Tesla Starts to Disappear !

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Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Musk was interviewed on NPR the other day. He said he was actually surprised Tesla was still alive. He fully expected it to be out of business by now. I guess you could call him a realist...

He was probably talking about the first car they had, the 2-seat spider. That car was a very low volume car, no car company can survive with a single extremely low vehicle.

But after the introduction of Model S Tesla was not only survive but growing, not at rapid pace but not in danger of folding either.

If Musk didn't believe in the potential growing of electric vehicles he didn't build the Mega Factory in Nevada, that huge battery factory costs upward $5 billions. This factory is to produce batteries for Model 3 and power storage for business and home use.

The main problem with Tesla is ramp up production volume for Model S, X and 3. Currently, the Fremont factory may not be able to make 500,000 vehicle a year as they plan to do in 2020.

Talking about losing money every quarter, Tesla is in expanding mode and like every start up company in the last 30-40 years they all lost money the first few years.

When did FedEx have the first full year profit ? How about Amazon, how many years did they lost before they had a full year profit ?

An expanding car company needs to buy a lot of expensive equipments/tools, a ton of money went into R&D ... and for building $5 billions battery factory, that why Tesla is losing money(revenue minus expense).

If EV is a loosing investment then why most European car companies are getting into the game ? Don't they have bean counters ? We all know that bean counters don't care about anything other than profit, no profit no way.
 
IMO they will need to have independent dealers if they go mainstream. There is no way I would purchase a car and have a service point over 100 miles from my home. Elon Musk may have some sort of 'grand plan', but as a marketing guy, I fail to see a successful outcome. FWIW


Oldtommy
 
Originally Posted By: tenderloin
If anyone came out with an "affordable" electric car with around 150 -200 mile range IMO it would sell well. No need for 20 years on that. More charging stations will be built when sales of electric cars warrant. Current offerings from other than Tesla are limited on range...No thanks. VW pushing electric cars? LOL Trying to get back in the good grace of all those who bought the "clean" diesel cars thinking not only were they getting good MPG but clean burning as well...and keep writing how embarrassed they are for polluting so much.

The main problem is availability of Li-ion battery, Musk said that all currently available Li-ion in the world is not enough for 500k EV's with 200+ miles range.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Musk was interviewed on NPR the other day. He said he was actually surprised Tesla was still alive. He fully expected it to be out of business by now. I guess you could call him a realist...



Tesla still alive? And kicking.

Power Vault

This is their horse, me thinks.
 
Oh... look at that, another HTSS_TR thread expressing his love for Tesla.

Get a room. Wait, that's actually a good idea! Mods, can we HTSS_TR his own forum to keep us abreast of all good Tesla news?
 
Originally Posted By: MrHorspwer
Oh... look at that, another HTSS_TR thread expressing his love for Tesla.

Get a room. Wait, that's actually a good idea! Mods, can we HTSS_TR his own forum to keep us abreast of all good Tesla news?

True.

I'm not denying that I love Tesla. I don't own Tesla car or stock but I love an American car company that set standards for other car companies of the world to follow.

I love the way Tesla is doing now, create good paying jobs right here in America, not oversea.

They are making their vehicles in US of A and export to all over the world, what is wrong with that ?

Am I wrong for supporting an American company ?

PS If I get a vacation for supporting an American car company I will accept it without complaining.
 
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Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR

PS If I get a vacation for supporting an American car company I will accept it without complaining.


It was just a joke. Nobody wants you to have a vacation.

After I posted about getting you your own forum, it actually struck me that it may not be a bad idea. We have gasoline and diesel alternative fuel forums. EVs are kind of just an extension of that.

I predict that sometime in the next 10 years, BITOG will have a section for electrified vehicles.
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
I just hope that someone in the White House does not declare Tesla to important to fail and decides to spend my money on a sink hole.


Why not?
We bailed out the POS company Chrysler not once but twice!
We've bailed out GM so why not add another to the list?
Ford came close but the family didn't want to lose control so they did the (American) thing and mortgaged anything and everything including the name and tried to make a go of it.
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
I just hope that someone in the White House does not declare Tesla too important to fail and decides to spend my money on a sink hole.

What type of money that Tesla are getting from Federal Government ?

Every buyer of any brand ZEV(BEV and FCV) and plug-in hybrid get some federal tax rebate and some states have rebate too, not only for Tesla buyers.

Carbon trading is available for any company that produce ZEV and plug-in hybrid, not only Tesla can earn carbon credit.

Megafactory got some incentives from the state of Nevada like other big corporates got from various states when they open factories there. Tesla isn't any difference, they didn't get any preferred treatment more than any other company.

Tesla received federal warranty loan some years ago, they paid all back plus interest more than a year ago. Tesla doesn't have any government debt, be it federal or state.

Many be some federal government agencies or state agancies give Tesla some financial aid under the table that I don't know. If you know, will you post who gave Tesla what ?
 
