Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said Monday that he hopes to formally announce the location of the clean-energy carmaker's new gigafactory later this year.
Speaking on the sidelines of an energy conference in the Norwegian city of Stavanger, Musk said also struck a bullish tone for the futures of electric cars, predicting that almost half of all cars sold will be electric by 2030, with that figure rising to 85% by 2035.
A new gigafactory to help that demand, however, has yet to be officially unveiled, although Musk hinted earlier this month at Tesla's annual shareholders meeting that Canada could be his favored location. he also told investors that he expects to hit a production run-rate of around 2 million vehicles per year by the end of December.
"We got a lot of Canada," Musk told shareholders as they shouted location suggests at the annual meeting on August 4. "I am half Canadian, maybe I should?"
Tesla shares were marked 2% lower in early Monday trading, falling in concert with other mega-cap tech stocks amid a surge in Treasury bond yields, to indicate an opening bell price of $282.51 each.
Tesla said earlier this summer that it expects full year deliveries to grow 50% from 2021 levels, implying a target of 1.4 million vehicles that Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn said has become "more difficult but remains possible with strong execution."
China's 'zero Covid' health policies, however, took a bite out of Tesla's second quarter output, while scheduled maintenance at its Shanghai factory lead to a steep decline in July sales and exports from the world's biggest car market.
Tesla sold 28,217 China-made cars last month, the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said Tuesday, with around 19,756 of the units exported to other markets.
The figures represent a sharp decline when compared to the 78,000 units sold in June, although the decline was linked to production suspensions in Shanghai that kept the plant idle for much of the month as it re-tools various systems to allow for weekly unit expansion over the coming months.
