Tesla CEO Elon Musk addressed shareholders at the company’s annual meeting on Tuesday, predicting the economy would pick up after 12 months and promising the company would deliver production Cybertrucks later this year.
Highlights included:
CEO Elon Musk said Tesla will deliver its first Cybertrucks this year, and should be able to deliver 250,000 to 500,000 a year once production has started. He said he’ll drive a Cybertruck on a daily basis.
The economy will be in the doldrums for the next 12 months, and many companies will go bankrupt, but Tesla will be well positioned for the long run.
The Model Y will be the “No. 1 selling car on earth this year”
Tesla may reconsider its long stance against traditional advertising: “We’ll try out a little advertising and see how it goes.”
Tesla plans to produce a new kind of drive unit, which Musk said will require less silicon carbide than prior drive trains, and no rare earth elements. Tesla will also switch to a new, low voltage architecture in its cars which should require less copper.
JB Straubel, former Tesla CTO and current leader of e-waste recycling company Redwood Materials, was voted onto the board as an independent director.