Musk Has a New Master Plan for Tesla. Uh Oh.
A dollop of nostalgia and vague futurism substitute for specific breakthroughs and timelines and, well, a recognizable plan.
Moving on.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
The lifespan of Tesla Inc.’s “master plans,” strategic missives from Chief Executive Elon Musk, has declined dramatically. The first held for a decade. The third, just superseded by Master Plan Part IV, didn’t even make its third birthday.
An optimist, of which Tesla’s shareholder ranks have no shortage, might take that as a sign that the future is arriving faster and plans must shift accordingly. In reality, it is a sign that Tesla has been unable to will its future into being quickly enough and must therefore redefine it again. The most compelling evidence for this is that Master Plan Part IV isn’t a plan. Generously, and borrowing a favorite phrase of one of Musk’s more prominent frenemies, it might be described as a concept of a plan. Far from laying out a blueprint for tomorrow, it offers nostalgia for yesteryear and the sort of vague futurism you might plausibly conjure up on Grok with a spare half-hour (it was actually published on X, Musk’s social media platform, rather than Tesla’s website).