×1Roth IRA×1

Business Segments 210

Automotive×197Energy Generation And Storage×13

Sectors 159

automotive×50artificial intelligence×19autonomous vehicles×19battery manufacturing×14electric vehicle×11software×8energy×7semiconductor×7cloud computing×7robotics×5consumer electronics×4telecommunications×2retail×2manufacturing×2hospitality×1logistics×1

Regions 26

China×9Fremont×6U.S.×4Berlin×3North America×1Austin×1Red Sea×1Russia×1

Metadata Distributions

Sentiment
positive 82negative 34neutral 250
Temporality
backward 60forward 93current 213
Certainty
definitive 48confident 92moderate 139tentative 79speculative 8
Magnitude
major 20moderate 195minor 151
Direction
improvement 18decline 5flat 1mixed 5none 337
Time Horizon
immediate 42near_term 118medium_term 57long_term 17unspecified 132
Verifiability
quantitative 63event 25qualitative 278
Analyst Intent
probing 21challenging 3confirming 4seeking_detail 21seeking_guidance 1

Speakers

Executives
AEAshok ElluswamyexecutiveEMElon MuskCEOLMLars MoravyexecutiveMIMikeexecutiveVTVaibhav TanejaCFO
Analysts
AJAdam JonasanalystAPAlex PotteranalystCRColin RuschanalystMDMark DelaneyanalystSPShreyas PatilanalystTSToni SacconaghianalystGEGeorgeanalyst
Other
MVMartin Viechair

Sections

TypeLabelSpeaker
preamblePreambleMartin Viecha
prepared_remarksPrepared RemarksElon Musk, Vaibhav Taneja, Martin Viecha
qa_sessionQ&A Session—
closing_remarksClosing RemarksElon Musk, Vaibhav Taneja, Martin Viecha

Q&A Exchanges 7

#AnalystFirmTurns
1
TSToni Sacconaghi
Bernstein5
2
AJAdam Jonas
Morgan Stanley10
3
APAlex Potter
Piper Sandler8
4
MDMark Delaney
Goldman Sachs33
5
GEGeorge
Canaccord16
6
CRColin Rusch
Oppenheimer36
7
SPShreyas Patil
Wolfe Research12

Claim Taxonomy 366

REPORTING43
resultFinancial outcome for a completed period21
metricNon-financial quantitative fact12
operationalDiscrete completed event10
PROJECTING26
guidanceQuantitative expectation with number + time7
commitmentPromise with binary verifiable outcome14
targetLong-term aspirational quantitative goal5
POSITIONING177
strategyPriority, direction, or initiative146
competitiveCompany's position or advantages3
opportunityMarket condition framed as growth driver9
riskHeadwind, constraint, or uncertainty19
EXPLANATORY70
attributionWhy a specific outcome happened5
contextNon-company macro/industry fact65
FRAMING0
thesisFalsifiable belief about how the world works0
ANALYST50
questionInterrogative seeking information27
observationRestates a fact or data point10
concernFlags a risk or challenge2
estimateAnalyst's own projection or calculation7
sentimentOpinion, praise, or critique4

