Tesla, an Internet company with battery as its core.

Editor/Windsor

Design/Zhao Haoran

Source /Autonews, Bloomberg, authors: Paul Lienert, Norihiko Shirouzu, Edward Taylor, Craig Trudell.

Elon Musk is called an innovator and a subversive. 16 years, he went from knowing nothing about automobile manufacturing to becoming the most valuable automobile manufacturer in the world.

As a company from Silicon Valley, Musk and his Tesla have great Internet thinking-learning and trial and error. Like many Internet companies, on the one hand, Tesla has a more advanced, adventurous, open and inclusive style of doing things. By cooperating with different companies, we can absorb their strengths and turn them into our own technology, and we are willing to make more trial and error, so as to continuously improve. On the other hand, the process of trial and error also brings the disadvantages of imperfect products and failure to launch as planned.

Learn from partners

Then walk independently.

Musk's record of leading Tesla's development for many years shows that he is more like a fast learner, forming alliances with companies with technologies that Tesla lacks, hiring some talented people, and crossing the limits of risk aversion with partners.

Now, Musk and his team are preparing to outline how Tesla can become a more self-sufficient company and reduce its dependence on suppliers on "Battery Day" on September 22nd.

Musk has been hinting for months that with Tesla's efforts to produce low-cost and durable batteries, Tesla will make significant progress in technology, which will put its electric vehicles on a more equal footing with cheaper gasoline vehicles.

According to people familiar with the matter, the new battery design, chemical process and manufacturing process are only part of the progress, which will help Tesla reduce its dependence on its long-term battery partner Panasonic.

"Elon doesn't want to rely on others for any business," said a former Tesla executive who declined to be named. "Good or bad-sometimes good, sometimes bad-he thinks he can do it better, faster and cheaper."

Tesla's battery production cooperation with Panasonic, LG Chem and China Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. is expected to continue.

At the same time, however, Tesla is controlling the production of battery cells (basic components of electric vehicle batteries) in highly automated factories, one of which is built near Berlin and the other in fremont, California. Dozens of experts in battery engineering and manufacturing have been hired.

"Both in the past and now, our relationship is very good. Panasonic is not a supplier of Tesla, we are partners. There is no doubt that our partnership will continue to innovate and contribute to society. "

Let everything

People familiar with Tesla's strategy said that since taking over the fledgling company in 2004, Musk's goal has been to fully learn through cooperation, acquisition and talent recruitment in order to put key technologies under Tesla's control.

They said that their goal is to build a highly vertically integrated company, or a digital version of the production system from iron ore to cars, just as Ford Motor Company did in the late 1920s.

"Elon thinks he can improve everything that suppliers do, everything," said Tom Wessner, a former Tesla supply chain executive. He is now the head of Imprint Advisors, an industry consulting firm. "He wants to do everything."

Batteries account for a large part of the cost of electric vehicles and are the core of Musk's method. Although his subordinates have been opposed to the development of Tesla special batteries for many years, Musk is still working towards this goal.

"Tell him' don't do this' and then he really wants to do it," said a former Tesla veteran.

It is expected that Tesla will announce changes in battery design, chemistry and production process on Battery Day, with the aim of recalculating the mathematical formula that has made electric vehicles more expensive than fuel-engine carbon-emitting vehicles so far.

According to Reuters's report in May, Tesla plans to launch a low-cost battery with a battery life of 654.38+00,000 miles. Tesla is also working hard to ensure the direct supply of key battery materials such as nickel, while developing battery chemicals and highly automated manufacturing processes that no longer require expensive cobalt to speed up production.

"Straight to Mars"

Panasonic cooperates with Tesla's $5 billion Gigafactory in Nevada, while Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. and LG Chem provide batteries for Tesla's Shanghai factory, where battery modules and battery packs are assembled for Tesla's Model 3 sedan.

Panasonic recently said that it plans to expand its production line in Nevada to provide batteries for battery modules assembled by Tesla.

But two former Tesla executives said that the cooperation between super factories in Nevada was almost unsuccessful. According to a former executive, in 20 1 1 year, Musk ordered a team to study battery manufacturing, but finally cooperated with Panasonic in 20 13.

Now, Tesla is testing a pilot battery production line in fremont and establishing its own large-scale automatic battery manufacturing plant in Gruenheide.

This roller coaster relationship between Tesla and Panasonic is similar to other alliances of Tesla.

During the development alliance between Tesla and Daimler Group of Germany, Musk became interested in sensors that can help cars stay in the driveway. Daimler Group is an early investor in Tesla.

Before Mercedes-Benz engineers helped improve the Tesla Model S, this car had no camera, advanced driver assistance sensors and software used by Mercedes-Benz S-Class cars.

"He understood this and went further. We asked the engineer to launch to the moon, and he went directly to Mars. "A senior engineer at Daimler said.

