The primary competition to Tesla is in the future, in the 40kWh market. Or in other words the 150-200 mile BEV market. The idea of Model III sounds good but it will be very hard to truly make money on it since the goal is lower priced sustainable transportation. At the same time, more auto makers are going "upscale" to build more longer range BEVs and EREVs. Going to be fun to see how it all turns out. More competition is better and Tesla at least made EVs interesting. nissan and others must follow the lead. Otherwise, EVs may not take hold as a mass market vehicle.
to make a $40k car profitable using the same robots and logistical equipment in place now, the market has to want to pay a premium over the competition. That means maybe somewhat expensive and cool add on options like the MS has to grow profits. I don't see a 25% gross margin on Model IIi but more like 18% and on a dollar figure basis, that is slightly more than half the gross margin revenue from one MS85. Meaning, must sell twice the cars to make the same gross profit. More labor and logistics needed to handle twice the cars and economics of scale suffer a little. More service centers are needed, more superchargers. If the aim is to sell to the BMW 3-series buyer, that is still not the common auto buyer who is out looking at $25k cars. It is the upper middle class buyer making over $100K a year and has multiple cars in the family.
The one goal that has been reached already that I see as being good. That is Tesla getting all automakers to make EVs as a viable future choice for their companies. Except Fiat/Chrysler who complain about the Fiat 500 EV costing them money for each one sold.
to make a $40k car profitable using the same robots and logistical equipment in place now, the market has to want to pay a premium over the competition. That means maybe somewhat expensive and cool add on options like the MS has to grow profits. I don't see a 25% gross margin on Model IIi but more like 18% and on a dollar figure basis, that is slightly more than half the gross margin revenue from one MS85. Meaning, must sell twice the cars to make the same gross profit. More labor and logistics needed to handle twice the cars and economics of scale suffer a little. More service centers are needed, more superchargers. If the aim is to sell to the BMW 3-series buyer, that is still not the common auto buyer who is out looking at $25k cars. It is the upper middle class buyer making over $100K a year and has multiple cars in the family.
The one goal that has been reached already that I see as being good. That is Tesla getting all automakers to make EVs as a viable future choice for their companies. Except Fiat/Chrysler who complain about the Fiat 500 EV costing them money for each one sold.
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