Transcript

Preamble
MV
Martin ViechairTesla
Tesla's First Quarter 2024 Q&A Webcast. My name is Martin Viecha, VP of Investor Relations, and I'm joined today by Elon Musk, Vaibhav Taneja, and a number of other executives. Our Q1 results were announced at about 3.00 p.m. Central Time in the Update Deck we published at the same link as this webcast. During this call, we will discuss our business outlook and make forward-looking statements. These comments are based on our predictions and expectations as of today. Actual events and results could differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those mentioned in our most recent filings with the SEC. During the question-and-answer portion of today's call, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Please use the raise hand button to join the question queue.
But before we jump into Q&A, Elon has some opening remarks. Elon?
Prepared Remarks
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Thanks, Martin. So to recap in Q1 we navigated several unforeseen challenges as well as the ramp of the updated Model 3 in Fremont. There was, as we all have seen, the EV adoption rate globally is under pressure and a lot of other auto manufacturers are pulling back on EVs and pursuing plug-in hybrids instead. We believe this is not the right strategy and electric vehicles will ultimately dominate the market. Despite these challenges, the Tesla team did a great job executing in a tough environment and energy storage deployments, the Megapack in particular, reached an all time high in Q1, leading to record profitability for the energy business, and that looks likely to continue to increase in the quarters and years ahead. It will increase. We actually know that it will, so significantly faster than the car business as we expected. We also continue to expand our AI training capacity in Q1, more than doubling our training compute sequentially.
In terms of the new product roadmap, there has been a lot of talk about our upcoming vehicle line in the next — in the past several weeks. We've updated our future vehicle lineup to accelerate the launch of new models ahead, previously mentioned startup production in the second half of 2025, so we expect it to be more like the early 2025, if not late this year. These new vehicles, including more affordable models, will use aspects of the next generation platform as well as aspects of our current platforms, and will be able to produce on the same manufacturing lines as our current vehicle lineup. So it's not contingent on any new factory or massive new production line. It'll be made on our current production lines much more efficiently.
And we think this should allow us to get to over 3 million vehicles of capacity when realized to the full extent. Regarding FSD Version 12, which is the pure AI-based self-driving, if you haven't experienced this, I strongly urge you to try it out. It's profound and the rate of improvement is rapid so — and we've now turned that on for all cars with the cameras and inference computer and everything from Hardware 3 on in North America. And so it's been pushed out to, I think, around 1.8 million vehicles and we're seeing about half of people use it so far and that percentage is increasing with each passing week. So we now have over 300 billion miles that have been driven with FSD V12.
Since the launch of full self-driving, supervised full self-driving, it's become very clear that the vision-based approach with end to end neural networks is the right solution for scalable autonomy. It's really how humans drive. Our entire road network is designed for biological neural nets and eyes. So naturally cameras and digital neural nets are the solution to our current road system.
To make it more accessible, we've reduced the subscription price to $99 a month, so it's easy to try out. And as we've announced, we'll be showcasing our purpose-built robotaxi, or Cybercab, in August. Yes. Regarding AI compute, over the past few months, we've been actively working on expanding Tesla's core AI infrastructure. For a while there, we were training constrained in our progress. We are, at this point, no longer training constrained and so we're making rapid progress. We've installed and commissioned, meaning they're actually working 35,000 H100 computers or GPUs, GPU is wrong word, they need a new word. I always feel like a wince when I say GPU because it's not — GPU stands — G stands for graphics, and it doesn't do graphics. But anyway roughly 35,000 H100s are active, and we expect that to be probably 85,000 or thereabouts by the end of this year and training, just for training. We are making sure that we're being as efficient as possible in our training. It's not just about the number of H100s, but how efficiently they're used.
So in conclusion, we're super excited about our autonomy road map. I think it should be obvious to anyone who's driving Version 12 and it tells that that it is only a matter of time before we exceed the reliability of humans and not much time with that. And we're really headed for an electric vehicle, an autonomous future. And I'll go back to something I said several years ago that in the future, gasoline cars that are not autonomous will be like riding a horse and using a flip phone. And that will become very obvious in hindsight. We continue to make the necessary investments that will drive growth and profits for Tesla in the future, and I wanted to thank the Tesla team for incredible execution during this period and look forward to everything that we have planned ahead. Thanks.
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#46
MV
Martin ViechairTesla
Thank you very much, and Vaibhav has some comments as well.
#47
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
Thanks. It's important to acknowledge what Elon said, from our auto business perspective. We did see a seasonal decline in revenues quarter-over-quarter and those were primarily because of seasonality, uncertain macroeconomic environment and the other reasons, which Elon had mentioned earlier. Auto margins declined from 18.9% to 18.5%.
Excluding the impact of Cybertruck, the impact of pricing actions was largely offset by reductions in per unit costs and the recognition of revenue from Autopark feature for certain vehicles in the U.S. that previously did not have that functionality. Additionally, while we did experience higher cost due to the ramp of Model 3 in Fremont and disruptions in Berlin, these costs were largely offset by cost reduction initiatives. In fact, if we exclude Cybertruck and Fremont Model 3 ramp costs, the revenue from Autopark, auto margins improved slightly. Currently normalized Model Y cost per vehicle in Austin and Berlin are already very close to that of Fremont. Our ability to reduce costs without sacrificing on quality was due to the amazing efforts of the team, in executing Tesla's relentless pursuit of efficiency across the business.
