Tesla CEO and co-founder Elon Musk believes that established car makers should move faster when it comes to the development of electric vehicles and not rely on the drop of oil prices.
Speaking at the Automotive News World Congress, Musk commented that the rest of the industry should get on its feet and take EVs seriously in order to counter the climate change.
“We can’t rely on scarcity to drive the price of oil and gas and rely on that to be an adequate forcing function to speed adoption of EVs, so we have to figure out how to do it without high oil and gas prices”, he noted.
Musk praised GM and Nissan for their Chevrolet Volt and Leaf respectively, for the commitment they had shown in hybrid and all-electric vehicles. Recently, he decided to open up Tesla’s patents free of charge and let other electric vehicles use the company’s own Superchargers.
Due to the heavy investments made for the development and production of its Model S, Tesla is in the red and Musk doesn’t expect a profit until 2020, when the mid-size Model 3, which is currently in the early development stage, will be into full production.
“The biggest thing that I’m struggling with is: I really want the Model 3 to be something different, not just a smaller Model S”, he conceded. “So how do we make a car that’s really way different than any other car on the road in a way that’s really useful and just doesn’t feel like a weird-mobile?”
Nevertheless, making the Model 3 hit its US$35,000 intended price before taxes may mean that some of the tech of the Model S may have to be transferred, possibly as an option.
Last, but certainly not least, Musk announced that deliveries of the Model X crossover will commence this summer. He added that this year’s production has been already sold out so anyone who orders one now won’t get it until 2016.
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