Originally Posted By: MrHorspwer
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR

PS If I get a vacation for supporting an American car company I will accept it without complaining.


It was just a joke. Nobody wants you to have a vacation.

After I posted about getting you your own forum, it actually struck me that it may not be a bad idea. We have gasoline and diesel alternative fuel forums. EVs are kind of just an extension of that.

I predict that sometime in the next 10 years, BITOG will have a section for electrified vehicles.

I apologize for misunderstood your post.
cheers3.gif


I truly love American company creates jobs in America to export its products oversea, bring home the cash and create more jobs for American workers. It is very difficult to hate those companies.
 
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Originally Posted By: Y_K
Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
He said and I agree that it takes really about 20 years to change the automotive landscape.


Ford did this quicker with T Model.


Ford brought the price down of already existing technology.

If you go back 20 years before the Model T you had a lot of different technologies competing such as steam and electric, no one was really sure who was going to win.

Different animals, and the landscape has changed vastly since the 1920's.

The average consumer keeps their vehicle around 7 years, and that's also what it takes for a manufacture to develop a new car. Throw in model life cycle, and entrenched interests that don't want to change and things take time.
 
Originally Posted By: 2oldtommy
IMO they will need to have independent dealers if they go mainstream. There is no way I would purchase a car and have a service point over 100 miles from my home. Elon Musk may have some sort of 'grand plan', but as a marketing guy, I fail to see a successful outcome. FWIW


Oldtommy


They do their is one right down the road from me next to Volvo. Interestingly it was a Saturn dealership.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
I just hope that someone in the White House does not declare Tesla too important to fail and decides to spend my money on a sink hole.

What type of money that Tesla are getting from Federal Government ?

Every buyer of any brand ZEV(BEV and FCV) and plug-in hybrid get some federal tax rebate and some states have rebate too, not only for Tesla buyers.

Carbon trading is available for any company that produce ZEV and plug-in hybrid, not only Tesla can earn carbon credit.

Megafactory got some incentives from the state of Nevada like other big corporates got from various states when they open factories there. Tesla isn't any difference, they didn't get any preferred treatment more than any other company.

Tesla received federal warranty loan some years ago, they paid all back plus interest more than a year ago. Tesla doesn't have any government debt, be it federal or state.

Many be some federal government agencies or state agancies give Tesla some financial aid under the table that I don't know. If you know, will you post who gave Tesla what ?


I don't get the Tesla government connection people keep spouting off either. They received a loan from the fed's like every other car maker did, I don't see any special treatment their.

IMHO the fed loan was actually quit well done. It stipulated they had to build the cars in the US and the interest rate was fairly aggressive. Tesla paid it back and I think the feds made $20mish on the whole thing. So overall it was a pretty decent use of taxpayer money, not only did a few jobs get created, they made a net profit on the entire deal.


I don't believe the federal government has any further involvement with Tesla. I know their are some federal and state tax advantages for EV vehicles that buyers take advantage of, but none of them are Tesla specific, they apply to say a Leaf as well.

OTOH the feds give write offs for 1 ton trucks as well so I don't get why people are complaining.

Its wrong for me to take a $7500 write off on a Model S but totally OK for me to buy an F350 loaded up power stroke and write the entire $70k off? What's the difference?
 
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Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
FYI, the below link doesn't just cover Tesla, but all of Musk's companies...

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html

He's a smart guy and knows how to get government money, that's for sure, but it's all legal, so anyone else with his brains could do the same.

I agree with you that he is a very smart investor, and he have some smart financial advisers too.

Musk is a business/investor person. No investor likes to invest in a known loosing business. Some take risks and lost, some take risks and win.

Musk and his bean counters calculated all legal revenue sources, be it from Federal and/or states and/or consumers, versus expenses. They saw potential to make a profit that why they start all those companies.

What they did was the same as all other investors, many be he did better than all others that why all the hatreds.
 
Originally Posted By: Hootbro
Who is buying them anyways? I have yet to see one outside a car show.


I see them in the wealthier suburbs of many cities.
 
There are 2 on my block alone and thousands of them in So cal.

I frequent the I5 & 10 freeways from LA to San Fran, and LA to Vegas - and the supercharger stations I see are all either from 75% full to overcapacity at every one - every stop.

These thing sell like crazy here.

UD
 
Originally Posted By: hattaresguy

I don't get the Tesla government connection people keep spouting off either. They received a loan from the fed's like every other car maker did, I don't see any special treatment their.

...

OTOH the feds give write offs for 1 ton trucks as well so I don't get why people are complaining.

Its wrong for me to take a $7500 write off on a Model S but totally OK for me to buy an F350 loaded up power stroke and write the entire $70k off? What's the difference?



That's their political bias showing

Somehow an electric car company is threatening their "way of life" or something like that.
33.gif


I'm annoyed that CA is giving money for hydrogen infrastructure - it seems like full EV is the way to go and we should focus on that, but they can't pick a side yet and have to promote all potential "green" vehicles currently.
 
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