We've also witnessed that as other OEMs are pulling back on their investments in EV, there is increasing appetite for credits, and that means a steady stream of revenue for us. Obviously, seeing others pull back from EV is not the future we want. We would prefer it the whole industry went all in. On the demand front, we've undertaken a variety of initiatives, including lowering the price of both the purchase and subscription options for FSD launching extremely attractive leasing specials for the Model 3 in the U.S. for $299 a month and offering attractive financing options in certain markets. We believe that our awareness activities, paired with attractive financing, will go a long way in expanding our reach and driving demand for our products. Our Energy business continues to make meaningful progress with margins reaching a record of 24.6%. We expect the energy storage deployments for 2024 to grow at least 75% higher from 2023. And accordingly, this business will begin contributing significantly to our overall profitability. Note that there is a bit of lumpiness in our storage deployments due to a variety of factors that are outside of our control, so deployments may fluctuate quarter-over-quarter.
On the operating expense front, we saw a sequential increase from our AI initiatives, continued investment in future projects, marketing and other activities. We had negative free cash flow of $2.5 billion in the first quarter. The primary driver of this was an increase in inventory from a mismatch between builds and deliveries as discussed before, and our elevated spend on CapEx across various initiatives, including AI compute. We expect the inventory build to reverse in the second quarter and free cash flow to return to positive again. As we prepare the company for the next phase of growth, we had to make the hard but necessary decision to reduce our head count by over 10%. The savings generated are expected to be well in excess of $1 billion on an annual run rate basis. We are also getting hyper focused on CapEx efficiency and utilizing our installed capacity in a more efficient manner. The savings from these initiatives, including our cost reductions will help improve our overall profitability and ultimately enable us to increase the scale of our investments in AI. In conclusion, the future is extremely bright and the journey to get there while challenging will be extremely rewarding. Once again, I would like to thank the whole Tesla team for delivering great results. And we can open it up to Q&A.
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strategy#62
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operational#64
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strategy#66
attribution#67
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context#71
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metric#75
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Q&A Session
Q&A 1/7
MV
Martin ViechairTesla
Okay. Thank you very much. Let's go to analyst questions. The first question comes from Tony Sacconaghi from Bernstein. Tony, please go ahead and unmute.
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TS
Toni SacconaghianalystBernstein
Thank you for taking the question.
I was just wondering if you can elaborate a little bit more on kind of the new vehicles that you talked about today. Are these like tweaks on existing models, given that they're going to be running on the same lines? Are these like new models? And how should we think about them in the context of like the Model 3 Highland update, what will these models be like relative to that? And given the quick time frame, Model 3 Highland has required a lot of work and a lot of retooling. Maybe you can help put that all in context. Thank you, and I have a follow-up, please.
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#99
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
I think we've said, we were on that front. So what's your follow-up?
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#101
TS
Toni SacconaghianalystBernstein
It's a more personal one for you, Elon, which is that you're leading many important companies right now. Maybe you can just talk about where your heart is at in terms of your interests and do you expect to lessen your involvement with Tesla at any point over the next three years?
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question#103
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Tesla constitutes a majority of my work time and I work pretty much every day of the week. It's rare for me to take a Sunday afternoon.
So I'm going to make sure Tesla is quite prosperous. And it is — like it is prosperous and it will be very much so in the future.
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Q&A 2/7
MV
Martin ViechairTesla
Okay. Thank you. Let's go to Adam Jonas from Morgan Stanley. Adam, please go ahead and unmute.
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AJ
Adam JonasanalystMorgan Stanley
Okay. Great. Hey, Elon. So you and your team on volume expect a 2024 growth rate, notably lower than that achieved in 2023. But what's your team's degree of confidence on growth above 0%? Or in other words, does that statement leave room for potentially lower sales year-on-year?
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question#117
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
No, I think we'll have higher sales this year than last year.
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AJ
Adam JonasanalystMorgan Stanley
Okay. My follow-up, Elon, on future product. If you had nailed execution, assuming that you nail execution on your next-gen cheaper vehicles, more aggressive giga castings, I don't want to say one piece, but getting closer to one piece, structural pack, unboxed, 300-mile range, $25,000 price point, putting aside robotaxi, those features unique to you. How long would it take your best Chinese competitors to copy a cheaper and better vehicle that you could offer a couple of years from now? How long would it take your best Chinese competitors to copy that? Thanks.
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#124
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
I mean, I don't know what our competitors could do, except we've done relatively better than they have. If you look at the drop in our competitors in China sales versus our drop in sales, our drop was less than theirs. So we're doing well.
But I think Cathy Wood said it best, like really, we should be thought of as an AI or robotics company. If you value Tesla as just like an auto company, you just have to — fundamentally, it's just the wrong framework and it will come to be. If you ask the wrong question, then the right answer is impossible. So I mean, if somebody doesn't believe Tesla is going to solve autonomy, I think they should not be an investor in the company. Like, that is — but we will and we are. And then you have a car that goes from 10 hours of use a week, like 1.5 hours a day to probably 50%, but it costs the same.
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VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
