Tesla stock sinks after Elon Musk’s ‘Master Plan 3’ fails to impress at Investor Day

 

By Michael Grothaus

Tesla’s Investor Day seems to have been a big bust—at least if we’re judging by reactions from actual investors.

 

The event, which lasted over three hours and took place (March 21, 2023) at the company’s Gigafactory in Austin, Texas, was heavy on highlighting the company’s past achievements but light on new product announcements or information about how Tesla would maintain its EV lead in a world when all automakers are quickly becoming EV makers.

At the time of this writing, Tesla shares are down over 8% in pre-market trading.

Among the recap metrics that Tesla went over at Investor Day were the facts that the company reported over 1.3 million deliveries in 2022 and that Tesla had produced 4 million cars in total since its founding, reports CNBC. Other execs recapped information about the company’s line of Superchargers and its production line efficiencies. The company also did announce that it intends to ship 20 million vehicles by 2030.

Tesla stock sinks after Elon Musk’s ‘Master Plan 3’ fails to impress at Investor Day

But what left so many investors’ spirits lacking was the fact that Tesla did not introduce a new vehicle—that is, a big product that will help it reach that 20 million goal. The company did show off an updated “pre-production beta” of its Cybertruck, notes Electrek, which featured minor design tweaks, but nothing groundbreaking since its first preview years ago. The Cybertruck is reported to go into production this summer.

Many investors feel the Cybertruck will be a niche product—not one that will appeal to mass consumers. Increasingly, those consumers can choose from a wide variety of cost-conscious electric vehicles, including those from traditional car makers.

Elon Musk didn’t help temper expectations in the buildup to Investor Day, instead hyping his “Master Plan 3” for the company ahead of the event. Of course, Musk is an expert at hype, so bluster from him is to be expected. Yet while such bluster may work on his loyal followers on Twitter, investors are clearly less forgiving if today’s pre-market stock price is anything to go by.

Fast Company

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