Tesla's Expected Timeline of Product and Service Releases
-By Mason Lankes | [email protected]
Elon Musk has quite the challenge ahead of him in order to bring electric cars to the masses and revolutionize how the world produces and consumes energy. While Tesla is now producing Model S and Xs, and is preparing for Model 3 ramp up, in the past there have been many delays. The Model X for example was delayed by 3 years due to its production complexity. This time 'round, Musk is going to start off simple in order to simplify the production process, and add features as he goes. The Tesla team has many milestones ahead; let's take a look at a rough timeline of when investors and fans can expect to see some innovative new products and services.
2017-Jun - Tesla autonomous driving software better than it was before Mobileye breakup
2017-Jul - Begin producing Model 3s, an electric sedan for the masses
2017-Jul - Initial versions of solar roof available
2017-Sep - Unveiling of the Tesla Semi
2017-Dec - Autonomous driving of a car from a parking lot in California to a parking lot in New York without touching any of the controls in a the vehicle
2017 - Announcement of 4 new Gigafactories
2018-Jul - Next 2 versions of solar roof are available for installation
2018-Dec - Delivery of 500,000 cars in the last year or a run rate of about 10,000 cars per week
2018 - Double number of Super Chargers worldwide
2019 - 50% to 100% increase in number of Super Chargers worldwide from the previous year
2019 - Begin producing Model Y, an SUV for the masses, built in a new factory on a new platform from the Model 3. Model S had 3km of wiring, Model 3 aims to have 1.5km of wiring, whereas Model Y is expected to have just 100m or 30x less than Model S which should cut costs and speed up production.
2019 - Production and delivery of Tesla Semi
2019 - Fully autonomous driving production cars. Musk states in his TED Talk that he expected self driving cars to be available in approximately 2 years.
While these are some of the main milestones which are keeping investor interest and excitement at elevated levels, there are some other products and services that may pop up along the way. For instance, during the shareholder meeting, Elon Musk spoke of a new way to play and discover music, citing that current matching algorithms weren't very good, but that he had something in the works. Since Tesla vertically integrates and owns the music speakers in the car, a software update would be able to boost their quality.
Musk also recommends to stay tuned for the Tesla Semi launch in September, where there may be a mysterious new product or feature that Elon is very excited about. Previously, during the TED talk, Musk stated that the Tesla Semi would be able to pull a regular diesel truck in a tug o' war competition, uphill; showing off the power of an electric motor vs a diesel engine - something that many have said can't be done.
Furthermore, there have been very few announcements of the Tesla network of vehicles for ride sharing and having your car work for you while you're at work for example. This is part of Tesla's plan for the next 10 years. The feature launch will likely coincide with the launch of fully autonomous vehicles, and then incremental improvements and feature will likely be launched in order to take on incumbents such as Uber and Lyft. Nonetheless, it will be a very exciting 10 years for Tesla fans, with a host of new products and services to look forward to.