I think that's the key thing to remember, right, especially if you look at FSD Supervised, if you didn't believe in autonomy, this should give you a review that this is coming. It's actually getting better day by day.
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EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes. If you've not tried the FSD 12.3, and like I said, 12.4 is going to be significantly better and 12.5 even better than that. And we have visibility into those things. Then you really don't understand what's going on. It's not possible.
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VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
Yes. And that's why we can't just look at just as a car company because a car company would just have a car. But here, we have more than a car company because the cars can be autonomous. And like I said, it's happening.
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AE
Ashok ElluswamyexecutiveTesla
Yes. This is all in addition to Tesla — the overall AI community is just like increasing — like, improving rapidly.
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EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes. I mean we're putting the actual auto in automobile. So sort of — we go like, well, sort of like tell us about future horse carriages you're making. I'm like, well, actually, it doesn't need a horse that's the whole point. That's really the whole point.
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Q&A 3/7
MV
Martin ViechairTesla
Okay, thank you. The next question comes from Alex Potter from Piper Sandler. Alex, please go ahead and unmute.
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AP
Alex PotteranalystPiper Sandler
Great, thanks. Yes, so I couldn't agree more. The thesis hinges completely on AI, the future of AI, full self-driving neural net training, all of these things. In that context, Elon, you've spoken about your desire to obtain 25% voting control of the company. And I understand completely why that would be. So I'm not necessarily asking about that. I'm asking if you've come up with any mechanism by which you can ensure that you'll obtain that level of voting control. Because if not, then the core part of the thesis could potentially be at risk. So any additional commentary you might have on that topic.
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EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Well, I think no matter what Tesla, even if I got kidnapped by aliens tomorrow, Tesla will solve autonomy, maybe a little slower, but it would solve autonomy for vehicles at least. I don't know if it would winon with respect to Optimus or with respect to future products, but it would that there's enough momentum for Tesla to solve autonomy even if I disappeared for vehicles. Yes, there's a whole range of things we can do in the future beyond that. I'll be more reticent with respect to Optimus, if we have a super-sentient humanoid robot that can follow you indoors and that you can escape, we're talking terminator-level risk. And yes, I'd be uncomfortable with. If there's not some meaningful level of influence over how that is deployed.
And if there's shareholders have an opportunity to ratify or reratify the sort of competition because I can't say that. That is a fact. They have an opportunity. And yes, we'll see. If the company generates a lot of positive cash flow, we could obviously buy back shares.
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AP
Alex PotteranalystPiper Sandler
All right. That's actually all very helpful context. Thank you. Maybe one final question and I'll pass it on. OpEx reductions, thank you for quantifying the impact there. I'd be interested also in potentially more qualitative discussion of what the implications are for these headcount reductions. What are the types of activities that you're presumably sacrificing as a result of parting ways with these folks? Thanks very much.
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VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
So like we said, we've done these headcount reductions across the board. And as companies grow over time, there are certain redundancies. There's some duplication of efforts, which happens in certain areas. So you need to go back and look at where all these pockets are, get rid of it.
So we're basically going through that exercise wherein we're like, hey, how do we set this company right for the next phase of growth. And the way to think about it is any tree which grows, it needs pruning. This is the pruning exercise which we went through. And at the end of it, we'll be much stronger and much more resilient to deal with the future because the future is really bright. Like I said in my opening remarks, we just have to get through this period and get there.
risk#184
context#185
strategy#186
strategy#187
strategy#188
context#189
strategy#190
strategy#191
strategy#192
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes, we're not giving up anything that is significant that I'm aware of.
So we've had a long period of prosperity from 2019 to now. And so if a company sort of organizationally is 5% wrong per year, that accumulates to 25%, 30% of inefficiency. We've made some corrections along the way. But it is time to reorganize the company for the next phase of growth and you really need to reorganize it, just like a human when we start off with one cell and kind of zygote, blastocyst and you start growing arms and legs and briefly, you have a tail. And so…
strategy#193
strategy#194
metric#195
strategy#196
strategy#197
context#198
AP
Alex PotteranalystPiper Sandler
But you shed the tail.
estimate#199
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
You shed the tail, hopefully.
And then you're baby, you basically, you have to be the organism — a company is kind of like creature growing. And if you don't reorganize it for different phases of growth, it will fail. You can't have the same organizational structure if you're 10 cells versus 100 cells versus 1 million cells versus 1 billion cells versus 1 trillion cells. Humans are around 35 trillion cells, doesn't feel like it feels like, like one person. But you're basically a walking cell colony of roughly 35 trillion depending on your body mass and about three times that number in bacteria. So anyway, you've got to reorganize the company for a new phase of growth or will fail to achieve that growth.
risk#200
strategy#201
risk#202
strategy#203
context#204
context#205
attribution#206
Q&A 4/7
MV
Martin ViechairTesla
Thank you. Let's go to Mark Delaney from Goldman Sachs. Mark please go ahead and unmute.
#207
#208
#209
MD
Mark DelaneyanalystGoldman Sachs
Yes. Good afternoon.
Thanks very much for taking the question. The company previously characterized potential FSD licensing discussions in the early phase and some OEMs had not really been believing in it. Can you elaborate on how much the licensing business opportunity you mentioned today has progressed? And is there anything Tesla needs to achieve with the technology in terms of product milestones in order to be successful at reaching a licensing agreement in your view?