At the same time, his cooperation with another early investor, Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan, taught him quality management.

In the end, Daimler and Toyota executives joined Tesla and held key positions, in addition to talents from Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and competitors Ford, BMW and Audi.

Incomplete cooperation

However, some relationships did not end well.

In 20 14, Tesla established a cooperative relationship with Israeli sensor manufacturer Mobileye, in part to learn how to design an autonomous driving system that can develop into Tesla Autopilot.

A former Mobileye executive who asked not to be named said: "Mobileye is the driving force behind the initial autonomous driving."

Mobileye, now owned by Intel, is also aware of the risks of sharing technology with fast-growing startups like Tesla. Tesla was on the verge of bankruptcy at the end of 2008, and its current market value is 420 billion US dollars.

However, in 20 16, after a car accident occurred in a Model S using Autopilot, resulting in the death of a driver, Tesla and Mobileye had a fierce public disagreement.

At that time, Amnon Shashua, the current CEO of Mobileye, said that Tesla's Autopilot was not designed to cover all possible collision situations because it was a driver assistance system, not an unmanned system.

The former Mobileye executive said that Tesla did not have the problem of improper use of its company's technology.

NVIDIA, an American technology company, became a supplier of autonomous driving after Mobileye, but it was finally marginalized.

NVIDIA and Tesla have the same strategy, which is to develop software-defined cars driven by high-performance artificial intelligence computers. "Elon is very focused on vertical integration and wants to make his own chips." Danny Shapiro, senior director of NVIDIA's automotive sector, said.

In addition to cooperation, Musk also made a big acquisition four years ago, acquiring several little-known companies such as Grohmann, Perbix, Riviera, Compass and Hibar Systems. To quickly improve Tesla's professional skills in automation. Maxwell and Celion further enhanced Tesla's ability in battery technology.

"He learned a lot from those people." Mark Ellis, senior consultant of Munro & ampAssociates, said. The company has conducted extensive research on Tesla. "He used a lot of information they provided and then did it better in his own way."

Often skip tickets, although late, but

Musk said on Tesla Autopilot Day in April, 20 19: "All these things, I said we would do it, and we all did it. The only criticism is that sometimes I am not on time. This criticism is correct, but I finally finished it and the Tesla team finished it. "

The CEO is right in some ways. He frankly admitted that it took Tesla longer to bring the product to market than he expected. What he doesn't admit is that almost all the products he hyped up in the activities of building his dream image of Silicon Valley have not been commercialized, and have not been listed yet, or have been completely abandoned.

Musk, 49, will not sell a lot of goods to investors on Battery Day-batteries are the core of existing products and technologies that make Tesla one of the most valuable companies in the world. However, the tendency of over-commitment makes the billionaire a controversial figure, and many skeptics still need to prove Musk wrong.

Type X (2065438+February 2002)

When Musk released the Model X prototype, Tesla was less than 20 months away from its initial public offering and had not delivered the first Model S sedan. At that time, he said that Model X would be put into production at the end of 20 13.

This crossover SUV went on the market almost two years late, and the first customers began to buy it from 2065438+September 2005. At the unveiling ceremony of Model X, Musk first attracted people's attention with the double-hinged "Falcon Wing" door of this car, and later slowed down the launch speed of this SUV, and then he will be disappointing. The delivery was attributed to the "arrogance" of trying to do too many things in this car.

Musk said at the press conference that the door of this car is not much higher than the hatchback door of ordinary SUV, but some customers open the door to the ceiling of their garage. Model X has always scored low in the Consumer Report ranking, while other Tesla models scored high.

Battery replacement (2065438+June 2003)

This is a more problematic display of Musk, because product provision has never really been realized.

Musk said that the driver of Model S can choose to charge at Tesla's super charging station for free, or drive to a site with the kind of automation equipment used in the company's factory and replace one with another. He proved that it takes less time than filling a tank.

Tesla later began to provide charging for the super charging station, and Musk said that in the end, few customers were interested in battery pack exchange. The California Air Resources Board once awarded Tesla additional zero-emission vehicle credit according to its battery replacement plan, but the regulation was revised less than one year after Musk's demonstration.

Two engines, autopilot (20 14 10 months)

Musk sent a mysterious tweet a few days before the show: "It's time to launch D and other things. D stands for the dual-motor version of Model S, and other things refer to autonomous driving. It turned out that it was never invented by Tesla.

The CEO announced that radar, image recognition cameras and ultrasonic sonar were installed in all cars produced within two weeks before the incident. Musk said: "This car can do almost anything." He also listed functions such as lane keeping, automatic cruise control and automatic parking, as well as the ability of car owners to summon cars in parking lots.

