Tesla has left out its goal of delivering 20 million vehicles a year by 2030 in its latest impact report published on Thursday, another sign the company is tempering its auto ambitions as it shifts focus to robotaxis.
CEO Elon Musk had said in 2020 that Tesla aspired to sell 20 million vehicles by the end of the current decade—twice as many as those sold by Toyota, the world’s largest automaker.
“Our goal is to build and deliver 20 million vehicles a year by 2030. To achieve this goal, we need to make our products even more accessible,” Tesla had said in its 2022 impact report while reiterating the goal.
But the company has changed tact recently, dropping plans to produce an all-new model that was expected to cost $25,000, while touting autonomous driving technology as its main growth driver. It plans to host a launch event for its robotaxi on Aug. 8.
Robotaxis and the company’s humanoid robot Optimus will be “incredibly profound” for Tesla, Musk said on Thursday through a video-link at the annual “Viva Technology” conference in Paris.
Tesla’s change in strategy, first reported by Reuters in April, implies it plans to use current product lines for new affordable vehicles—a move that would result in smaller cost reduction than expected and modest volume growth.
“A healthy proportion of Tesla’s 2030 goal would have been the company’s hitherto longstanding promise to introduce affordable cars at the $25,000 mark,” said Sandeep Rao, senior researcher at Leverage Shares, which owns Tesla shares.
“While the company currently promises to introduce ‘more affordable’ models in the future, this doesn’t necessarily equate to cars costing $25,000 being rolled out.”
Tesla shares were down 2% in afternoon trading.
Slowing growth in EV demand and tough competition have hit demand for Tesla’s vehicles. Its sales grew 38% in 2023, below the long-term growth target of 50% and Musk warned in January that growth in deliveries would be notably lower this year.
In a bid to restructure, Tesla laid off over 10% of its staff this year, including disbanding the Supercharger team.
The 2023 impact report also showed Tesla’s fast-charging network had an uptime of 99.97%, the highest in at least five years. However, some analysts have warned the division’s performance could suffer due to the layoffs.
Tesla also did not compare the diversity of its workers to other companies in the report and it no longer states that a majority of its employees are from underrepresented groups.
—Akash Sriram and Zaheer Kachwala, Reuters
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