#210
#211
#212
observation#213
question#214
question#215
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Well, I think we just need to — it just needs to be obvious that our approach is the right approach. And I think it is. I think we've now with 12.3, if you just have the car drive you around; it is obvious that our solution with a relatively low-cost inference computer and standard cameras can achieve self-driving. No LiDARs, no radars, no ultrasonic nothing.
strategy#216
strategy#217
strategy#218
strategy#219
strategy#220
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
No heavy integration work for vehicle manufacturers.
context#221
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes. So it really just be a case of having them use the same cameras and inference computer and licensing our software. But once it becomes obvious that if you don't have this in a car, nobody wants your car. It's a smart car.
I still remember in, back when Nokia was king of the hill, Yes, crushing. And they certainly come out with a smartphone that was basically a break with limited functionality. And then the iPhone and Android, people still do not understand that all the phones are going to be that way. There's not going to be any flip [ph] phones. If there will be a niche product.
#222
commitment#223
strategy#224
strategy#225
context#226
context#227
context#228
context#229
context#230
context#231
LM
Lars MoravyexecutiveTesla
Or home phones.
context#232
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes, no even exactly. When is the last time you saw a home phone.
#233
context#234
LM
Lars MoravyexecutiveTesla
No idea in a hotel, sometimes in hotels.
context#235
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes, the hotels have them. Yes. So the people don't understand all cars will need to be smart cars, or you will not sell or the car will not — nobody would buy it. Once that becomes obvious, I think licensing becomes not optional.
context#236
#237
context#238
context#239
MD
Mark DelaneyanalystGoldman Sachs
It becomes a method of survival?
question#240
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes, absolutely, it is. License it or nobody will buy your car.
#241
context#242
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
I mean one other thing which I'll add is in the conversations, which we've had with some of these OEMs, I just want to also point out that they take a lot of time in their product life cycle.
context#243
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes.
#244
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
They're talking about years before they will put it in their product. We might have a licensing deal earlier than that, but it takes a while. So this is where the big difference between us and them is, right?
context#245
strategy#246
context#247
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes, I mean, really a deal signed now would result in it being in a car probably three years.
commitment#248
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
That would be early.
target#249
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes. That's like lightening basically.
#250
context#251
LM
Lars MoravyexecutiveTesla
That's in eager [ph] OEM.
opportunity#252
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes. So I wouldn't be surprise if we do sign a deal. I think we have a good chance we do sign a deal this year, maybe more than one. But yes, it would be probably three years before it's integrated with a car. Even though all you need is cameras and our inference computer. So just talking about a massive design change.
#253
commitment#254
commitment#255
commitment#256
strategy#257
strategy#258
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
Yes. And again, just to clarify, it's not the work which we have to do. It's the work which they have to do, which will take the time.
#259
strategy#260
#261
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes.
strategy#262
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
Mark, is it helpful?
#263
MD
Mark DelaneyanalystGoldman Sachs
Yes, very helpful. Thank you. My follow-up was to better understand Tesla's approach to pricing going forward. Previously, the company had said that the price reductions were driving incremental demand with how affordable the cars have become, especially for vehicles that have access to IRA credits and some of the leasing offers that Tesla has in place. Do you still see meaningful incremental price reductions as making sense from here for the existing products? And can the company meaningfully lower prices from here and also stay free cash flow positive on an annual basis with the current product set? Thanks.
#264
observation#265
observation#266
question#267
question#268
#269
#270
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes. I think we can be free cash flow positive meaningfully.
strategy#271
strategy#272
LM
Lars MoravyexecutiveTesla
I think Vaibhav said it in his opening remarks, like our cost down efforts, we basically were offsetting the price cut like we're trying to give it back to the customers.
result#273
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes.
I mean the end of the day, like for any given company, if you sell a great product at a great price — if you have a great product at a great price, the sales will be excellent. That's true of any area. So over time, we do need to keep making sure that we're — that it's a great product at a great price. And moreover, that price is accessible to people.
So it's not — you have to solve both the value for money and the fundamental affordability question. The fundamental affordability question is sometimes overlooked. If somebody is earning several hundred thousand dollars a year, they don't think of a car from a fundamental affordability standpoint. But from vast majority of people are living paycheck to paycheck. So it actually makes a difference if the cost per month for lease refinancing is $10 one way or the other. So it is important to keep improving the affordability and to keep making the price.
#274
strategy#275
strategy#276
strategy#277
strategy#278
strategy#279
strategy#280
context#281
context#282
metric#283
strategy#284
LM
Lars MoravyexecutiveTesla
More accessible.
strategy#285
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes, exactly. Make the price more accessible, the value for money better, and to keep improving that over time.
#286
strategy#287
LM
Lars MoravyexecutiveTesla
But also make kick as cost that people want to buy.
strategy#288
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes, it's going to be a great product and at a great price. And the standards for what constitutes great product at a great price keep increasing.
So there's like — you can't just be static. You have to keep making the car better, improving the price, but improving the cost of production, and that's what we're doing.
#289
strategy#290
strategy#291
strategy#292
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
