Musk working on another ‘Top Secret Tesla Masterplan’

Facing increased scrutiny recently about the safety of the Autopilot feature on his company’s cars, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk over the weekend hinted at a coming announcement about a “Top Secret Tesla Masterplan, Part 2”.

In Q2, Tesla delivered 9,745 Model S cars and 4,625 of its newer Model X crossovers, which debuted late past year.

Fortunately, us mere mortals – people who weren’t the inspiration for Robert Downey Jr’s portrayal of Tony Stark in all those Iron Man and Avengers movies – may only have a few more days to wait until we hear what Musk has planned next for Tesla. In a tweet yesterday morning, Musk said he hoped to publish an update to the plan “later this week”.

However, this driver had Autopilot engaged while traveling on a winding two-lane road without a center divider.

Apart from battle with major publications, Tesla Motors Inc. Tesla’s debt burden exceeds $3.1 billion, and with the acquisition of SolarCity, that amount would increase to a staggering $5.8 billion-a number that won’t escape investors, not to mention the SEC.

“When someone buys the Tesla Roadster sports vehicle, they are actually helping pay for development of the low-priced family auto”, Musk said at the time.

In this situation, Musk argues that the merger would help create “a seamlessly integrated Tesla battery and solar panel product that looks attractive”, while critics argue that the deal would cause stress for both businesses, referring to it as “corporate governance at its worst”. “This is not the first time Tesla has missed an aggressive target”.

TSLA Market Cap data by YCharts. Teasing it like this means there will now be even more pressure on him-and on Tesla-for it to be a good one.

When Tesla does unveil the second installment of its secret masterplan, investors should keep in mind that the stock is already priced for significant growth over the next decade.

Musk’s first ‘master plan, ‘ of course, is the now famous 2006 blog post where Musk laid out his plans for the company. It would be hard to overstate the importance of this third step; after all, the Model 3 is supposed to be the vehicle that will take Tesla from selling around an estimated 80,000 vehicles this year to around 500,000 vehicles annually by 2018.