Elon Musk organized a Tesla “All Hands” meeting. That’s what he said.

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Things get complicated for the leader of the electric vehicle

Tesla.

The company balances the addition of new models, new capabilities and new employees, all during a pandemic and semiconductor shortage that limits global car production. The growing complexity could be the reason CEO Elon Musk wanted to chat with employees.

According to Musk, he held a hands-on meeting at which all Tesla employees could tick (TSLA) in the reports. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

There was good news and bad news for investors.

The bad news is that Cybertruck is facing delays. Investors already knew that the delivery of Telsa’s lightweight pickup had been reduced from 2021 to 2022. Now it looks like production in volume won’t arrive until 2023.

This leaves Tesla behind

Ford engine

(F), Rivian and potentially

General Motors

(GM) in the race to launch an all-electric truck on a scale of tens of thousands of units a year.

On a positive note, 2023 also appears to be the year Tesla plans to launch a smaller model that costs about $ 25,000. Musk and Tesla management have been talking about a low-cost model for months. This is good for the company, as it will drastically expand the market that Tesla can serve.

A Telsa Model 3 sedan starts today at approximately $ 40,000 in the US. It’s still a high-end sedan, costing about $ 60,000 in certain configurations.

So far, few details have emerged about the small model. Now analysts and investors will begin to introduce 2023 into their financial models.

Of course, the key to selling a low-cost electric vehicle is to reduce battery costs. Tesla has managed to increase its gross profit per car sold from about $ 11,000 to nearly $ 15,000 in the past two years. This happened as average selling prices dropped from about $ 56,000 to $ 51,000 per car.

Musk also told employees that September would be a busy month for deliveries, as Tesla usually delivers most of its cars during the last month of a quarter.

Tesla delivered more than 200,000 vehicles in the second quarter. Analysts project about 224,000 vehicles to be delivered during the third quarter. However, the global shortage of chips will make quarterly production and deliveries a little more exciting than usual.

Tesla’s actions don’t do much in response to the news mix. Shares rose about 0.4% in premarket trading. Futures on the

S&P 500

i

Dow Jones industrial average

both increased by about 0.2%. Futures on the

Nasdaq Composite

—The home of many highly valued technology stocks such as Tesla — they also increased by about 0.2%.

To date, in 2021, Tesla shares have risen by approximately 4% to date, behind the S&P 500’s comparable 21% gain. However, Tesla shares have risen by about 80% in last 12 months and have increased by 743% in 2020.

Write to Al Root at [email protected]