10/21 Munich Tesla Event with Elon Musk

[FluxCap]

Elon Musks speach at Tesla event in Munich (10/21/2013) *HQ* - YouTube

Edit: I stand corrected on transcript, I just saw the high-quality full video of the speech.

I think Elon overstated a bit given his audience and if his PR team was able to vet his speech (if I was on his Marketing team), I would have told him not to declare a market as your "top focus" because it ties you to it and can offend other markets.

Audi also just said that Tesla is the major competitor we know them to be, so that's good. But man Elon, you are either courageous or careless saying things like this -- I hope the former!

 

[Objective1]

Lolachampcar (whose posts I always value) has criticized focusing on Germany. Let me offer a reason why focusing on Germany is good for Tesla's bottom line in the long run:

Trying very hard to sell a car and service that competes with the best ICEs Germany has to offer raises the bar for any American car builder. So by focusing on Germany, Elon is pushing his team to keep trying to make Model S (and future vehicles) the best cars in the world. In addition, a performance car that sells in Germany has immense credit with the rest of the world, so it's a plus for world-wide marketing, too.

 

[BruceH]

From a strategic point of view I'm actually not sure this was such a smart move..... By placing all this emphasis on Germany if Tesla gains a significant foothold then its german competitors (who are now still discounting the threat posed by EVs to their businesses) will be forced to open their eyes and will react more quickly.

Hopefully Tesla can always keep their advantages (like apple, at least to some degree). If it's true, then from the strategic point of view, I actually believe the awaken competitors would just help to educate the people that EV is truly the future. Not too bad.

 

[Yggdrasill]

right.

But reacting more quickly does not mean they can catch up with Tesla in the near future - Tesla's moat is large. If they really would want to move fast, they need to license the technology.

But what to do with to 10.000 ICE-trained engineers?

BMW, Mercedes and Audi will have the best damn cupholders the world has ever seen!

 

[djplong]

I don't know if this has anything to do with it but.. I recently spent two weeks in Germany (vacation) and one thing I noticed was how prevalent solar was. While riding the trains across the countryside, solar panels were *everywhere*. In some small towns it looked like they were on up to 1/3 of ALL rooftops and maybe 1/4 in general.

 

[Bunky]

Anyone know if the Thursday press release will be released in the US or just in Germany? Seems like all the positive news from yesterday has not been picked up on by the media/market over here.

 

[Krugerrand]

From a strategic point of view I'm actually not sure this was such a smart move..... By placing all this emphasis on Germany if Tesla gains a significant foothold then its german competitors (who are now still discounting the threat posed by EVs to their businesses) will be forced to open their eyes and will react more quickly.

Considering Tesla's ultimate goal, this is THE strategic move to make. Tesla wants to force everyone else to open their eyes and react more quickly. It's the whole point of Tesla. I think some people forget that. Tesla never set out to be the #1 car manufacturer, not even the #1 EV manufacturer. They set out to change the world of autos as fast as humanly possible. Taking your product to 'their' turf is exactly how you get 'them' to sit up and take notice. The ball, as it were, is about to be dropped smacked dab in the middle of their court. What will 'they' do? That's the $64,000 question. Personally, I expect a lot of smack talk followed by a big whiff of the ball. :wink:

- - - Updated - - -

BMW, Mercedes and Audi will have the best damn cupholders the world has ever seen!

And good on them! LOL!

 

[lolachampcar]

For the record, I'm a fan of Elon's approach including performing in VAG, BMW and MB's back yard (Germany). I was attempting to highlight another of Elon's going against traditional thinking by concentrating on Germany. He is just blatantly going after one of his goals which is to spur those very companies into action.

WRT solar, the German government has been on a roll over the number of years to enable solar. There are several threads that describe the incentives provided and some of the intended and unintended consequences of the policy.

and krug was typing faster than I was

 

[hileyms]

The German government has decided after the Fukushima nuclear disaster that they will have NO nuclear plants - therefore they have got to find other ways of generating power including solar, wind etc

 

[evme]

Anyone know if the Thursday press release will be released in the US or just in Germany? Seems like all the positive news from yesterday has not been picked up on by the media/market over here.

You know, TMC should really put together a news reporting page. Unfortunately many news networks do not consider forum posts as legit source of information. If TMC had a news outlet that reported on all that is Tesla. Maybe the news networks can use it as a source of information on events.

Edit: Just wanted to add, statistically speaking when I try to tip information to news outlets using their news submission feature:

News from another news site chance of being picked up is 40%
News from TMC forum post/thread chance of being picked up is 0%

 

[Palpatine]

Doesn't Mercedes have a seat on the board of Tesla Motors?
I wonder how they feel about TM making such a big push in their home market.

 

[brianman]

Doesn't Mercedes have a seat on the board of Tesla Motors?
I wonder how they feel about TM making such a big push in their home market.

Unsurprised.

If you're a board member of Tesla Motors and didn't see this coming as "non-news" (from an insider executive perspective) then you need to improve your attendance.

 

[FredLambert]

You know, TMC should really put together a news reporting page. Unfortunately many news networks do not consider forum posts as legit source of information. If TMC had a news outlet that reported on all that is Tesla. Maybe the news networks can use it as a source of information on events.

Edit: Just wanted to add, statistically speaking when I try to tip information to news outlets using their news submission feature:

News from another news site chance of being picked up is 40%
News from TMC forum post/thread chance of being picked up is 0%

I saw that you guys thought it wasn’t being pick up enough by the media. I know it isn’t much, but I wrote something that has been publish on TSLA Yahoo finance page to get some momentum going.
http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...a-prototype-of-teslas-gen-iii-in-12-mont.aspx

It isn’t much, but last month I wrote something about Tesla in Norway and about 20,000 persons read it and a week after that the more mainstream media started talking about Tesla in Norway - http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/09/12/how-tesla-conquered-norway.aspx

Who knows, maybe it will get people talking…

 

[RobStark]

Full 30 minute video of event is now on Youtube.

Search Musk + Germany. It is in two parts.

 

[Krugerrand]

and krug was typing faster than I was

High school typing course. 50 words per minute on a 'manual' typewriter. That's right, I'm that old.

 

[brianman]

High school typing course. 50 words per minute on a 'manual' typewriter. That's right, I'm that old.

I remember my speed doubled when I was allowed to use backspace.

 

[kevin99]

Interestingly when talking about Tesla shares, Elon reiterated he guarantees he will be the last one selling shares. The fact he has mentioned this in a few occasions makes me believe he really mean it literally. So how can he guarantee that? The only way is being acquired at some point. So I very much think once the Model E is out and Tesla becomes one of the main players in the auto industry, Elon will sell Tesla and move on to his next grand idea.

 

[Krugerrand]

I remember my speed doubled when I was allowed to use backspace.

'Our' backspace key was called WhiteOut.

And when we needed a second copy of a letter we were typing...carbon paper, people.

 

[brianman]

'Our' backspace key was called WhiteOut.
And when we needed a second copy of a letter we were typing...carbon paper, people.

Yah, that's what I was referring to. We had one of those fancy "auto whiteout" backspace keys. (And, no, I don't mean metaphorically; it was literally tape with white paint or whatever on it.)

 

[medved]

Full 30 minute video of event is now on Youtube.

Search Musk + Germany. It is in two parts.

Can't you just post the link here?

OK, I did.