In 20 16, Tesla finally parted ways with Mobileye, a key supplier of early autopilot hardware. After the call function was first introduced on 20 19, some car owners uploaded videos of their cars colliding with other vehicles or narrowly avoiding accidents. Consumer Reports called it a "malfunction".

Tesla Energy Company (2065438+May 2005)

Musk put forward the vision of using solar energy, or in his image language, "this convenient air fusion reactor"-not only can collect energy from solar panels, but also can store energy in batteries for home use.

"Now, the problem with existing batteries is that they are too bad," he said. They are expensive, unreliable, smelly, ugly and "terrible in every way". He said that the missing piece was Tesla's $3,500 Powerwall. "It looks like a beautiful sculpture hanging on the wall." Users don't have to worry about power failure or power failure. This product can be popularized all over the world, especially in remote areas where power supply is unstable or expensive.

In the five years after this meeting, the automobile business has been Tesla's leading business, and 86% of its revenue in the last quarter came from the automobile business. Musk said that Tesla's business is "battery shortage", which means that Tesla lacks battery supply, and it needs to support its cars and power walls.

Model 3 (2065438+March 2006)

Tesla successfully achieved many specifications promised by Musk for Model 3, including a cruising range of at least 265,438+05 miles. When he announced the time of the first delivery, he hinted that he might miss the deadline, causing laughter from the crowd: "I am really confident that I can go public next year."

The event was a great success, and Tesla won a deposit of hundreds of thousands of dollars with its first car with moderate price and large output.

But a key promise that the company failed to fulfill was the starting price of $35,000. Three years later, Musk announced plans to close most of Tesla's stores to save costs so that he could sell cars at this price. 10 days later, he broke his word. Today, the cheapest Model 3 costs $37,990 (about RMB260,000).

Solar roof (20 16 10)

A few months after the CEO put forward what he called an "obvious" and "brainless" acquisition plan, this activity helped Tesla shareholders support Musk's plan to acquire SolarCity Corp, a heavily indebted solar energy sales and installation company founded by Musk and his brother.

On the stage, Musk holds different styles of roof tiles, which are actually non-functional solar cells. A few weeks later, shareholders approved the acquisition worth more than $2 billion.

"At that time, I thought the merger of Tesla and SolarCity was strategic. It is wise to say this now. " Musk said in despair after two and a half years, "If I can make time to go back, you know, I would say that I might keep SolarCity independent."

Semi-trailer and sports car (20 17 12)

As Musk said, time will tell us whether this semi-truck can really provide "quasi-infinite" braking life and "thermonuclear explosion-proof" glass. He said that the company was put into production on 20 19. Now the plan is changed to start next year.

Musk showed the audience the amazing cargo on one of the trucks: the prototype of a new convertible, which he said would be "the fastest car ever produced".

The CEO canceled the plan to launch this car this year. In May of this year, he listed several other tasks that Tesla needs to complete first, suggesting that these tasks may not be completed until next year.

Type Y (2065438+March 2009)

After a difficult year, the production of Model 3 is finally in full swing. Musk said that Tesla ran out of funds in a few weeks, and he thanked those who still supported Tesla in difficult times. He imitates those who criticize him-"You are a liar!" -and refute the car sent by the company: "You can drive that liar!"

To our credit, Model Y is much ahead of schedule. Musk said at the event that this crossover will be launched in the fall of 2020. This schedule has been advanced to March.

Autopilot Day (2065438+April 2009)

During the hours-long demonstration, senior engineers of Tesla's autonomous driving team gave a very technical introduction to Tesla's technology. Then, Musk began to make his usual bold predictions.

"We expect the first batch of self-driving taxis to operate next year," he said. "There is no one inside. Next year. " Any customer can add his car to the Tesla network, which Musk calls a combination of Uber and Airbnb. Model 3 owners can share their cars at any time and make money by driving them. Tesla will get 25% to 30% revenue. Musk expects that in about two years, the company will stop producing cars with steering wheels and pedals.

None of this has been realized yet. The CEO also said that by the middle of 2020, Tesla will have more than 654.38+million cars on the road, and the hardware of these cars will be able to drive completely automatically and complete some functions that do not require the driver's attention. Today, the company is still reminding users of autonomous driving systems that they must put their hands on the steering wheel and keep their eyes on the road.

Cybertruck (201911month)

In this grand event, Tesla's first pickup truck prototype took several minutes to meet expectations. The activity showed the holographic image "cybergirl", a sledgehammer and a flame ball flying into the air.

The demonstration of the solidity of the stainless steel "exoskeleton" of this truck went smoothly, and the door was not dented after several blows. But an attempt to show the strength of its transparent metal "armored" glass unfortunately failed-a metal ball broke the first and second rows of windows.

"Well, it's not bad," Musk said after the demonstration went wrong. "There is still room for improvement."