Elon Musk Gives No Timeline Of New Tesla Models At Investor Day: 'Hard Part Is Building The Cars'

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk said the desire of people to own an electric car made by his company was high but stressed that the main challenge remained in logistics and the supply chain.

What Happened: “Demand is very much a function of affordability not desire,” said Musk, at Tesla's Investor Day event on Wednesday.

At the event, there was no unveiling of the company’s much-anticipated "Model 2" economy EV.

“The hard part is building the cars,” Musk said on the topic of next-generation Tesla vehicles, adding that building the supply chain around it was a challenge of “extraordinary difficulty.”

Musk refused to say when the next-generation vehicle would be showcased, adding that he would be “jumping” the gun if he answered the question.

On training vehicles, Musk said Tesla expects to enlarge the capability over the coming years through some combination of Nvidia and the Dojo supercomputer.

China Growth: On the question of the impact of U.S.-China tensions impacting long-term ambitions, Tesla China Chief Tom Zhu said, "We're growing our market share in China quite strongly."

Zhu said demand surged, especially after recent price adjustments this year. 

On the subject of geopolitical tensions, Zhu said "No one knows. We do our best, create a lot of [local] jobs and contribute to the economy. As long as we're needed in this country [China], I don't see much of a risk."

AI Effect: Musk also talked about generative artificial intelligence and current trends. He said he doesn’t see AI helping to build cars anytime soon. He did, however, express his concern about the technology and called for a regulatory authority to oversee it. “It’s quite a dangerous technology.” He said, “I fear I may have done something to accelerate it.”

“Tesla is doing good things in AI,” said Musk but added that thinking about the technology “stresses him out.”

Price Action: Tesla shares dropped 5.7% to $191.30 in the after-hours trading, according to Benzinga Pro data. 

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Photo by Steve Jurvetson on Flickr