Yes.
And in fact, like I said in my opening remarks also, like the revised — the updated Model 3 is a fantastic car. I don't think people fully even understand that lot of engineering effort which has gone and Lars and team have actually put out videos explaining how much the car is different. I mean it looks and feels different. Not only it looks and feels different. We've added so much value to it, but you can lease it for like as low as $299 a month.
#293
strategy#294
strategy#295
strategy#296
strategy#297
metric#298
LM
Lars MoravyexecutiveTesla
Without gas.
commitment#299
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
Yes.
#300
Q&A 5/7
MV
Martin ViechairTesla
All right. The next question comes from George from Canaccord. George, please go ahead and unmute.
#301
#302
#303
GE
GeorgeanalystCanaccord
Hi, thank you for taking my question. First, could you please help us understand some of the timing of launching FSD in additional geographies, including maybe clarifying your recent comment about China? Thank you.
#304
question#305
#306
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
I mean like new markets, yes, we are — there are a bunch of markets where we don't currently sell cars that we should be selling cars in. We'll see some acceleration of that.
strategy#307
strategy#308
GE
GeorgeanalystCanaccord
And FSD new markets?
question#309
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes. So think about the end-to-end neural net-based autonomy is that just like a human, it actually works pretty well without modification in almost any market. So we plan on — with the approval of the regulators, releasing it as a supervised autonomy system in any market that — where we can get regulatory approval for that, which we think includes China.
So yes, it's — just like a human, you can go rent a car in a foreign country and you can drive pretty well. Obviously, if you live in that country, you'll drive better. And so we'll make the car drive better in these other countries with country-specific training. But it can drive quite well almost everywhere.
#310
strategy#311
commitment#312
competitive#313
context#314
strategy#315
strategy#316
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
The basics of driving are basically same everywhere like car is a car, the traffic lights, road is the road. Yes.
context#317
#318
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
It understands that it shouldn't hit things, no matter what the road rules are.
strategy#319
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
Exactly. There are some road rules that you need to follow.
And in China, you shouldn't cross over a solid line to do a lane change. In U.S. it's a recommendation I think. In China, you get fined heavily if you do that. We have to do some more actions, but it's mostly smaller reduction. It's not like the entire change or type or something.
#320
context#321
context#322
context#323
context#324
context#325
strategy#326
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes.
#327
MV
Martin ViechairTesla
Hey, George, do you have a follow-up?
#328
GE
GeorgeanalystCanaccord
Yes. So my follow-up has to do with the first quarter deliveries and I'm curious as to whether or not you feel that supply constraints that you mentioned throughout the release impacted the results and maybe can you help us quantify that? And is that why you have some confidence in unit growth in 2024?
#329
question#330
question#331
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
Yes. I think we did cover this a little bit in the opening remarks to you. Q1 had a lot of different things which are happening. Seasonality was a big one, continued pressure from the macroeconomic environment. We had attacks at our factory. We had Red Sea attacks, we are ramping Model 3, we're ramping Cybertruck.
All these things are happening. I mean, it almost feels like a culmination of all those activities in a constrained period. And that gives us that confidence that, hey, we don't expect these things to recur.
#332
risk#333
strategy#334
risk#335
operational#336
risk#337
risk#338
risk#339
strategy#340
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes. We think Q2 will be a lot better.
#341
strategy#342
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
Yes.
#343
LM
Lars MoravyexecutiveTesla
It's just one thing after another. Our Cybertrucks are crazy. Thank you.
strategy#344
strategy#345
#346
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes, exactly. It's just — if you've got cars that are sitting on ships, they obviously cannot delivered to people. And if you've got the excess demand for Model 3 and Model Y in one market, but you don't have it there.
It's quite a — it's extremely complex logistics situation. So I'd say also the — we did overcomplicate the sales process, which we've just in the past week or so have greatly simplified. So it became far too complex to buy a Tesla, whereas it should just be you can buy the car in under a minute. So we're getting back to that you can buy a Tesla in under an minute interface from what was quite complex.
#347
risk#348
risk#349
risk#350
strategy#351
strategy#352
strategy#353
Q&A 6/7
MV
Martin ViechairTesla
Okay, thank you. Let's go to Colin Rusch from Oppenheimer. Colin, go ahead and unmute, please.
#354
#355
#356
CR
Colin RuschanalystOppenheimer
Thanks so much, guys. Given the pursuit of Tesla really as a leader in AI for the physical world, in your comments around distributed inference, can you talk about what that approach is unlocking beyond what's happening in the vehicle right now?
#357
question#358
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Do you want to say something?
#359
AE
Ashok ElluswamyexecutiveTesla
Yes. Like Elon mentioned like the car even when it's a full robotaxi it's probably going to be used 150 hours a week.
#360
metric#361
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
That's my guess like a third of the hours of the week.
metric#362
AE
Ashok ElluswamyexecutiveTesla
Yes.
It could be more or less, but then there's certainly going to be some hours left for charging and cleaning and maintenance in that world, you can do a lot of other workloads, even right now we are seeing, for example, these LLM companies have these like batch workloads where they send a bunch of documents and those run through pretty large neural networks and take a lot of compute to chunk through those workloads. And now that we have already paid for this compute in these cars, it might be wise to use them and not let them be idle, be like buying a lot of expensive machinery and leaving to them idle. Like we don't want that, we want to use the computer as much as possible and close to like basically 100% of the time to make it a use of it.
metric#363
strategy#364
strategy#365
strategy#366
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
