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2012/07/25 Q2 2012 Q&A Conf Call notes

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Uneasy thoughts in my head after reading it all. :frown:

...An "upgraded interior" in their understanding might be a race car roll cage, not maple wood inserts. :wink:

Exactly my thoughts after seeing the "new" headliner with uform steel, the new massive cage around the floor batteries,and the massive t steel enforcements above it.
The additional ~800pounds between 2011 and the actual car had to come from something.
 
*rant* I hate the term "color" as a replacement for the perfectly good words "detail" or "clarification". I'd laugh so damn hard if, when asked for color, Elon said "purple".

Yea, I know, it's an industry term, but that doesn't make it less silly.
 
There were a lot of great things about today's call (I'm particularly excited about the Sept supercharger announcement) but I was surprised to hear that having 3-4 months of backlog is a company goal. All of us early adopters are anxious enough to tolerate a wait of months and even years, but I'm concerned how many sales Tesla will lose if they force every buyer in the coming years to wait three to four months to get their vehicle. Our society is addicted to instant gratification.
I disagree ... for a major investment like this, 3-4 months is about it ... look how long we're waiting! Plus it makes our cars more valuable. As, when, if they become ubiquitous they'll become more of a commodity item ... and should any of us decide to sell ours, I think the resale value will be that much higher.
 
Would be nice if you guys in California started a "Hunt for Tesla construction sites pictures"

Supercharger is being build somewhere said Elon. Where is that somewhere, that is the question.
TEG seems to be our internet ninja for that kind of stuff :). I'd think the permits Tesla has to apply for would be public record? Though you'd probably have to search by state. I'd lay money the first superchargers will be up and down I5.
 
*rant* I hate the term "color" as a replacement for the perfectly good words "detail" or "clarification". I'd laugh so damn hard if, when asked for color, Elon said "purple".

Yea, I know, it's an industry term, but that doesn't make it less silly.

Haha I was thinking the same thing. I kept laughing listening to the broadcast...all I could think was "can none of these bankers think of another word?"
 
There were a lot of great things about today's call (I'm particularly excited about the Sept supercharger announcement) but I was surprised to hear that having 3-4 months of backlog is a company goal. All of us early adopters are anxious enough to tolerate a wait of months and even years, but I'm concerned how many sales Tesla will lose if they force every buyer in the coming years to wait three to four months to get their vehicle. Our society is addicted to instant gratification.
Assuming they follow the same process as the Roadster... The time to deliver a custom order was 3 months. But if there were gaps in the production line they would build spec cars that would be sent to stores to hold as inventory. We ended up purchasing one of these cars. After we did our test drive our salesperson gave us a tour of the Menlo factory and #1098 was on the vehicle dyno undergoing final testing. I was so excited to bet my car I couldn't bear to wait 3 months (and would have pushed into 2011 for tax purposes) and this car had everything we wanted (except upgraded wheels which Tesla swapped for us) so we just bought that one.

I would imagine they'll do the same thing. Have a few cars tucked away in service centers (or the stores themselves if they have the space) around the country for folks who "want it now".

Remember he said it's their goal to always have a backlog, doesn't mean they will and ramping the line up and down is expensive for short periods so I would expect there will be some spec cars built.
 
Also, what is this (in the shareholder letter) about the massive service center in Fremont? Unveiled in June? Is it on the factory premises or something?

Not that I'm complaining; glad to have ready access to a service center that close to home...
I talked to some of the service guys at the PA drive event and they said that Stanford may jack the rent or otherwise not renew their lease on the Menlo site (he said Stanford is planning a mall expansion or something and wants to reclaim all that land). So if that happens he said they'd move major service to the Fremont factory (since they have gobs of space) but that they'd also look to have a small service center somewhere on the peninsula (he mentioned Daly City). He said there are 350 Roadsters between Marin and the southern peninsula so they want to keep a service center close for those customers.
 
And we have already seen pictures posted of a generic looking white box at Harris ranch and in Lebec (near the grapevine) which likely contains some kind of supercharger (perhaps only in prototype form.)

Harris Ranch Subway/Shell Station - Coalinga, CA - Recargo
harrispic.jpg
 
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Maybe this is for home system only, but:
...back in April...
Tesla in the House: A New Entrant in the Solar Residential Energy Storage Market - IDC Insights
...Residential energy storage has long been a goal of renewables proponents. If you can get batteries in the home and mix them with photovoltaics, you can reduce the grid requirements of every PV-enabled home. However the economics of doing so have laid down a formidable threshold to reach profitability. Two companies have quietly developed a system that appears to have done that: Tesla Motors and SolarCity.

The Tesla/SolarCity system has not been officially announced, so some of the following information is based on my sources who know a little about the projects, a few regulatory documents that are available to the knowledgeable searcher and supposition. Here's what I know to be true:

*Tesla and Solar City have filed for more than 70 installation permits for systems ranging from 5 KW to 50 KW in the Pacific Gas & Electric territory. Most of the systems are sized at 5 KW. All told, there are more than 500 KW worth of systems in the permitting phase...
 
but I'm concerned how many sales Tesla will lose if they force every buyer in the coming years to wait three to four months to get their vehicle.

The Prius had a six to nine month backlog for the first seven years. Didn't seem to hurt sales any. I waited nine months for my 2001 and six months for my 2004. The 2004 was only six months because of the Pioneer Program for 2001 purchasers. I'm not concerned that three to four months will cause Tesla problems.
 
TEG seems to be our internet ninja for that kind of stuff :). I'd think the permits Tesla has to apply for would be public record? Though you'd probably have to search by state. I'd lay money the first superchargers will be up and down I5.

I thought it was already decided to be at Harris Ranch (not officially of course). That gets you about halfway between Sacramento and L.A.