• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechElon Musk

These Are Elon Musk’s Top 3 Priorities at Tesla

By
Katie Fehrenbacher
Katie Fehrenbacher
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Katie Fehrenbacher
Katie Fehrenbacher
Down Arrow Button Icon
October 26, 2016, 8:16 PM ET
Tour Of Tesla Motors Inc.'s Gigafactory With Remarks By Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk And Co-Founder Jeffrey Straubel
Billionaire Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Motors Inc., left, speaks as Jeffrey Straubel, chief technical officer and co-founder of Tesla Motors Inc., looks on during a press event at the company's new Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, U.S., on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Tesla officially opened its Gigafactory on Tuesday, a little more than two years after construction began. The factory is about 14 percent complete but when it's finished, it will be about 10 million square feet, or about the size of 262 NFL football fields.Photograph by Troy Harvey—Bloomberg via Getty Images

In an earnings call following one of Tesla’s best quarters ever, Tesla CEO Elon Musk disclosed the three things he’s currently prioritizing at his electric car company.

Those priorities include making sure that the company’s upcoming Model 3 is on time and inexpensive enough, advancing Tesla’s autonomous vehicle software, and ramping up the company’s high-energy battery pack for cars.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Model 3 is at the top of the list.

The company has only launched three cars in its 13-year lifetime, and the Model 3 will be the company’s fourth car. But the car will be Tesla’s (TSLA) first lower-priced car, with a planned cost of $35,000. The company’s other cars commonly go for six figures depending on the features.

In order to meet the Model 3’s low price, Tesla is racing to lower the cost of batteries that will power the car, by building a massive battery factory outside of Reno, Nevada. The car’s batteries, made in conjunction with Japanese giant Panasonic, will be larger in size than traditional lithium-ion batteries and will have other new features.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

The company is trying to get the first Model 3 cars to customers by the end of 2017, as well as ramp up manufacturing of all its cars to 500,000 units per year by 2018, up from about 80,000 in 2016. Meeting that timeline could be difficult. Tesla has missed these types of deadlines in the past.

That Musk is also prioritizing the company’s Autopilot software—which currently aids Tesla drivers with steering, lane changing, and even parking—also isn’t too surprising. The company had a high profile fatal accident when one of its customers had Autopilot enabled.

Following the death, the company upgraded its software and recently announced that all new cars produced at the factory will have new hardware that can make them fully self-driving (when Tesla’s software enables it). That new hardware includes 8 cameras, powerful computing, and a next-gen radar system.

Many companies are aggressively moving into autonomous vehicles, from traditional auto industry firms like GM and Nissan, to startups including Otto and Cruise Automation, to ride-sharing upstarts like Uber. Tesla has an opportunity to lead with its self-driving car tech, but it will have to work quickly to maintain a head start.

Tesla Just Introduced a New High-Energy Battery Pack

Musk’s third Tesla priority is a little more counter intuitive. Two months ago the company announced it’s working on a 100-kilowatt hour battery pack for its cars that can enable them to accelerate more quickly and drive further on a single charge. The 100-kilowatt battery can last for 315 miles, which is the longest range ever for a production electric vehicle.

Currently the battery pack is only being made in limited amounts, and it uses a new battery cell cooling system, battery cell architecture, and electronics.

Musk said on Wednesday’s earnings call that there is high demand for the 100-kilowatt hour battery pack, and that he gets daily updates on the technology’s progress. In fact, he said after he got off the earnings call, he would be focused on that battery production line.

While the 100-kilowatt battery may seem like the stuff of energy nerds, it actually represents everything that Tesla has worked on for the last decade. If the company can offer the high-energy battery pack much more widely, it could beat out many competitors also launching electric cars in the coming years.

About the Author
By Katie Fehrenbacher
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

AIchief executive officer (CEO)
Microsoft AI boss Suleyman opens up about his peers and calls Elon Musk a ‘bulldozer’ with ‘superhuman capabilities to bend reality to his will’
By Jason MaDecember 13, 2025
3 hours ago
InvestingStock
There have been head fakes before, but this time may be different as the latest stock rotation out of AI is just getting started, analysts say
By Jason MaDecember 13, 2025
9 hours ago
Politicsdavid sacks
Can there be competency without conflict in Washington?
By Alyson ShontellDecember 13, 2025
9 hours ago
InnovationRobots
Even in Silicon Valley, skepticism looms over robots, while ‘China has certainly a lot more momentum on humanoids’
By Matt O'Brien and The Associated PressDecember 13, 2025
11 hours ago
Sarandos
Arts & EntertainmentM&A
It’s a sequel, it’s a remake, it’s a reboot: Lawyers grow wistful for old corporate rumbles as Paramount, Netflix fight for Warner
By Nick LichtenbergDecember 13, 2025
15 hours ago
Oracle chairman of the board and chief technology officer Larry Ellison delivers a keynote address during the 2019 Oracle OpenWorld on September 16, 2019 in San Francisco, California.
AIOracle
Oracle’s collapsing stock shows the AI boom is running into two hard limits: physics and debt markets
By Eva RoytburgDecember 13, 2025
16 hours ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Success
Apple cofounder Ronald Wayne sold his 10% stake for $800 in 1976—today it’d be worth up to $400 billion
By Preston ForeDecember 12, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
Tariffs are taxes and they were used to finance the federal government until the 1913 income tax. A top economist breaks it down
By Kent JonesDecember 12, 2025
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
40% of Stanford undergrads receive disability accommodations—but it’s become a college-wide phenomenon as Gen Z try to succeed in the current climate
By Preston ForeDecember 12, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
The Fed just ‘Trump-proofed’ itself with a unanimous move to preempt a potential leadership shake-up
By Jason MaDecember 12, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
For the first time since Trump’s tariff rollout, import tax revenue has fallen, threatening his lofty plans to slash the $38 trillion national debt
By Sasha RogelbergDecember 12, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Success
Apple CEO Tim Cook out-earns the average American’s salary in just 7 hours—to put that into context, he could buy a new $439,000 home in just 2 days
By Emma BurleighDecember 12, 2025
1 day ago
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.