Musk says Tesla doesn't need to make its own chips, again calling on entrepreneurs to join the lithium refining industry

On July 20, local time, during Tesla’s second-quarter earnings conference call, CEO Elon Musk said that despite the impact of the epidemic, it was still a record quarter for Tesla. He mentioned that Tesla's performance in the second half of the year will be very impressive, but he also acknowledged that supply chain challenges are still widespread. "It's been a bit of supply chain hell for a few years."

On the production side, Musk said Tesla could hit a production rate of 40,000 vehicles per week. Musk mentioned that Tesla has made progress in manufacturing systems, thanks to megacasts integrated die casting, the number of body welding robots in the factory has dropped by 70%. In terms of integrated die casting, Tesla still has room for improvement, and more components will be integrated in the future.

At the same time, he said that production of the electric pickup Cybertruck is still expected to start in mid-2023.

On the battery side, Musk noted that Tesla has enough 2170 cells to meet production of all its cars this year, while 4680 cells will really come into play next year. At the same time, Tesla said that the Texas factory in the United States will start mass production of 4680 batteries at the end of the third quarter.

Regarding the 4680 battery structure package, he said that the 4680 battery structure package is like the wing of an airplane, which is used to hold fuel. Over time, the 4680 battery structure package will be further improved.

In terms of self-driving, Musk mentioned that the FSD Beta, the self-driving test version, has driven 35 million miles, which is more than any other company combined.

Asked about the departure of former AI and autonomous driving chief Andrej Karpathy, Musk said, "Andrej is great, but he's decided to contribute more to core AI at an academic level." He also mentioned , Tesla has a core team of 120 people in artificial intelligence software, "They are very talented. I am very confident that we will solve FSD."

On the conference call, Musk again mentioned that Tesla may cut prices.

A few days ago, Musk said on Twitter that if U.S. inflation falls, it will lower the price of Tesla. Some investors have asked how much Tesla will fall. Musk said it depends on the macro economy, not what Tesla can control, and he expects car prices could drop slightly by the end of the year. He also mentioned that the current selling price is at an embarrassing level, but Tesla has encountered a lot of supply chain, capacity problems and crazy inflation levels in the United States, and hopes to lower the price a little later.

In the second quarter, Tesla cut its bitcoin holdings by 75%, a sell-off that cashed out $936 million. Musk explained that due to the uncertainty of the Shanghai factory in the second quarter, he reduced his bitcoin holdings to ensure cash flow, but has since remained open to increasing his bitcoin holdings. At the same time, he also said that he has not reduced his holdings of Dogecoin.

Musk also pointed out that Tesla's real name is to accelerate the emergence of sustainable energy, and that cryptocurrencies are "a juggling of a sideshow" and not something Tesla often thinks about.

In addition, Tesla said that Tesla does not have to make its own chips and will cooperate with suppliers. Tesla has used a large number of custom chips. At the same time, Tesla is also reducing the use of chips and dealing with chip supply problems by rewriting software and integrating multiple functions.

It is worth noting that Musk said that lithium is limiting Tesla battery production, and how to refine the key raw materials for lithium batteries is a top priority. He reiterated his call for entrepreneurs to join the lithium refining industry, "it's like software profits, you can't lose."

Drew Baglino, Tesla's senior vice president of engineering, added that Tesla is working with suppliers to ramp up production and will have no issues over the next few years. But looking back 10 years, that's going to be a challenge, so Tesla is working on refining its own lithium.

In addition, Musk has said that he will be on conference calls when there is bad news and that he will work for Tesla as long as he is useful.