Moderator: Soñadora
Soñadora wrote:I should clarify my thoughts. I believe there is a breakthrough in “battery” technology coming soon. Energy storage of some fashion that can be “charged” once. And won’t require teeth breaking, low friction tires, wheezy AC, or dumbed down electronics. The current form factor is pretty much at its maximum. We might be able to squeeze another 100 miles out of it, but that won’t be enough. I truly hope Musk is concerned about battery technology today for passenger vehicles.
Or
What may happen, given Musk’s cultural popularity, he develops infrastructure that keeps the battery charged on the road. Maybe charging towers every 10 miles or something beaming “charge juice”. Some kind of induction charging or something.
Rob McAlpine wrote:I've never understood the logic behind Tesla' market cap. My son explained It as being able to buy stock in Scientology.
The cars are nice, the tech is great.
Rob McAlpine wrote:I've never understood the logic behind Tesla' market cap. My son explained It as being able to buy stock in Scientology.
The cars are nice, the tech is great.
Ish wrote:And realistically should cost about $4 million each to break even.
LarryHoward wrote:Tesla absolutely "made the market" for luxury EV's. I'd love a model S and consider the $60,000 Model 3 but we haven't seen the $35,00 version yet and probably won't before the credits dry up. A lot of us predicted that Tesla would have a challenge moving from bespoke production of luxury vehicles to mass production as their IT company model of selling the hype and excitement had to shift to an efficient production model.
Now, "real" car companies are rushing headlong into EV's and Tesla may find themselves as the forgotten innovator. The capital market is starting to punish them for continuous overpromising and under delivering. I read an opinion piece a couple of days ago that stated "Tesla needs a COO. Now." in order to temper the promises and concentrate on delivering. Once Audi, MB, BMW, the Japanese builders, Ford and GM routinely produce EVs that work and China's EV start ups get moving, Tesla will be fighting in a different market.
Ajax wrote:LarryHoward wrote:Tesla absolutely "made the market" for luxury EV's. I'd love a model S and consider the $60,000 Model 3 but we haven't seen the $35,00 version yet and probably won't before the credits dry up. A lot of us predicted that Tesla would have a challenge moving from bespoke production of luxury vehicles to mass production as their IT company model of selling the hype and excitement had to shift to an efficient production model.
Now, "real" car companies are rushing headlong into EV's and Tesla may find themselves as the forgotten innovator. The capital market is starting to punish them for continuous overpromising and under delivering. I read an opinion piece a couple of days ago that stated "Tesla needs a COO. Now." in order to temper the promises and concentrate on delivering. Once Audi, MB, BMW, the Japanese builders, Ford and GM routinely produce EVs that work and China's EV start ups get moving, Tesla will be fighting in a different market.
Yup.
I really, really don't want to see Elon Musk end up as the next John Z. DeLorean.
BeauV wrote:In re-reading your post, Larry, I realize you didn't say "car guy" you said hard nosed manager. Sorry to mis-read you. But I think my points still apply. The only place to find the sort of COO that Tesla needs is probably in the semiconductor business, or maybe disk drives.
BeauV wrote:Do keep in mind that Tesla has no plans to compete with Toyota Corolla and the array of Hyundai/Kia tin-can cars. Tesla is and will remain a high-end player, much like the Mini which is a $40-50k tiny car, not an economy car. In this way, I do agree that Apple and Tesla are alike. But, if we agree to that, then I suppose we'll need to agree that Tesla's market cap will resemble Apple more than IBM, Lenovo, HP, Dell, Compaq or any of the other current and past PC vendors which Apple is busy excluding from the high-quality high-profit end of the market.
kdh wrote:BeauV wrote:Do keep in mind that Tesla has no plans to compete with Toyota Corolla and the array of Hyundai/Kia tin-can cars. Tesla is and will remain a high-end player, much like the Mini which is a $40-50k tiny car, not an economy car. In this way, I do agree that Apple and Tesla are alike. But, if we agree to that, then I suppose we'll need to agree that Tesla's market cap will resemble Apple more than IBM, Lenovo, HP, Dell, Compaq or any of the other current and past PC vendors which Apple is busy excluding from the high-quality high-profit end of the market.
Really? Building the Model 3 at the price point sought is all about volume, efficiency, and capturing thin margins. Period.
Computers vs cars is irrelevant. Tesla wants to be Dell, not Apple.
Ajax wrote:Obviously, I wasn't the only one to make this connection:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/ca ... 472347002/
Ajax wrote:What methods do they have for raising more money?
They can sell more stock, but that will make the price per share drop, right? That could be a good thing for people like me, who missed the elevator the first time around.
kdh wrote:
But again, the problem is this: A successful car business is based on selling cars for more than the cost of building them.