Elon Musk says he is working on ‘Tesla Master Plan Part 4’

Elon Musk claims he is working on ‘Tesla Master Plan Part 4’ – a second part of the on going master plan in as many years.

Part One and Two of Musk’s “master plan” for Tesla have been important pieces of literature at the company that, in many ways, laid the path to its success.

Tesla has achieved most of the goals listed in its first two master plans.

Last year, Musk released his ‘Master Plan Part 3’ through a presentation and a white paper. The third part was quite different from the first two. It didn’t really push any specific product roadmap, like the first two, and instead focused on doing the math on how we can move the entire world to a sustainable economy through electric vehicles and renewable energy.

Now, the CEO says that he is already working on a ‘Tesla Master Plan 4’:

And apparently, it is going to be “epic”.

Tesla Master Plan Part 1 and 2

On August 2, 2006, Musk published a blog post titled “The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (just between you and me).”

The post is worth a read, but it ends in a summary with the core principle being laid out in four steps:

1. Build sports car.
2. Use that money to build an affordable car.
3. Use that money to build an even more affordable car.
4. While doing above, also provide zero-emission electric power generation options.

It didn’t happen smoothly, but Tesla managed that for the most part with the Roadster, Model S, and then Model 3.

In 2016, Musk followed up with the “Tesla Master Plan Part 2.”

Part 2 came as Tesla was delivering the Model 3 and acquiring Solar City, which are basically the last two steps of the original plans.

In Part 2, Musk emphasized the integration of energy storage with renewable energy generation under the new “Tesla Energy” division. The creation of the solar roof was also announced in the plan.

The updated plan was also focused on self-driving capabilities, which became a priority at Tesla.

Musk summarized the Master Plan Part 2 at the end:

1. Create stunning solar roofs with seamlessly integrated battery storage.
2. Expand the electric vehicle product line to address all major segments.
3. Develop a self-driving capability that is 10X safer than manual via massive fleet learning.
4. Enable your car to make money for you when you aren’t using it.

Among the other segments mentioned in the plan, Musk mentioned “a new kind of pickup,” which ended up being the Cybertruck; a compact SUV, the Model Y; a “heavy-duty truck, which became the Tesla Semi; and finally “high passenger-density urban transport.”

Every vehicle announced in the plan was unveiled, and most of them are in production, except for the “high passenger-density urban transport.”

Electrek’s Take

I feel like the Tesla master plans don’t hold as much value now that Elon has clearly shifted Tesla to an AI company.

The Part 3 was all about scaling the auto and energy businesses at a scale that would accelerate the entire economy’s transition to sustainability.

However, in the last few months, Elon killed, or at least indefinitely postponed, the $25,000 Tesla on the unboxed platform, which was a major part of the master plan part 3.

With part 3 and some of part 2 not completed, it feels premature to jump to part 4, but I’m pretty confident it is going to be all about self-driving and robots.