In March, Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the third installment of his ever-evolving master plan(Opens in a new tab), a set of ideas and goals for Tesla’s long-term future. In short, the company’s ultimate goal is to achieve global sustainable energy without harming the environment.
Musk’s explanation of how he got there was somewhat vague, but now, Tesla has published a much more detailed vision in the form of a 41-page document titled “Part 3 of the Master Plan.”(Opens in a new tab).
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The document envisions a fully electrified global economy, with fossil fuels largely out of the picture. Then he calculates the cheapest way to generate and store enough electricity to meet global demand, making sure that the required materials are available and environmentally sound for use.
There are a lot of numbers to go through in the document, and we’re sure experts on all sides will be chiming in with a detailed analysis soon. There is a lot that needs to happen before we get to this fully sustainable future, including a massive increase in global renewable energy production, a shift to electric vehicles, a shift to heat pumps in residential and commercial buildings, and fundamentally changing the way we deliver heat to some industrial processes. Sustainable hydrogen production, as well as sustainable fueling of aircraft and boats.
The key figures from Tesla’s document are as follows: the world needs 30 terawatts of renewable energy, 240 terawatt-hours of energy storage capacity, which requires an investment of $10 trillion. There are no insurmountable resource challenges to achieve this, as the company claims.
There are two interesting anecdotes in the doc. For example, Tesla is teasing several new vehicle classes in its fleet, including a “compact” car, commercial/commuter van, and electric bus. The first category is probably the most interesting, which is likely to be the rumored Tesla model(Opens in a new tab). In the new master plan document, Tesla says this vehicle class will need a 53-kWh battery. The company also says it will be by far the best-selling vehicle in its fleet, with nearly twice as many units sold as all of its other models combined.
You can read Part III of the master plan in full on Tesla’s website.(Opens in a new tab)