• Tesla shares dropped 1% to $294 in the extended-hours of trading.
  • When asked whether Tesla has thought about going into the motorcycle business, Elon Musk replied that the company will not get into the motorcycle business.
  • Expects storage business to turn significantly positive.
  • Elon Musk titters when someone said, “I also think boring bonehead questions are not cool, hopefully, this is little more interesting.”
  • Producing 5,000 cars per week, it would take almost two years to produce enough cars for those who have paid a thousand dollar deposit.
  • Will offer leasing on Model 3 probably by end of this year or early next year.
  • Will do a compact car in less than five years.
  • Elon starts answering questions from the audience.

 

  • Rapidly expanding the service centers and creating Tesla body shop locations. Expects to double the number of service centers in a year.
  • In the US, Model 3 waiting period for the existing configuration would be 3 to 4 months and for the right-hand drive version, it would be over a year.
  • The total cost of insurance for Model 3 to be at least 20% to 30% lower than a BMW 3 Series or equivalent. Will definitely offer the $35,000 version of Model 3.
  • Going to revise the Tesla Semi design.
  • In the extended-hours of trading, Tesla shares are up 1% at $294 currently.
Tesla’s Gigafactory Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
  • Will keep building on the Gigafactory, Tesla’s lithium-ion battery factory which is under construction, for at least 4 or 5 years; about a third of the construction is completed and it will be the biggest building in the world. There will be more gigafactories in the future. Planning to build a gigafactory in Shanghai, China and holding discussions with the government. Hopes to start constructing one in Europe by end of this year.
  • Regarding Model 3 production, will focus on manufacturing technology. Made a lot of mistakes with Model 3 production. Confident of addressing them.
  • Starts answering questions from the Twitter.

 

  • Electric car Roadster will outperform the gasoline car in every way.
  • Aiming to unveil Model Y approximately March next year and then go into production maybe around two years from now (first half of 2020).
  • Expects positive GAAP net income in next quarter and positive cash flow in Q3 and Q4; do not expect to raise incremental debt or equity.
  • Solar roof project is going to grow exponentially.
Tesla Energy
Image Courtesy: Tesla
  • Managed to do a gigawatt hour of energy storage deployment worldwide; in less than a year, will do another gigawatt.
  • Design of next-gen supercharger almost finished and this will go into production by end of this year.
  • Employee safety: Thus far in 2018, average injuries per person is 6% below the industry average.
  • Model 3 is now the best-selling mid-sized premium sedan in the US; quality and reliability of the car have improved dramatically.
  • Hopes to achieve 5,000 cars per week mark by end of this month.
  • Elon Musk starts his speech by thanking the Tesla customers.
  • Voting ends. Shareholders approved the recommendations of Tesla board by a wide margin and vote for the re-election of three directors including Elon Musk, Antonio Gracias, and James Murdoch.

Surrounded by controversies, Tesla (TSLA) will conduct its 2018 annual shareholder meeting at 5:30 PM ET today. The meeting is to take place at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Watch out this space to know what CEO Elon Musk is going to say as he addresses the Tesla shareholders. Will he get “bored” with some questions?

When Tesla tweeted about shareholder meeting and asked to tweet the questions for Elon to answer, people bombarded with questions on various issues. Obviously, there were questions related to Model 3 production, accidents caused by automotive cars, Elon snubbing analysts’ questions in the earnings call, his lashing out on how media covers Tesla, energy business, cash burn, and many more.

Tesla has displayed the Model 3, Model S, Model X, and a Tesla Semi prototype for this meeting. The attendees are capturing these vehicles and they have started sharing on social media platforms. But the eye-catching one is the display of new next-gen Roadster prototype.

The Elon-Musk headed firm reported upbeat results for its recently ended first quarter in early May and reiterated its outlook of achieving positive GAAP net income and positive cash flow in third and fourth quarters of the current fiscal year.

Tesla Q1 2018 Earnings Infographic

At the end of today’s trading session, Tesla shares dropped 1.89% to $291.13. The shares of electric-car maker have plunged 17% from the time it conducted the last annual shareholder meeting in June 2017 and so far in 2018, it’s down 9%.