As we get closer to what will most likely be some game changing engineering announcements and demonstrations it is important to understand a bit more on how Tesla is able to pull this off and how it relates to investing. Realize what they will most likely discuss is nearly a decade in the making with regards to the spark of an idea to a working prototype to a fully viable production line and a clear line of sight roadmap of innovation/evolution.
In short: Tesla is able to have the vision, attract the talent, ability to hire the right talent, keep the right talent for the right amount of time, advance the right tech, connect that tech throughout the company in ways that foster new tech to spin up that can accelerate existing tech and do it at the speed of daily ECO's (Engineering Change Orders) on the f'ing manufacturing line DAILY!
For another company to even think of catching Tesla they would need to....
Have a management structure and people in place that could think of adopting a vision that is either equal or superior to that of Tesla. For discussion sake, let's say that hypothetically this could happen and if we were to use a company or companies that could possibly come close to that I'd use NIO, Lucid and Rivian.
Next, with the vision in place, you'd need a leader, CEO, CFO, CIO, CTO and lead architects put in place to carry out that vision with near blinding speed. This means an HR department can hire and onboard at a pace that is blinding as you'd need to actually attract talent. This is so very hard unless you have the recognition of Tesla. Any engineer that doesn't hire on at Tesla is most likely going to those other 3 companies or going to Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft...etc. They are NOT going to a traditional car company where they would stagnate and their resume would be marred. Yeah, that is how it is in tech right now...
Let's say they pass that filter/milestone. Now you have to get financing to compete against Tesla. Raising capital isn't terribly hard these days, but also you most likely won't get as favorable as terms. Again, you are most likely going to lose against Tesla or these other tech leading companies, but lets assume you get some financing and working capital.
Now you are in the game, but the speed at which you move needs to be as fast as Tesla or faster. There is a lot of space in the car industry however, and room for more than just Tesla. We want competition and need competition, but that is just not going to come from traditional car companies, nor can they just buy it as their way of thinking will bleed it dry.
Lucid has the best chance of making it IMHO (Peter is a brilliant engineer, but not sure about being a CEO) and I hope NIO as I really respect what they are doing in China.
NOTE: I didn't even discuss supply chain which is massive and a huge topic in itself
P.S. I think a major reason that Tesla can't be caught is for some of the same principles that Apple hasn't been caught yet. But I'll type more on that later but it involves ASICs and supply chain.
In short: Tesla is able to have the vision, attract the talent, ability to hire the right talent, keep the right talent for the right amount of time, advance the right tech, connect that tech throughout the company in ways that foster new tech to spin up that can accelerate existing tech and do it at the speed of daily ECO's (Engineering Change Orders) on the f'ing manufacturing line DAILY!
For another company to even think of catching Tesla they would need to....
Have a management structure and people in place that could think of adopting a vision that is either equal or superior to that of Tesla. For discussion sake, let's say that hypothetically this could happen and if we were to use a company or companies that could possibly come close to that I'd use NIO, Lucid and Rivian.
Next, with the vision in place, you'd need a leader, CEO, CFO, CIO, CTO and lead architects put in place to carry out that vision with near blinding speed. This means an HR department can hire and onboard at a pace that is blinding as you'd need to actually attract talent. This is so very hard unless you have the recognition of Tesla. Any engineer that doesn't hire on at Tesla is most likely going to those other 3 companies or going to Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft...etc. They are NOT going to a traditional car company where they would stagnate and their resume would be marred. Yeah, that is how it is in tech right now...
Let's say they pass that filter/milestone. Now you have to get financing to compete against Tesla. Raising capital isn't terribly hard these days, but also you most likely won't get as favorable as terms. Again, you are most likely going to lose against Tesla or these other tech leading companies, but lets assume you get some financing and working capital.
Now you are in the game, but the speed at which you move needs to be as fast as Tesla or faster. There is a lot of space in the car industry however, and room for more than just Tesla. We want competition and need competition, but that is just not going to come from traditional car companies, nor can they just buy it as their way of thinking will bleed it dry.
Lucid has the best chance of making it IMHO (Peter is a brilliant engineer, but not sure about being a CEO) and I hope NIO as I really respect what they are doing in China.
NOTE: I didn't even discuss supply chain which is massive and a huge topic in itself
P.S. I think a major reason that Tesla can't be caught is for some of the same principles that Apple hasn't been caught yet. But I'll type more on that later but it involves ASICs and supply chain.
