Tesla Investor Day: Elon Musk hints at new Teslas and unveils 'renewable future' plan

EV maker's founder speaks on cementing company's role in global 'sustainable energy future'

Elon Musk speaks at the Tesla Giga Texas factory grand opening party in Austin, Texas, in April last year. AFP

Elon Musk on Wednesday spoke to stakeholders about his "master plan" towards a "sustainable energy future" at Tesla Investor Day in Austin, Texas, while hinting at new Tesla vehicles for the year ahead.

"Earth can and will move to a sustainable energy economy and will do so in your lifetime," Mr Musk said.

He laid out ways to make the transition including renewable power, electric vehicles, switching to heat pumps and sustainable fuel for planes.

Mr Musk revealed a presentation slide with two disguised future models, and executives said the Cybertruck pickup was also coming this year.

Tesla has become the world's most valuable car company by far, and the billionaire chief executive has aspirations of cracking the mass market and turning the EV maker into a company that can create a more climate-friendly world.

Mr Musk said two years ago he hoped to introduce a $25,000 Tesla, making the vehicle accessible to millions of drivers.

But he said last year that has been put on hold as he has not yet figured out the battery technology that would make producing the third-generation model possible.

Mr Musk also recently teased the idea of a robotaxi — a fully autonomous vehicle. And he predicted that production of an autonomous vehicle would start next year, The Verge reported.

He has floated the ability of Tesla drivers to make money by turning their vehicles into robotaxis when they are not using them.

On Wednesday, executives spoke about technology for Tesla owners to "share" their vehicles with others through texts and the Tesla app.

Mr Musk's latest master plan follows two others previously unveiled, the ambitions of which — such as “true self-driving” — remain unachieved.

He also set a goal of selling 20 million electric vehicles annually by 2030, but the company's four factories only produce 1.9 million a year.

Tesla has four car factories, in Texas, California, China and Germany. On Tuesday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Tesla would build a new plant in the city of Monterrey

The company also invested $3.6 billion to produce its “first high-volume Semi factory” in Reno, Nevada.

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo said his administration has been in talks with Tesla over a factory as well.

Mr Musk briefly discussed AI and the prospect of humanoid robots after showing a video of his highly anticipated Tesla Optimus. He claimed Tesla had the most advanced real world AI.

"I think we might exceed a one-to-one ratio of humanoid robots to humans," he said.

Agencies contributed to this report