Tesla’s annual shareholder’s meeting brought forth a lot of new information on the company’s plans in the very near future. The one that attracted the most interest was, of course, any information on the impending production of the Model 3. However, we also received some new information on Tesla’s other projects.
In its quest to take charge of the energy industry, Tesla plans to go beyond simply making cars and solar products for the home. Tesla is becoming a vertically integrated sustainable energy company, hoping to gain a major foothold in every aspect of energy; from its production, all the way to selling products.
To achieve this goal, Tesla announced plans to expand the Gigafactory network to 10 to 20 worldwide, which would approximately equate to an annual capacity of 10 to 20 million cars. Gigafactory 1 in Nevada is huge and as a result, Tesla batteries have the lowest cost per kWh in the world.
Assuming Tesla actually meets its goal of an additional 10 to 20 Gigafactories worldwide and assuming each Gigafactory will have the same production capacity as Gigafactory 1 is expected to have by 2020, that translates to 10-20 million cars produced per year, in addition to million of Powerwalls and Powerpacks.
With those kinds of numbers, it is clear that Tesla is not simply content with being a major automaker; it wants to disrupt the entire auto industry and turn the whole thing on its head. Currently, about one-third to half of Gigafactory 1’s production will go towards energy storage products. If this holds true across all future Gigafactories, then it is also clear that Tesla is positioning itself to be a global energy giant
SOURCE | Seeking Alpha