Tesla offers a new ‘master plan’ but few big revelations

Tesla said on Wednesday that it would build a factory in Mexico to manufacture an electric vehicle that would be significantly more affordable than any of the cars it sells now. But the company disappointed investors who were expecting the company to make big announcements about new products and strategies.

Shareholders and analysts had expected Tesla to reveal information that would clarify how the company would retain its crown as the world’s dominant maker of electric vehicles in the face of energetic competition from established carmakers and relatively younger Chinese manufacturers.

Instead, company executives offered a seminar on its manufacturing processes, supply chain organization and software. The message was that Tesla is eons ahead of other automakers in technology and efficiency, on track to someday produce 20 million vehicles a year, twice as many as Toyota does now. Tesla provided few of the financial bullet points or strategic initiatives that are often found in investor presentations.

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Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief CEO, portrayed Tesla as a company on a mission to eliminate global dependence on fossil fuels, a theme he has often highlighted.

“I really want today to be not only about investors who own Tesla stock but anyone who is an investor in Earth,” Musk said early in the event at the company’s factory in Austin, Texas. “Earth can move to a sustainable economy and will do so in your lifetime,” he said before ceding the stage to other executives who offered wonky presentations on topics like electrode manufacturing, Tesla's energy storage business and how the company will build electric motors that do not require rare minerals.

Musk waited until the end of the event, which lasted more than three hours, to confirm reports that Tesla would build a factory, its fifth car plant, in Monterrey, Mexico. He indicated that Tesla would build a more affordable model there, but declined to offer any details about the vehicle’s design or performance.

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There had been speculation that Musk would unveil plans for a Tesla vehicle that would be less expensive than the Model 3, which starts at $43,000 in the United States.