Tesla's Elon Musk dials down expectations ahead of Battery Day event

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk tapered down expectations ahead of the electric-car maker’s Battery Day event scheduled for Tuesday evening, sending shares lower.

The event, scheduled for Tuesday evening, has been a near-term catalyst for Tesla shares and is expected potentially game-changing technology.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
TSLA	TESLA INC.	357.09	+11.93	+3.46%

Tuesday’s announcement “affects long-term production, especially Semi, Cybertruck & Roadster, but what we announce will not reach serious high-volume production until 2022,” Must tweeted.

He added that the company plans to ramp up battery cell purchases from partners, but he remains concerned about a significant shortage of materials in 2022 and the years ahead.

Tesla has been in talks with Canadian nickel miner Giga Metals about partnering on a mine that would give the electric-car maker the ability to obtain low carbon nickel needed for its batteries, according to Reuters. The company recently secured its cobalt needs in a deal with commodity trader Glencore.

Speculation has been building that Tesla is getting close to creating a battery that could last for 1 million miles and make further strides in replacing the traditional gasoline-powered automobile.

Whatever is announced at Battery Day, Musk has made it clear that it will take time bring to scale.

“The extreme difficulty of scaling production of new technology is not well understood,” Musk tweeted. “It’s 1000% to 10,000% harder than making a few prototypes.”

Battery Day has been just one of the catalysts for Tesla shares this year.

A fourth consecutive quarterly profit propelled the stock to a 496% this year through Aug. 31, the day shares split 5-for-1.

They fell 33% over the next five sessions after Tesla announced a $5 billion stock offering and was passed over for inclusion in the S&P 500 before recouping about two-thirds of that decline.

Tesla shares were up 437% this year through Monday.