5 Key Parts Of Tesla's Second 'Master Plan'

10 years ago, Tesla founder and real-life Tony Stark-type bloke Elon Musk set out his ‘Master Plan’. The plan detailed how Tesla aimed to create an expensive low-volume car (the Roadster), use the money generated to create a slightly less expensive, medium-volume car (the Model S), use that money to build an affordable, high-volume car (the Model 3) and finally to provide solar power.

Musk claims all this is in the “final stages of completion,” and has therefore now unveiled ‘Master Plan, Part Deux’. Much of it is about expanding Tesla beyond being just a car company - indeed, the company has even changed its website URL from Teslamotors.com to simply Tesla.com.

So, what can we expect from Tesla in the future? Here are the key talking points from the plan:

Solar panels

There’s a bit of a caveat that comes with the phrase ‘zero emissions’ when describing electric vehicles. Sure, they don’t have an internal combustion engine spitting nasty stuff out of an exhaust pipe, but you have to consider what’s on the other end of the plug you charge your EV from. A coal-fired power station is hardly green, after all, and in most places renewable sources only make up a tiny amount of electricity supplies.

The solution? Make what comes out of the plug greener, and that’s something Tesla wants to do through its controversial, yet-to-be-passed bid to acquire SolarCity - a company Musk co-founded. Musk states that his rationale for wanting to merge the two firms is to: “Create a smoothly integrated and beautiful solar-roof-with-battery product that just works, empowering the individual as their own utility, and then scale that throughout the world.”

It’ll be a bit like turning your home into a mini power station, making you a lot less reliant on conventional electricity networks.

Electric public transport and haulage

The Model 3 is the most affordable Tesla yet, but it’s still out of reach for many. Musk has pretty much ruled out making anything cheaper than a Model 3, branding such a thing “unlikely to be necessary” partially due to the next point we’re looking at: “high passenger-density urban transport.” In other words, electric busses. Tesla’s ‘urban transport solution’ - along with a ‘Tesla Semi’ electric heavy-duty truck are said to be “in the early stages of development at Tesla and should be ready for unveiling next year.”

Unsurprisingly, Tesla’s ‘semi-autonomous’ Autopilot mode is set to get, erm, more autonomous. “As the technology matures, all Tesla vehicles will have the hardware necessary to be fully self-driving with fail-operational capability, meaning that any given system in the car could break and your car will still drive itself safely,” Musk explains.

In light of the first ever fatal crash for the system he also defended the company’s decision to roll out Autopilot in what’s essentially been a massive beta test. “The most important reason [for deploying Autopilot now] is that, when used correctly, it is already significantly safer than a person driving by themselves and it would therefore be morally reprehensible to delay release simply for fear of bad press or some mercantile calculation of legal liability.”

Car sharing

Think about how much time you actually spend using your car for a moment. Since us humans have other things to do like work, sleep and go on holiday, it’s not actually that much in the grand scheme of things, is it? The Masterplan reckons you probably spend 5 - 10 per cent of your average day using your car, but once fully autonomous Teslas that can be ‘summoned’ arrive, there’ll be a way to make the most of your Model S/3/X the other 90 - 95 per cent of the day: sharing.

You’ll tap a ‘share’ button on the Tesla mobile app, allowing your car to make you money when you’re not using it. The idea is this “dramatically lowers the true cost of ownership to the point where almost anyone could own a Tesla,” Musk explains.

New models

While the Master Plan may be all about making Tesla more than just a car company, there is still some new model news buried in there. Musk stated that a compact SUV and pickup truck will be produced by the firm at some stage, both of which stand a good chance of being even more popular than the Model 3. By plugging those two gaps, Tesla will be able to “address most of the consumer market.”