With the benefit of hindsight, would it have made sense to wait for model X ramp to stabilize and produce solid financial results before doing a capital raise?
When does the Gigafactory plan to transition from just assembling battery packs to also manufacturing the cells?
I don't think he will answer that question, maybe if it's phrased like this: It sounds like Tesla doesn't want to announce full autonomy for M3 because doing that would impact MS-MX sales. Tesla probably needs to wait for sensor prices to drop, before you adding the sensors to the cars. As soon as you know which sensors are required would you consider installing the wiring harness and announcing that fact? It should be pretty easy to make provisions for the sensor installation when they become available at an affordable price if the wiring harness is in place. As soon as sensor pricing becomes the main obstacle to adding full autonomy hardware providing that possibility to the MS and the MX would be a compelling reason to purchase for potential buyers, instead of a reason to canabalize sales.
I wanted to clarify the question in bold. IMO the second question is unnecessary (but I don't mind it being asked) because I believe that the synergy between the two entities is so strong that it wouldn't make sense to divide them.
How flexible is your supply chain and manufacturing process to shift production within the weekly rate of 2k cars between S and X "at will" based on demand for each model? If demand of one or the other will outgrow forecast, would Tesla require additional lead time or investment to shift production?
Is the "Gigafactory As A Product" product line going to broaden to non-battery factories as products? Best manufacturer of complex objects intent, suggests this. Important for growth and valuation expectations.
Third-party Superchargers. If a business or a chain wishes to capitalize on the obvious draw of fast charging by licensing Supercharger technology, what type of business, what type of access model would Tesla favor and what conditions would be non-negotiable (to ensure a positive experience for the drivers)?
Maybe, given the limited opportunities to ask questions, it's better to ask GF related questions at the GF event at the end of July? I'm more interested in the capacity in GWh's of the pilot phase. The first phase completion is irrelevant because Tesla has stated repeatedly that they will have sufficient capacity. A better question might be how quickly they expect to be able to complete the additional phases? They have already stated that a major reason for the cost reductions is the use of custom cell manufacturing equipment. I think it's obvious that they are not only building the custom cell making equipment but they are making , or at least designing the equipment to produce that equipment more quickly and affordably.
What progress has been made in establishing the supply chain for the gigafactory? In particular, do you have firm commitments for the price and volume of Lithium and other raw ingredients from suppliers? Are your suppliers domestic (e.g. Nevada) or international and are they established or new entrants?
Have you performed tests to assess the long term reliability of the falcon wing doors for the Model X? Is there any evidence you can provide to investors and potential owners that these will not be a long term liability? (example FWDs in laboratory have been opened and closed X number of times without warping or misalignment, etc.)
You should listen to the last conference call. Elon devoted several minutes to answering that question.
Please (everyone)! We have an extremely limited number of opportunities to ask questions. Listen to the last CC! He explained that exact issue in detail.
Is Tesla planning on continuing to use Mobileye technology for future AP functionality, or are you planning on transitioning away to your own compute platform?