That's right. I think it's analogous to Amazon Web Services, where people didn't expect that AWS would be the most valuable part of Amazon when it started out as a bookstore. So that was on nobody's radar. But they found that they had excess compute because the compute needs would spike to extreme levels for brief periods of the year and then they had idle compute for the rest of the year. So then what should they do to pull that excess compute for the rest of the year? That's kind of…
#367
strategy#368
context#369
context#370
strategy#371
#372
AE
Ashok ElluswamyexecutiveTesla
Monetize it
strategy#373
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes, monetize it. So, it seems like kind of a no-brainer to say, okay, if we've got millions and then tens of millions of vehicles out there where the computers are idle most of the time that we might well have them do something useful.
strategy#374
strategy#375
AE
Ashok ElluswamyexecutiveTesla
Exactly.
#376
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
And then, I mean, if you get like to the 100 million vehicle level, which I think we will, at some point, get to, then — and you've got a kilowatt of useable compute and maybe your own hardware 6 or 7 by that time. Then you really — I think you could have on the order of 100 gigawatts of useful compute, which might be more than anyone more than any company, probably more than a company.
target#377
target#378
AE
Ashok ElluswamyexecutiveTesla
Yes, probably because it takes a lot of intelligence to drive the car anyway. And when it's not driving the car, you just put this intelligence to other uses, solving scientific problems or answer in terms of someone else.
context#379
strategy#380
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
It's like a human, ideally. We've already learned about deploying workloads to these nodes
strategy#381
strategy#382
AE
Ashok ElluswamyexecutiveTesla
Yes. And unlike laptops and our cell phones, it is totally under Tesla's control. So it's easier to distribute the workload across different nodes as opposed to asking users for permission on their own cell phones to be very tedious.
#383
strategy#384
strategy#385
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Well, you're just draining the battery on the phone.
context#386
AE
Ashok ElluswamyexecutiveTesla
Yes, exactly. The battery is also…
context#387
context#388
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
So like technically, I suppose like Apple would have the most amount of distributed compute, but you can't use it because you can't get the — you can't just run the phone at full power and drain the battery.
context#389
AE
Ashok ElluswamyexecutiveTesla
Yes.
#390
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
So, whereas for the car, even if you're a kilowatt level inference computer, which is crazy power compared to a phone. If you've got 50 or 60 kilowatt hour pack, it's still not a big deal to run if you are plugged it — whether you plugged it or not — you could be plugged in or not like you could run for 10 hours and use 10-kilowatt hours of your kilowatt of compute power.
strategy#391
#392
LM
Lars MoravyexecutiveTesla
Yes. We got built in like liquid cold thermal management.
context#393
#394
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes, exactly.
operational#395
LM
Lars MoravyexecutiveTesla
Exactly for data centers, it's already there in the car.
#396
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Exactly. Yes. Its distributed power generation — distributed access to power and distributed cooling, that was already paid for.
operational#397
#398
result#399
AE
Ashok ElluswamyexecutiveTesla
Yes. I mean that distributed power and cooling, people underestimate that costs a lot of money.
#400
result#401
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
Yes. And the CapEx is shared by the entire world sort of everyone wants a small chunk, and they get a small profit out of it, maybe.
#402
strategy#403
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes.
#404
CR
Colin RuschanalystOppenheimer
Thanks so much guys. And just my follow-up is a little bit more mundane. Looking at the 4680 ramp, can you talk about how close you were to target yields and when you might start to accelerate incremental capacity expansions on that technology?
#405
#406
question#407
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
We're making good progress on that. But I don't think it's super important for at least in the near term. As Lars said, we think it will be exceed the competitiveness of suppliers by the end of this year and then we'll continue to improve.
strategy#408
strategy#409
commitment#410
LM
Lars MoravyexecutiveTesla
Yes. I mean, I think it's important to note also that like the ramp right now is relevant to the Cybertruck ramp.
#411
operational#412
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes.
#413
LM
Lars MoravyexecutiveTesla
And so like we're not going to just randomly build 4680s unless we have a place to put them and so we're going to make sure we're prudent about that. But we also have a lot of investments with all our cell suppliers and vendors. They're great partners, and they've done great development work with us and a lot of the advancements in technologies and chemistry we found 4680, they're also putting into their cells.
strategy#414
strategy#415
context#416
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes. I mean a big part of the 4680, Tesla doing internal cells was a hedge against what would happen with our suppliers because for a while they are it was very difficult because every big carmaker put in massive battery orders, and so the price per kilowatt hour of lithium-ion batteries went to crazy numbers, crazy levels.
#417
strategy#418
attribution#419
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
Bonkers.
context#420
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes, just bonkers.
So like, okay, we've got to have some hedge here to deal with cost per kilowatt hours of numbers that were double what we anticipated. If we have an internal cell production, then we have that hedge against demand shocks, we have too much demand. That's really the way to think about it. It's not like we want to take on a whole bunch of problems just for the hell of it. We did the cell program in order to address the crazy increase in cost per kilowatt hour from our suppliers due to gigantic orders placed by every carmaker on earth.
#421
result#422
strategy#423
strategy#424
strategy#425
result#426
MV
Martin ViechairTesla
Okay. Thank you. And the last question comes from Ben Kallo from Baird. Ben, go ahead and unmute. Ben, you're still muted.
#427
#428
#429
#430
#431
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Well, I want to say again, we'd just like to strongly recommend that anyone who is, I guess, thinking about the Tesla stock should really drive FSD 12.3. It really — you can't — it's impossible to understand the company if you do not do this.
strategy#432
strategy#433
Q&A 7/7
MV
Martin ViechairTesla
All right. So since Ben is not unmuting. Let's try Shreyas Patil from Wolfe Research. Final question.
#434
#435
#436
#437
SP
Shreyas PatilanalystWolfe Research
Thanks so much.
