How can Tesla achieve its cost reduction plan?

Tesla is making a series of plans to gain a higher share of the market. Musk said that to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy, the first step is to build a scale of energy storage, then convert existing fossil energy, automobiles, and energy storage. The ultimate goal is to achieve a 100% energy economy by 2050.

Tesla is also improving and reducing traditional car manufacturing methods. They have removed hundreds of parts, simplified the assembly of various structural models, reduced the assembly line by 10%, split the car into different parts to complete simultaneous operations, improved time efficiency, reduced assembly steps by 40%, and reduced manufacturing costs by 50%.

Tesla's electric drives have a very expensive semiconductor - silicon carbide (a material that is difficult to expand). Through Tesla's own design, the silicon carbide chip in the package is very small, and using less of this material is very cost-effective. Silicon carbide crystals are a critical component of stone in power systems, and Tesla has found a way to reduce usage by 75%. This means it is possible for Tesla to adopt a hybrid solution — grooved silicon carbide MOS (high pressure and lower RSP) with silicon-based IGBTs. In this case, the silicon carbide market for electric vehicle main drives will be far lower than our expectations. Generally speaking, silicon carbide usage will be reduced by 3/4, and overall demand will also decrease. There are related reports that global and Chinese silicon carbide substrate manufacturers are planning to expand production capacity for the past two years, and there will be oversupply. Then Tesla's silicon carbide reduction plan will adversely affect these manufacturers. At the same time, BYD and Huawei are investing heavily in silicon carbide device manufacturing and packaging research and development to improve self-sufficiency rates to reduce costs.

Batteries are actually one of the factors limiting the scalability of electric vehicles. Tesla has achieved the characteristics of its new power system and compatibility with any battery chemistry, which provides great flexibility and battery sources, and reduces driving costs by nearly 1,000 US dollars.

For the electronic and electrical architecture, the next generation platform will achieve 100% self-developed controllers. At the same time, the low voltage of all Tesla automotive products will be upgraded to 48V in the future. This will allow smaller wires and controllers, which is of great benefit to improving car quality and reducing car weight.

Tesla is implementing highly automated assembly, using a central controller for early inspection and frequent inspection to ensure that parts are installed and tested at every step.

Regarding Tesla's autonomous driving, we also mentioned AI technology in the previous article “From ChatGPT to Nvidia”. Tesla will use an AI-driven neural network system to achieve artificial intelligence autonomous driving, and they also have a large-scale data language processing model similar to ChatGPT to obtain different data and then convert this data. With support from Nvidia and Dojo, Tesla will increase its computing power by another level this year.

Tesla robots also continue to play a role in the production of automobiles. Currently, they can do some work of walking, handling, and screwing screws. This humanoid robot will be more valuable in the future.

Tesla's overcharging stations have reduced electricity costs and reduced charging costs by 30%.

On the supply chain side, Tesla is simplifying configuration, improving automation capabilities, reducing the time required to assemble each component, and saving nearly 95% of workers.