Tesla AGM reveals JB Straubel’s return

At the Tesla Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, JB Straubel was elected to the Board of Directors. Tesla also announced plans for the new Roadster and the upcoming plant in Mexico.

The co-founder and former CTO of Tesla had founded the recycling company Redwood Materials after leaving Tesla and is now returning to the company and back on board with a seat on the Board of Directors. Robyn Denholm as Chair of the Board of Directors was confirmed in office at the Annual General Meeting, as was Elon Musk.

At the meeting, a teaser of Tesla’s future compact model was also shown, which will be built in the future in the new factory in Mexico, among other places. CEO Elon Musk stated that while this was not the appropriate time to reveal the new vehicle, it is apparently already in the production phase. However, it remains unclear if he was referring to a prototype or the series production variant. At the same time, Tesla is working on a second new model as indicated at Investors Day in early March. This vehicle has been referred to as a “robotaxi”, specifically designed for future self-driving and for taxi service.

For both new models together, Tesla is aiming for annual sales of 5 million units, as Musk said at the Annual General Meeting. Once production has been ramped up, Tesla wants to build up to 4 million compact EVs per year.

Tesla teases next-gen car.

"There are two new products I think you will be excited about; Both the design and manufacturing techniques are head and shoulders above anything that is present in industry." – @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/Ea76H3Gvx3

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) May 16, 2023

In other news, the new Tesla Roadster is to be finalized this year and is planned to go into production in 2024. Tesla had already reopened preorders for the Roadster last year, as well as stating that the vehicle would be built at the gigafactory in Austin, Texas. At the time, two down payments were required by the manufacturer, with 5,000 dollars due directly at the time of ordering, and another 45,000 dollars to be transferred within ten days of the order. Now it appears that the wait is nearly over. The final price remains unclear, however, when Tesla presented the second generation of the Roadster in 2017, a ‘Founders Edition’ variant could be pre-ordered for 250,000 dollars.

electrek.co (Straubel), electrek.co (compact)