Your view on Tesla having been a board member? A very, very, very early investor.
From the pre-IPO days in Tesla, and I'm really interested as to what you make of
the sudden slowdown in sales and why. Well, look, I think Ed's exactly right.
Numbers better than expected. Delivered 444,000 cars, up from 387,000
last quarter, but still down 5% year over year.
Here's the big picture. Tesla's growth has slowed from an
extraordinary 71% in 2021, 51% in 2020, 219% in 2023.
This year could be the first negative year Tesla has ever had.
That's why the stock's down 30% for the year.
They've lost 700 billion in value since November 2021.
This all creates huge pressure and some high drama for this big August 8th
unveil of the full self-driving robotaxi.
So the big question is can Tesla pull

rabbit out of the hat. We're going to see
in about five weeks? Well, what rabbit would you need?
A lower, cheaper price model rejuvenation there, or still waiting on
the robotaxi? Well, I think what you're likely to see
is an all-new vehicle built on a new smaller chassis.
And I think that would be the chassis of the future for the new $25,000 car.
And I think he's also going to show that full self-driving is almost ready to go.
The big question is, is it going to be ready for the regulators to allow it to
go out on the streets throughout the U.S.? Or will they do something a little
different, like launch in China first? Lot of speculation.
But if they can get these two things right, Tesla may be back on top for the
next decade. The stock is up almost 9% in the session,
but down 8% so far in 2024, down 13%

over the last 12 months.
As I punch that into my Bloomberg. Remind us a little bit of your history
of Tesla. You're a former board member, but at the
time you're a board member, energy was not as big a component of the business.
We've got a brilliant chart that I hope we can bring up showing that big jump in
energy installation in the second quarter of this year.
What did you make of that, Steve? So Ellen's got the big picture.
It's not just a car company. It is an energy company.
And frankly, it is an AI company. The energy division is the biggest,
fastest growing division of Tesla. It may become one of the most profitable
divisions. And that's something we've been tracking
for some time. But the big picture here is.
By 2027. They're going to be selling 30 million
EVs a year. Every automaker in the world is going
all electric.

And if Tesla can get this $25,000 into the market, along with full self-driving, they can be wider than they've been the Kings EVs for a long time.
Steve, I think we need to take a bigger picture.
Look at electric vehicle sales all around the world.
We have many more players in China who are reporting really good numbers.
A lot of folks actually have been getting hammered on social media.
I'll be honest with you. I've been getting absolutely hammered from all sides, those that are very pro Tesla, Tesla shareholders owners, those that are anti Tesla anti lane. You can't win.
But loads of them are pointing out that Tesla delivered more pure battery electric vehicles than bhiwadi. At the same time I mentioned at the top.
You know Elon Musk has talked about the challenge from hybrids.
That's the market right now. The legacy OEM is bringing more hybrid models online. The health of the market at large, please, with that context.

Look, the whole world is going electric.
That's why we invested in Tesla in 2008. We saw that there was going to be this
precipitous downward curve in the price of batteries, and that is why the whole
world, every automaker going all electric.
Now you're going to see slowdowns. Tesla's in the middle of a they call it
the valley of death between the wildly successful Model three and the Model Y,
and the next generation of air-driven, full self-driving vehicles.
As you move into that, I think they're going to do well in the meantime.
Tesla is becoming one of the largest sellers of energy in the world.
They have applied in approved to become a utility.
They provide word for Megapack to utilities all over the planet at an
astonishing rate. When I was in the old days, you
mentioned utilities. That was a boring industry.
Now utilities are reshaping the world. That's part of why we've raised our new
seed fund.

Talking in the old days, Steve.
And before we get into your new fund, your old days, you've known for a very
long time. In your old days, you were on Capitol
Hill in your old days when you were serving as California co-chair for the
Obama for America campaign. Do people come to you and say, Elon, the
problem here when it comes to buying a Tesla?
Elon is without a doubt one of the most polarizing figures of the age and then
some. Having said that, he has transformed the
global transportation industry, has transformed the American space program.
He appears to be on his way to co-leading a revolution in artificial
intelligence. It's hard to cast too many doubts, but
is he polarizing? Absolutely.
As you made a sure mistakes. I look at the Cybertruck numbers for the
wrong conclusion, but I still think he is likely the best person to lead Tesla
into the new future.

Steve, you're looking for the next Tesla. Your firm, Westly Group, has $100 million in new funds. The focus is at the seed stage. Sounds tough. How do you find the next Tesla, be it the energy component? Something to do with autonomy, something to do with electric vehicles, infrastructure at the very nascent stage of a startup's life. Look, investors all over the world are waking up and they want to invest in this new future of sustainability, these green energy. We've raised $100 million seed fund to transform, to help transform the world's largest industrial companies. And we're building on a 17-year track record of having raised four funds to invest in game-changing companies. So we've already had nine companies go public, including Tesla, three other multi-billion dollar exits. And I think our real secret source is the expertise we gained from having 32 of the world's largest energy mobility

insurance building companies.
As investors, they helped give us unparalleled deal flow.
We grew to about 4,000 companies a year. Keeps us on our toes.
I mean, you've got money from Duke Energy, Origin Energy, Alaska.
Everyone's here, many of them wanting sort of strategic investments here.
Steve, is electric vehicle, the strategic place to deploy capital right
now? Is it automation that you need to be
more focused on? Is it energy?
Where are you going to get the real bang for your buck, do you think?
Yeah, well, that's exactly the right question to ask.
Let's let's jump right into that. The unbelievable changes going on in
utility sector EVs, economies, vehicles, air is causing the electricity demand
globally to double by 2050. Utilities used to be boring.
Now they've become the linchpin of the global economy.
Energy's renewable energy, long duration power storage, virtual power plants, the
mobility sector.

Again, every company going electric.
And that's because EVs this year will start costing less than comparable
internal combustion engine vehicles. EVs are coming quickly.
In the world of industrials, it's all about air robotics, making everything
happen faster. We're in the center of those dramatic
industrial changes. It's the most exciting time in the world
to be an investor.

Tesla Beats Estimates With Less-Drastic Drop in EV Sales

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