This week, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who have become politically close since the presidential election, took part in a press conference near the White House, during which the latter promised that his company Tesla would double the volume of electric cars produced in the United States in the next two years.
Image Source: Tesla
Both politicians also touched on other topics related to Tesla products. Donald Trump showed off a red electric sedan Model S, which he purchased to symbolically support Elon Musk, and also condemned the riots that are harming Tesla. Elon Musk made another statement designed to demonstrate his confidence in both the prospects for the development of the electric car market and the correctness of the current US president’s political course.
«”As a result of the great policies of President Trump and his administration, and as an act of faith in America, Tesla is going to double its vehicle production in the United States in the next two years,” Elon Musk said at the event. The company’s stock price, which had been falling for most of the period since Trump’s return to power, was replaced by a slight increase in quotes in the wake of these statements.
It will not be easy for Musk to fulfill his promises to double the volume of Tesla electric car production in the US in two years, as calculated by representatives of the Electrek resource. Nominally, as of the end of last year, the company had factories in the country capable of producing a total of just over 1 million cars. In fact, Tesla’s American factories are operating at partial capacity; the company is actually capable of assembling about 700,000 electric cars per year in the US.
If Tesla could double that number in a couple of years, it would be producing about 1.4 million cars a year in its home country. New models will help meet the demand for that many electric cars in part. While Tesla Semi trucks won’t be able to achieve mass production even in two years, more affordable cars based on the Model 3 and Model Y will add about 200,000 cars to the annual production program.
The Cybercab self-driving taxi could potentially become a more mass-market product, with Musk even initially stating that production volumes would eventually reach 2 million units per year. Of course, not all of these cars will be made in the US, but to fulfill Musk’s promises, 450,000 cars per year would have to be produced in the country. At the same time, Tesla has an accompanying problem: the autopilot software, without which the Cybercab cannot be operated until it reaches the necessary maturity. All this makes the implementation of Musk’s plan not entirely realistic.