Tesla Battery Cell Production Tour Included At Coming Tesla Shareholder Meeting

Elon Musk tweeted recently that a new date has been set for the annual meeting of shareholders and Tesla Battery Day, both of which have been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement came with a bonus.

Tentative date for Tesla Shareholder Meeting & Battery Day is Sept 15. Will include tour of cell production system.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 22, 2020

Okay, where will the annual meeting and tour of Tesla battery cell production be held? We don’t know yet. So far as anyone knows, battery production in the US only takes place at Gigafactory 1 in Nevada. The original location for the annual meeting scheduled for July 7 was the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California — just a hop, skip, and rocket-assisted jump away from Tesla headquarters. Update: Elon said on Twitter that the event would probably be held in Fremont, California.

The annual meeting will feature some shareholder initiatives that do not have the support of the Tesla board of directors, including a proposal that Tesla begin advertising its cars the way other manufacturers do (via TV commercials and such). It’s a little known fact that automakers spend about $1000 on advertising for each new car sold. New car dealers may spend almost $800 more per car, bringing the total cost of advertising for each new car that drives off the lot to nearly $2,000. (Those numbers are averages and vary by manufacturer, model, and area of the country.)

Other shareholder initiatives that will be voted on at the meeting include a proposal regarding simple majority voting in some circumstances, reporting on employee arbitration, and a proposal for additional reporting on human rights.

Tesla Battery Day ????

The list of topics people want to hear about during Battery Day includes news about the so-called million-mile battery, information about what Jeff Dahn and his researchers at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia are up to, news about changes to battery chemistry, electrode composition, how the technology developed by Maxwell is being incorporated into Tesla’s batteries, how the technology developed by Maxwell is being used to manufacture batteries more cheaply, and what Tesla’s plans are in the medium to long term for producing its own battery cells (it currently produces its own modules and packs, but not the cells).

Finally, the big question on everyone’s lips is, “What is Tesla’s current cost for batteries at the cell and pack level?” We likely won’t get that information, as it is not typically shared in this industry and Elon Musk has held his tongue on the question several times in recent years.

However, we can all be dreamers. Hopefully all of those questions and more will be answered in full on September 15.