General Discussion: 2018 Investor Roundtable

[shlokavica22]

Fortunately, a Tesla SUV with the low mounted battery pack and motors (along with dual motor stability control) will have a lower risk of roll over than a standard ICE SUV.

My point exactly.

 

[avoigt]

Fortunately, a Tesla SUV with the low mounted battery pack and motors (along with dual motor stability control) will have a lower risk of roll over than a standard ICE SUV.

My point exactly.

Well thats an understatement. Ever tried to roll over oil aTesla? Watch this.....

 

[gene]

Stationary battery storage demand is huge and growing. Here is a feel good story:

The residential market has shown the most consistent growth of the three sectors, with positive quarter-over-quarter numbers since the beginning of 2017 – cumulatively experiencing 60.6% quarterly growth.

US triples energy storage installations, residential grows 10X to become largest sector

 

[WentOffGrid]

Zetsche should borrow the Model 3, S or X for a weekend and drive it with his family. That could give him a perspective of what is needed for success, technically possible and required to make a difference.

MB's engineering team is one of the best in the world. Unfortunately for them, the product management team is guiding what they do. And Zetsche is who guides product management. Time to market being a forced constraint, they are not looking at this with a truly long-term view. Just throwing $B's at it, with hope as the strategy.

 

[Remus]

Maybe they are smarter than we gave them credit for. Maybe the reason for not offering a better solution is not that they can't, but doing so will hurt some part of the organization so they don't want to.

MB's engineering team is one of the best in the world. Unfortunately for them, the product management team is guiding what they do. And Zetsche is who guides product management. Time to market being a forced constraint, they are not looking at this with a truly long-term view. Just throwing $B's at it, with hope as the strategy.

 

[AWDtsla]

Maybe they are smarter than we gave them credit for. Maybe the reason for not offering a better solution is not that they can't, but doing so will hurt some part of the organization so they don't want to.

Smart people are held back by bureaucracies inside large and old companies. It's not like Kodak didn't have a digital camera. I'm sure lots of engineers at MB understand what's happening.

 

[gringotuanis]

Simple as that. The SUVs are higher margin cars that were shoved into customer's throat. Even though they are much less reliable than the sedans and arguably much less secure.
People feel more secure with them because they sit higher, but when on the highway, for example, what matters is the stability. Statistics show straight correlation between rollovers and fatal casualties.


I think model Y will be much more optimized for mass production. They might prefer to wait and optimize the Model Y design as much as possible before going to mass production.
The Semi on the other hand might have less constrains from that perspective, because the volume will be lower.


I can't understand that confidence. Unless we talk about mass assembling.

Think of all the semi parts, body larts, etc. They're so much larger than what car uses which raises your material costs...plus more batteries and motors for each one...it all adds costs. Just the size of the line has to be wider/taller etc. For just starting out I think Tesla should focus on what they know...starting semi line from scratch will cost more because there is more trial and error involved in tooling it up. Or it would be cool if they could do what Elon wanted to do in that recent interview. Release 2 new vehicles at once.

 

[gringotuanis]

Smart people are held back by bureaucracies inside large and old companies. It's not like Kodak didn't have a digital camera. I'm sure lots of engineers at MB understand what's happening.

Not only this, but Porsche for example is having trouble just finding space for the new electric lines in their factory locations. They're stuck in some town in Germany with limited land around them to use...all these logistics/infrastructure makes it tough for them. Read a German article yesterday about how they're having to revamp their factory over several months time.

 

[gene]

Great! And thanks from us all.
You should convince your wife and kid to do the same, you have a small army of Tesla promoters there ;-)

Wife will be walking door to door for Katie Hill for Congress in the 25th district. Gotta' flip the lousy Steve Knight incumbent.

 

[Yuri_G]

17,800 Model 3 sold last month. 5th highest selling passenger car in the US.

Tesla Model 3 Sales Hit Epic Volume In August

 

[SlicedBr3ad]

GM BOLT = Lifetime = US Sold 33555
TM3 = Lifetime = US Sold 39854
source:
2017 + 2018

 

[MP3Mike]

GM BOLT = Lifetime = US Sold 33555
TM3 = Lifetime = US Sold 39854
source:
2017 + 2018

You're off a little there on the Model 3 numbers...

Bolt: 23,297 + 10,258 = 33,555
Model 3: 1,772 + 55,882 = 57,654

 

[ggr]

You're off a little there on the Model 3 numbers...

Bolt: 23,297 + 10,258 = 33,555
Model 3: 1,772 + 55,882 = 57,654

I think he meant this quarter, not lifetime, for Model 3 (although I'm still not sure whether that would be the correct number).

 

[MP3Mike]

I think he meant this quarter, not lifetime, for Model 3 (although I'm still not sure whether that would be the correct number).

Considering he specifically said "lifetime" and his Bolt numbers matched and he linked to 2017 and 2018 sources... I think he meant lifetime, he just left out the August portion of the Model 3.

 

[Pete_Lee]

It also has a page with some Model 3 reviews. It would be great if you give him some suggestions..Why Tesla

I'm a 25 year veteran in IT, including work with software interface design and user experience, with the last 10 years in the electric utility business. Kudos to your son for a very clean and fast interface!

+10 for some good default values from the get-go, as well as adding "more". Also, excellent choice of "good enough" model inputs in the "more" section. The only thing I would add is to consider a dropdown to select a model of Tesla to autopopulate the miles per kWh.

EDIT: Another fine example of a "good enough/SWAG" calculator (that allows you to get all super fancy with model inputs, should you desire): is NREL's PVWatts calculator. Quite elegant, this: PVWatts Calculator

 

[SlicedBr3ad]

Considering he specifically said "lifetime" and his Bolt numbers matched and he linked to 2017 and 2018 sources... I think he meant lifetime, he just left out the August portion of the Model 3.

This was my mistake. The correction is correct

 

[SPadival]

MB's engineering team is one of the best in the world. Unfortunately for them, the product management team is guiding what they do.

. My mate from the outback called. He wants his bullbar back.

 

[elasalle]

Yesterday was MB, today is Audi's turn

Anyone see this article audi-just-started-mass-producing-a-new-tesla-fight? in motley Fool
Audi Just Started Mass-Producing a New Tesla Fighter

Didn't see this discussed in threads ?(catching up daily mostly in evenings)

 

[neroden]

Yesterday was MB, today is Audi's turn

Anyone see this article audi-just-started-mass-producing-a-new-tesla-fight? in motley Fool
Audi Just Started Mass-Producing a New Tesla Fighter

Didn't see this discussed in threads ?(catching up daily mostly in evenings)

The Audi is actually being produced in volume, unlike the vaporware from Mercedes. It has slightly worse specs than a Model S or X for a similar price, though reviews haven't been possible yet, so we don't know things like "does it have a frunk". It seems that they've planned for 50,000/year, which is actually pretty good.

I don't think this is in any sense competing with Tesla, since I think S + X + Audi etron is still way less than the number of vehicles demanded in this price bracket; but perhaps it will replace a bunch of Audi/BMW/Mercedes gas car sales, which would be great.

 

[avoigt]

This is a confirmation from Elon that Tesla indeed took the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rank in August:

1. 
   
   Verified account 6h6 hours ago
   Elon Musk Retweeted InsideEVs
   
   Tesla 1st, 2nd & 3rd in August sales
   
   Elon Musk added,
   InsideEVs‏ @InsideEVs
   MORE UPDATES NOW IN - Monthly Plug-In Sales Scorecard