But I am curious what their future is supposed to look like - were they expecting to grow based on sales of the existing (four?) models or do they have a new model in the pipeline?
Tesla has promised a new Tesla Roadster for 5+ years now. There is no sign of it. Cybertruck also took ~5 years from reveal to release. Not sure where the Tesla semi is.
There has been some mention of a low cost EV, but I don't think we've seen sign of that yet. Last I heard was that it was cancelled.
So, given that Tesla usually uses around 3-5 years from reveal to actual production and release of a new vehicle, they are probably not going to sell any new models the next 3-5 years. Maybe updated versions of the existing line-up (like the new model Y).
Obviously, last year Musk revealed the "Robovan" (a somewhat odd self-driving minibus) and the "Robotaxi" (a two-seater self-driving taxi without a driving wheel). Both of these depend on FSD living up to its name first, and neither seem to be intended for "normal" people.
During the last Quarterly Earnings call Musk heavily pushed the idea that Optimus (Tesla's still in development biped robot) would increase the company's market cap by 10x. So it seems Musk thinks the future for Tesla is in the field of biped robots rather than vehicles.
Musk also claimed that a Tesla would start FSD taxi-service in Texas this summer -- I find that timeline doubtful, given that it takes time to set up the infrastructure for a "taxi" company. In any case, self-driving taxis is another possibly future direction for Tesla.
Really insightful there are still people who believe a word he says. Genuinely.
It’s actually been 7+ years. And it didn’t stop Tesla from taking $50k deposits on it and holding that money the entire time. Nothing like vaporware covering up an interest free loan.
https://autos.yahoo.com/people-paid-50-000-teslas-112401833....
From that same earnings call "We are still on track to launch a more affordable model in the first half of 2025 and will continue to expand our lineup from there."
https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2025/01/29/te...
There is (rumor) article from today here where they claim the low cost (affordable) vehicle is a "stripped down" model Y (at 20% price reduction):
https://www.investors.com/news/tesla-stock-affordable-ev-str...
I'm not sure the 20% cost reduction is for a new thing, as they were talking about the difficulty of making a 20% cost reduction to all their cars just as standard practice recently