On Sunday Tesla’s founder and CEO Elon Musk revealed that he and his team at the EV automaker had something in the works and that the big unveil would take place some time this week.
What is it? Who knows. Elon Musk, we suppose. But the tweet read "Working on Top Secret Tesla Masterplan, Part 2. Hoping to publish later this week".
Musk has made a bit of a habit of having his Twitter account do the work of a publicist, and several recent and key announcements and titbits were revealed through his social media feed.
Previously Musk did outline that Tesla did have a roadmap that, in 2016, is about to come into full realisation. It started with the two-door Roadster, their first production car. Based upon a Lotus Elise body and meant to introduce the world to electric cars and capture the imagination.
Next up was the Model S, which is up until now their best selling and most prevalently featured car. It was a car that covered the most bases for most people in a way that complemented the Roadster’s niche appeal.
The Model X SUV followed last year and the more affordable Model 3 announced earlier this year with deliveries expected to start by the end of 2017. In all, there’s a clear purpose to what Tesla wanted to achieve with the steady rollout of these four vehicles.
To put it lightly: world domination. To infiltrate the minds of consumers and offer practical and, crucially, desirable electric vehicles into the marketplace to begin the sea change away from our dependence on fossil fuel vehicles and open more eyes to the real possibilities of the electric cars and technology of today.
That was the general outline of that master plan, at least from an outside observer, as Musk never fully detailed it apart from some mentions of it in passing during interviews and keynote addresses. Of course he wouldn’t.
But now that there a second chapter to that story, we wonder whether it will be just as ambitious or attuned with what consumers now want and expect from a company that needs to retain their attention especially when every major manufacturer is looking to steal Tesla’s thunder, carving their own inroads to electrification.
The news also comes in the midst of controversy for the Californian EV maker. Last week marked the first fatal accident involving an autonomously driven car. In this case, a Tesla Model S with its Autopilot function engaged.
More recently, the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board), IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety), as well as the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) have formally indicated to be looking into matter.
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