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Elon Musk (archive image from January 2020): "We don't have an affordable car"
Photo: ALY SONG / REUTERS
Elon Musk has a certain preference for unusual appearances.
The eagerly anticipated corporate event in San Ramon, California on Tuesday evening (local time) was no exception.
The vast majority of viewers tuned in online.
But a small group was able to listen to the Tesla bosses on site - in Tesla vehicles in a parking lot near the factory.
They could signal their approval by horn.
However, the actual announcements by Musk fell short of expectations and speculation beforehand.
Tesla wants to drastically reduce the price of its electric cars.
To this end, according to CEO Musk, production costs for the batteries in particular are to be reduced.
Until that happens, customers will have to be patient, he signaled.
More than 270,000 viewers watched the Tesla Battery Day appearance on the Internet.
The conversion of the production will take about three years.
This prospect caused disappointment among investors.
The share of the electric car pioneer, which had risen to become the most valuable automobile manufacturer in the past few months, plummeted by seven percent in the after-hours business after losing 5.6 percent in regular trading.
Musk's goal is to reduce battery technology and manufacturing costs so significantly that Tesla can sell self-driving electric cars at a price of $ 25,000.
"We don't have an affordable car," he said.
"We will have that in the future. But to do that we have to bring down the cost of the batteries," said Musk.
The new generation of batteries should get by with practically no cobalt
The Tesla boss promised a new generation of batteries.
These should be significantly more powerful and durable than the current ones and only cost half as much.
You should practically do without the expensive heavy metal cobalt.
There are also plans to recycle battery cells in the so-called gigafactory in the state of Nevada.
The company is still about three years away from mass production.
The new battery cells will initially be produced in a new assembly line near the factory in Fremont, California.
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