Tesla has aggressive plans for the next 2 years — here's what's in the works (TSLA)

elon musk tesla

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the company aims to begin producing cars in China in 2020.
The company also aims to ramp up its energy business and launch several new cars in the same time frame.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has aggressive expansion plans for the company over the next few years.

One of the most notable things that Musk has planned is a big push into China. The company aims to begin producing its cars in a new factory in Shanghai in about three years, Musk said during Tesla's third-quarter earnings call Thursday.

But that's not all Musk envisions for Tesla during the next few years.

Among other things, Musk aims for Tesla to launch a new compact SUV, perfect autonomous cars, and expand its energy business — all by 2020.

Here's what else Musk wants Tesla to accomplish by then.

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Finish building its giant battery plant called Gigafactory 1.

The Gigafactory 1, which is located in Nevada, is crucial to Tesla's future because it is expected to help the company produce batteries en masse so that it can drive down the cost of the technology by as much as 30%.

Tesla claims the Gigafactory would help the company dramatically cut the cost of its batteries once it's fully operational by "using economies of scale, innovative manufacturing, reduction of waste, and the simple optimization of locating most manufacturing process under one roof."

In fact, Tesla has said that by 2018 the Gigafactory will be able to produce almost as many lithium-ion cells as the rest of the world's battery production combined.

Ramp up Model 3 production.

Tesla wants to bring electric vehicles to the masses with its Model 3, but the company must first seriously ramp up production.

The company launched the car in July and has since been dealing with a production nightmare.

The problem stems from a manufacturing hiccup at the Gigafactory where the batteries for the Model 3 are made.

Because of the assembly issue, the company has to push its production timeline back by three months, Musk said during an earnings call on Thursday.

The company had originally aimed to build 5,000 cars a week by December, but now the company foresees hitting that production level by the end of the first quarter, so sometime around March.

The delay, though, hasn't changed the company's ultimate goal to ramp up its total vehicle production to one million vehicles per year by 2020.

Launch a compact SUV, dubbed the Model Y, by the end of 2019 or early 2020.

In July 2016, Musk confirmed that Tesla planned to bring to market a new compact SUV, dubbed the Model Y.

But a timeline for the vehicle wasn't disclosed until May, when Musk said during the company's first-quarter earnings call that it would arrive by late 2019 or 2020. He also said the vehicle would be built on a platform separate from the Model 3.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider