Tesla Reveals Five-Year Roadmap

• Tesla will strive to further reduce manufacturing costs
• A cheaper EV below the Model 3 is not a priority
• More data collection is required for the evolution of FSD

Tesla has achieved astonishing success in a relatively short time on the market. Its electric vehicles have outperformed legacy automakers in numerous key markets around the world, despite the fact that Tesla has a very small range of just four vehicles at present. But the competition is catching up, so what's next for Elon Musk's controversial company?

Speaking at an invite-only Goldman Sachs tech conference in San Francisco on Monday, Tesla executive Martin Viecha revealed the automaker's plans for the next five years. One of the attendees has outlined the key points to Business Insider, and it seems that Tesla will continue to focus on the fundamentals that have helped it achieve such remarkable success already.

Viecha said that battery supply is finally at a level where the automaker can purchase all the cells it needs, which will reduce production times. He added that the per-vehicle cost of manufacturing is the most critical aspect to keep under control for Tesla to grow. In 2017, producing each car cost Tesla $84,000, but recently, that has dropped to $36,000 per car. Better vehicle and factory designs that have made manufacturing as simple as possible, not lower battery costs, are what got Tesla to this point.

Tesla wants to continue to reduce costs, and Viecha noted that Shanghai and Berlin are cheaper places in which to manufacture cars than America. With more facilities producing more cars, Tesla wants each car to cost less than $36,000 to manufacture, improving the company's profitability.

"EV architecture [...] allows for a third revolution in automotive manufacturing," said Viecha, referring to Ford's Model T as the first and Toyota's streamlined production process of the 1970s as the second.