Back in 2006 when Tesla was a fledgling electric vehicle company, CEO Elon Musk penned a Secret Master Plan outlining Tesla’s environmental doctrines and EV production goals and shared it in a blog post. Now, however, the document, as well as blog posts published prior to 2019, has vanished from the company’s website.
As recently as April 2024, Tesla referred to the plan as entirely Musk’s own creation and the foundational cornerstone of its mission. “Tesla’s entire corporate strategy is Musk’s brainchild—he conceived both the ‘Master Plan’ and ‘Master Plan, Part Deux,’” the company told investors.
Tesla’s Secret Master Plan outlined the steps to producing affordable, consumer-friendly EVs, reflecting the philosophy of using clean energy to offset fossil-fuel use in the auto industry on the path toward a more sustainable future. Musk argued Tesla could make EVs more affordable through success from its Tesla’s Roadster, a “high-end, battery-powered sports car.”
“The overarching purpose of Tesla Motors (and the reason I am funding the company) is to help expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy, which I believe to be the primary, but not exclusive, sustainable solution,” Musk said in the document.
Musk authored “The Master Plan, Part Deux” in 2016 after Tesla had successfully launched its Roadster and Model S, as well as gone public in 2010. That document, according to the company’s 2024 proxy statement, outlined projections for the mass production of Tesla’s Model 3. The document is no longer available on Tesla’s website, and the original link reroutes back to the company’s main blog page. Tesla published a third Master Plan in April 2023, which is still on its website. The document presents the company’s sustainability goals and the materials needed to manufacture Tesla’s fleet of cars.
Why now?
Musk’s first two Master Plans weren’t the only noteworthy pieces of writing removed from Tesla’s website. Automotive news outlet Autoevolution reported last week that Tesla had removed older blog posts, including one from 2016 titled “All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware.” The post touted full self-driving’s (FSD) ability to navigate “densely packed freeways” and find optimal driving routes. However, Tesla warned the cars’ FSD features would function only after government approval and “extensive software validation.”
Not only have those features not yet come to fruition, but Tesla is facing a class-action suit alleging the company and Musk misled Tesla owners about its self-driving and autopilot features. The suit claims Tesla told customers that their cars would soon have autonomous driving capabilities and falsely advertised the cars’ self-driving capabilities, luring customers into paying more for the vehicles. Tesla must also contend with a claim from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which alleges the EV company overstated those same features.
The disappearance of cornerstone documents in Tesla’s founding philosophy coincides with Musk’s recent softening of his climate stances and his support of Donald Trump’s bid for presidential reelection. Trump has previously lambasted EVs, saying they will “kill” the auto industry. This month, Trump pledged to end tax credits for EVs and scrap President Joe Biden’s sustainability initiatives.
But despite Trump antagonizing EVs, Musk has offered effusive support of the former president, endorsing Trump after the July 13 assassination attempt against him and expressing interest in taking on a Cabinet role in Trump’s administration should he be reelected. Musk denied reports that he planned to donate $45 million a month to Trump’s super PAC.
But as Musk has courted his new potential political ally, his opinions on the fossil fuel industry have begun to align more with Trump’s. In a two-hour chat with Trump streamed on X on Aug. 13, Musk defended the gas and oil industry, saying the economy is reliant on those forms of energy.
“My views on climate change and oil gas…are pretty moderate,” Musk said. “I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry and the people that have worked very hard in those industries to provide the necessary energy to support the economy.”
The Tesla site’s archive of press releases and SEC filings go back to 2008 and 2010, respectively.
Tesla did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
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