Elon Musk’s ‘Killer Opening Party’ at Tesla’s Giga Texas Included Game-Changing Announcements for EVs
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Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy
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It’s been a great week for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, from being appointed to the Twitter Board to finally being invited to the White House. He capped it off with the opening of the electric vehicle (EV) Gigafactory opening in Austin and a massive 15,000 person party.
“Great work by Tesla Texas Team!! Built & delivered first Giga Texas production cars & threw a killer opening party,” Musk tweeted on April 8.
During his presentation, which can be seen here, Musk shared with his audience that the factory — which is larger than three pentagons — will produce a half-million Model Y cars annually, making it the largest producer of electric vehicles in the world. He also noted Giga Texas will be the highest volume car factory in the U.S.
He also announced production on Tesla’s Cybertruck is set to start next year. “I can’t wait to have this baby in production, it’s going to be epic,” he said.
The other new car heading towards production in the near future is the fully self-driving Robo Taxi, which will look “quite futuristic.”
Musk’s goal is to manufacture 20% of the world’s cars, noting that to make an impact on sustainability quickly you have to go big.
“Last night Elon Musk and Tesla hosted an invitation-only ‘Cyber Rodeo’ party at its new Austin Gigafactory in Travis County, Texas that will change the EV production game for Tesla in the U.S. as Austin takes over Fremont as the core of Tesla’s operations and DNA over the coming years,” Dani Ives, Wedbush Securities analyst wrote in a note sent to GOBankingRates.
According to Ives, before Musk can reach his goals, Tesla has a high-class problem of demand outstripping supply with this issue now translating into 5-6 month delays for Model Ys, some Model 3s in different parts of the globe.
“The key to alleviating these issues is centered around the key Giga openings in Austin and Berlin which will alleviate the bottlenecks of production for Tesla globally. We believe by the end of 2022 Tesla will have the run rate capacity for overall about 2 million units annually from roughly 1 million today,” Ives wrote.
He added that while the China zero Covid policy is causing shutdowns in Shanghai for Tesla and remains a worrying trend if it continues. “Seeing the forest through the trees with Austin and Berlin now live and ramping, Musk & Co will continue to flex its distribution muscles in the EV landscape while many other automakers struggle to get things off the ground.”
Wedbush said it maintained its Outperform rating and $1,400 price target. The stock was up 0.4% in pre-market trading on April 8.
