Originally Posted By: Andy636
Elon Musk looks like a buffoon with his comments...not all of us measly mortals can spend 80K's on a Tesla car that will take you to the grocery store and back, and that if you want to take a cross country trip you have to plan ahead more than a full military operation so you won't get stranded on the side of the road.
The current Tesla EV's, Model S and X, are to generate revenues for next vehicle Model 3. This Model 3 is supposed to cost about $35k and will be in production by mid-late 2017. This Model 3 is the car that will show if Tesla will be able to survive or not.
EV is new therefore infrastructure are not as abundant as gas/diesel stations. Tesla is expanding their fast charge stations in US and some oversea countries. There are some destinations(hotel, restaurant, shopping center ...) with chargers onsite. As EV sale increases more charging stations will be built. As of now, EV is not as convenience as gas/diesel vehicle for long trip. But thing will change in future.
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Musk has a failing electric car business to prop up, so he'll say that kind of thing. If it wasn't for mainstream OEM's paying him emissions credits (extortion payments mandated by the government), Tesla would have gone belly-up years ago. His electric car business is running at a loss, but carbon credits are pure profit for him. Tesla is the overhyped prostitute of Wall Street.
Do you know profit margin of Model S ? Compare with other luxury makes/models ?
Musk knows all the revenues that he can get with an EV, he started Tesla with a business plan just like every other investor, total revenues minus total cost is profit (or lost if spending is more than taking in).
The reasons that Tesla is reporting losses are cost of expending his company is more than revenue from Model S.
If you take into account cost of developing a new vehicle (Model X for Tesla) is in billion(s) dollars, also cost of building Mega-Factory to make battery is billions dollars. You will see why Tesla is and will be loosing money the next few years.
Tell me a current large corporation that didn't loose money the first few years when they started. Did FedEx make money the first 3-4 years ? Did Amazon earn a profit the first 5 years ? and do Amazon have any full year profit after 15 years ?
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Self serving remark. Go back for some more Federal grants, Musk. Maybe, someday, you'll turn a PROFIT without the Feds propping you up.
When did Tesla receive Federal grants ? How much were those grants ? As far as I know Federal didn't grant Tesla 1 penny.
Tesla received Federal loan guaranty in around 2008-2009, they paid it all back plus interest more than a year ago. They did much better than all Federal guarantied loans to all other companies that last 20-30 years.
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As far as I know, Tesla didn't break any law, everything they do so far are not immoral nor unethical. They did every according to standard business practices.
They are stand out from the crows because their products are better than anyone can imagine just few years ago. They are the leader in EV segment, they set the bar very high for anyone to follow. The best traditional car manufactures don't have any answer to Model S as of today, only have some vehicles on drawing boards to compete with Tesla 2-3 years later.
With this you should applause Tesla, a new/star up company that set the stone for Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Porsche, GM, Ford, Toyota, Nissan ... to follow. Without Tesla do you think that big luxury German car makers would be able to plan for an EV with 300 miles range ?
