Tesla teases new vehicle in latest earnings report

Tesla’s next generation vehicle will be made in Austin, the company announced Wednesday.

The Austin-based company, which shared its fourth quarter 2023 earnings report Wednesday, teased that it would be making its next vehicle platform in Austin, but gave little detail beyond that.

The company listed the vehicle as “in development” in the earnings report but disclosed no real details on the vehicle itself, including what the price points, name or vehicle type would be. Tesla also did not mention a timeline for its launch.

“We are focused on bringing the next generation platform to market as quickly as we can, with the plan to start production at Gigafactory Texas,” Tesla said in the report. “This platform will revolutionize how vehicles are manufactured.”

On a call with investors Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk said more details on the platform will come later.

“Perhaps the most important competitive characteristic for Tesla in the future will be manufacturing technology and you will really see that come to bear with our next gen vehicle,” Musk said. “The first manufacturing location for this will be at our gigafactory and headquarters in Austin, Texas and then we will follow that up with other locations around the world.”

Tesla also warned that its growth rate “may be notably lower” in 2024 as it works towards launching the vehicle. In the report Tesla noted it is “currently between two major growth waves,” saying the next wave could be driven by its next-generation vehicle platform.

The warning came as competition in the electric vehicle market heats up. Chinese automaker BYD was the world’s largest seller of electric vehicles in the fourth quarter, unseating Tesla for the first time, according to a report by Reuters. During the fourth quarter BYD sold 526,000 vehicles compared to Tesla’s 485,000. However, Tesla still made the most electric vehicles overall in 2023.

The company also listed its second-generation Roadster sports car as “in development” on its earnings report. The new version, a successor to a limited production vehicle originally made from 2008 to 2012, has delayed production multiple times, but is available to reserve on Tesla’s website for an initial $50,000 reservation.

The new platform announcement follows a Wednesday morning report from Reuters that said Tesla was working on producing a new mass market electric vehicle codenamed “Redwood” in mid-2025. The report, which cited sources familiar with the matter, said the vehicle could be a compact crossover and production could begin in July 2025.

Musk has previously promised the company would work on more affordable electric vehicles, including a sub-$25,000 vehicle and self-driving robotaxis, which have yet to come to fruition.

Musk confirmed on the investor call the company expects to start production in the second half of 2025, but noted he is typically optimistic about timelines and it would include a lot of new “revolutionary” manufacturing technology.

Musk added that he wants the vehicles to start production in Austin because it “will be a challenging ramp,” and likely will have engineers sleeping and “living” on the production line to make it possible. 

“We really need engineers to be living on the line,” Musk said. “This is not the sort of ‘off the shelf, just works’ sort of thing. I am confident that once it is going it will be head and shoulders above any other manufacturing technology that exists in the world.” 

The company most recently released a new vehicle late last year when it delivered its first handful of its long-anticipated Cybertrucks. In its earnings report Tesla said it has ramped up capacity to build over 125,000 Cybertrucks a year in Austin.

The company noted in the earnings report it expects the production ramp up to be longer than other vehicles because of Cybertrucks’ “manufacturing complexity.” CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly warned of difficulties scaling up production for the vehicle and the company has not said how many it initially delivered nor how many it expects to in 2024.

Tesla also produces Model Y vehicles and batteries at its Austin gigafactory, Giga Texas. In the report Tesla said in now has capacity to produce 375,000 Model Y SUVs a year in Austin.

Tesla shares fell about 3% after hours as the company missed Wall Street expectations with the company reporting revenue of $25.17 billion in the fourth quarter, compared to the $25.6 billion expected by FactSet analysts. The revenue was a 3% increase overall from the same time last year.

The company had already released its fourth quarter and full year delivery and production numbers earlier this month, reporting that it delivered 1.8 million vehicles in 2023 including 485,000 in the fourth quarter. Deliveries are Tesla’s closest approximation to vehicle sales.

The earning’s report also comes as Musk demanded more control of Tesla this month if the company is to be a leader in AI or robotics. The CEO, who already has a number of other companies including SpaceX, xAI, Neuralink and The Boring Company, said he would rather focus on building products at another company if he doesn’t get his way.