Tesla Master Plan, part 2: Musk hints at “top secret” new chapter

Nearly 10 years after Elon Musk blogged about a Secret Tesla Master Plan that involved building what would become the first luxury sports Model S, the Tesla chairman has hinted he is about ready to drop part two of his Top Secret Tesla Masterplan.

Actually, he Tweeted it…

The July 11 Tweet has, predictably, triggered a wave of speculation and hype, after a choppy month for Tesla that included a proposed merger with SolarCity, and the much publicised death of a Model S driver whose car is believed to have been operating in autopilot mode when it ploughed into the underside of a truck in Florida in May.

According to fellow clean energy entrepreneur and co-founder of US solar giant SunEdison, Jigar Shah, Tesla 2.0 will be about “creating a vertically integrated sustainable energy company with Electric Vehicles (EV), storage, efficiency, demand response, and solar capabilities.”

In an article published on LinkedIn late last month – before Musk’s cryptic Tweet, but after the proposed SolarCity merger – Shah said he believed the latter “could achieve the dreams that Elon Musk has of a company that is more valuable than Apple in the future.”

As Shah put it in the June 25 article, given only 1 per cent of US residential consumers have solar on their roofs and even less than that have electric vehicles, there is great potential for someone like Musk to unveil a combined “climate change package”.

“Today, the solar-only package isn’t cost effective in all 50 states,” Shah wrote. “On the other hand, Tesla’s Model 3 offering is cost effective to anyone in the market. The average American spends over $9,000 per year on each vehicle they own – including car payments, insurance, fuel, and maintenance.

“This is almost $800/month, far more than the fully burdened cost of a new Tesla Model 3. If there was a combined solar ($20K), EV ($30K), and efficiency ($5K) package SolarCity could cost effectively sell into all 50 states.”

Since Musk’s Tweet, Shah issued a Tweet noting he had already put in his 2 cents worth on what the new Tesla master plan would entail. Musk replied with the below comment.

Others, meanwhile, are speculating that part two of Musk’s Masterplan could involve the unveiling of a ‘Tesla Mobility’ service, with an Uber-like car-sharing platform combining autonomous driving technology.

But it is also being suggested that the Tweet is a strategic move by Musk, to redirect media attention.

On top of the car accidents – a second, non-fatal crash involving a Model X in Pennsylvania on July 1 is also being investigated, to determine whether the autopilot function was involved – Tesla Motors has recently conceded it is unlikely to meet delivery expectations of 80,000 to 90,000 EVs this year.

Musk has also been criticised for his up to $2.5 billion bid for SolarCity, the solar leasing company run by his cousin, Lyndon Rive, and of which Musk is chairman and owns a 22 per cent share. As Reuters reported on Monday, Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates has called the proposed acquisition “shameful example of corporate governance at its worst.”