Just Elon, during the Investor Day last year, you mentioned that auto COGS per unit for the next-gen vehicle would decline by 50% versus the current three and Y. I think that was implying something around $20,000 of COGS. About one-third of that was coming from the on-box manufacturing process. But I'm curious if you see an opportunity that the — some of the other drivers around powertrain cost reduction or material cost savings, would those be largely transferable to some of the new products that you're now talking about introducing?
#438
estimate#439
estimate#440
estimate#441
question#442
LM
Lars MoravyexecutiveTesla
Yes, sure. I mean, in short, yes, I mean, like the on-box manufacturing method is certainly great and revolutionary, but with it comes some risks because new production lines and not, but all the subsystems we developed, whether it was powertrains, drive units, battery improvements in manufacturing and automation, thermal systems, seating, integration of interior components and reduction of LV controllers, all that's transferable, and that's what we're doing, trying to get it in their products as fast as possible. And so yes, that engineering work, we're not trying to just throw it away and put a cars and we're going to take it and utilize it and utilize it to the best advantage of the cars we make and the future cars make.
strategy#443
strategy#444
strategy#445
SP
Shreyas PatilanalystWolfe Research
Okay. Great.
And then just on that topic of 4680 cells, I know you mentioned it, you really thought of it more as like a hedge against rising battery costs from other OEMs. But it seems even today, it seems like you would have a cost advantage against some of those other automakers. And I'm wondering, given the rationalizing of your vehicle manufacturing plans that you're talking about now, if there's an opportunity to maybe convert the 4680 cells and maybe sell those to other automakers and really generate an additional revenue stream. I'm just curious if you have any thoughts about that.
#446
#447
observation#448
sentiment#449
question#450
question#451
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Great.
What seems to be happening is that the I'm missing something, the orders for batteries from other automakers have declined dramatically. So we're seeing much more competitive prices for sales from our suppliers, dramatically more competitive than in the past. It is clear that a lot of our suppliers have excess capacity.
#452
risk#453
opportunity#454
opportunity#455
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
Yes.
In addition to what Elon, this is kind of in addition to what Elon said, about 4680, what 4680 did for us from a supply chain perspective was help us understand the supply chain that's upstream of our cell suppliers. So a lot of the deals that we had struck for 4680, we can also supply those materials to our partners, help reducing the overall cost back to Tesla. So we're basically inserting ourselves in the upstream supply chain by doing that. So that's also been beneficial in reducing the overall pricing in addition to the excess capacity that these suppliers have.
#456
strategy#457
attribution#458
strategy#459
opportunity#460
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes. No, I mean this is going to wax and wane, obviously. So there's going to be a boom and bust in battery cell production where production exceeds supply and then supply exceeds production and back and forth kind of like, I don't know, DRAM or something. But Yes. So it's like what is true today will not be true in the future, there's going to be somewhat of a boom and bust cycle here. And then there are additional complications with government incentives like the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRA, Joe [ph] has found like a funny name.
#461
context#462
context#463
#464
context#465
risk#466
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
Comical name.
context#467
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes, it is like Irish Republican Army, The Internet Research Agency from Russia.
context#468
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
Independent retirement account.
context#469
EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes, exactly.
Roth IRA. It's like Spider-Man situation, which IRA wins. So but it is complicate the incentive structure. So that is there's the stronger demand for cells that are produced in the U.S. than outside the U.S. But then how long is that the IRA last, I don't know.
#470
context#471
context#472
context#473
opportunity#474
context#475
VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
Which is why it's important that we have both internet [ph] cells and vendor cells that hedge against all of this.
strategy#476
Closing Remarks
MV
Martin ViechairTesla
Okay. Thank you very much.
That's all the time we have today. But at the same time, I would like to make a short announcement. And I wanted to let the investment community know that about a month ago, I met up with Elon and Vaibhav and announced that I'll be moving on from the world of Investor Relations. I'll be hanging around for another couple of months or so. So feel free to reach out at any time. But after the seven year sprint, I'm going to be taking a break and spending some good quality time with my family. And I wanted to say that these seven years have been the greatest privilege of my professional life. I'll never forget the memories from I started literally at the beginning of production hell and just watching the company from the inside to see what it's become today. And especially super thankful to the people in this room and dozens of people outside of this room that I've worked for over the years. I think the team's strength and teamwork at Tesla is unlike anything else I've seen in my career. Elon, thank you very much for this opportunity that I got back in 2017. Thank you for seeking investor feedback and regularly and debating it with me.
#477
#478
#479
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operational#481
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EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
Yes. Well, I mean the reason I reached out to you was because I thought your analysis of Tesla was the best that I had seen.
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MV
Martin ViechairTesla
Thank you.
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EM
Elon MuskCEOTesla
So, thank you for helping Tesla to get to where it is today over seven years. It's been a pleasure working with you.
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MV
Martin ViechairTesla
Thank you so much. And yes, thank you for all the thousands of shareholders that we've met over the years and walked around factories and loved all the interactions, even the tough ones.
And yes, looking forward to the call in the next three months, but I'll be on the other side, listening in. Thank you very much.
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VT
Vaibhav TanejaCFOTesla
Thanks.
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