Tesla, TSLA & the Investment World: the Perpetual Investors' Roundtable

[mongo]

I'm not convinced that Plaid has the "old" 18650s. The 2021 Owners' Manual lists maximum pack voltage as 450v. I think this pack uses more than the previous 4.2V cells @ 96S (more cells with higher peak voltage, ie: 98S @ 4.6V)

Nice! Yet another reason the motors can pull 1,000 HP up the redline, more EMF to work with.

At some point there's indeed not enough rotational momentum to generate energy in excess of that needed to excite the field windings necessary to operate the motors in regen mode. Hence the point at which previous Teslas "freewheeled" at the tail end of regen.

Applying the friction brakes at that point is a nice touch.

Important distinction, braking torque can always be developed, but not always at positive net energy.

Spoiler: tangent

For an AC induction motor, they can produce negative torque at any time. Otherwise, reverse would not be possible (nor drive).
For the PMSR (SRPM?), they can generate braking torque. These motors can also be used for accurate hill hold since the encoder/ synchonous nature allows for fixed motor position versus AC induction where it can only control torque. Without an additional quadriture encoder, an AC motor can't differentiate slow rotation forward vs slow rotation backward.

Holding with brakes locked by the ABS is more energy efficient over longer time periods than maintaining magnetic fields (esp on AC ind); however, tracking the torque needed to hold position allows a smoother restart versus the possiblity of rolling backward to begin with. Again, the PMSR encoder would instantly detect roll back, but the control loop needs to catch up (assuming it's not a pure pedal to torque mapping where being in drive with low pedal position allows for roll back, like an idling automatic).

 

[petit_bateau]

Good question. No idea. Guessing that it means units, not locations.

It means connectors.

At end Q1 2021 there were 2,699 stations with 24,515 connectors. This meant there were 564 vehicles per station, or 62 vehicles per connector when looking at the cumulative Tesla fleet of 1,521,193.

The number of vehicles per connector has been drifting up from the mid 30s in 2018. If charge times are reducing that is perhaps OK, but Tesla does not release any usage data and so we cannot do a great deal of analysis. As fleet penetration shifts to encounter more owners without access to at-home or at-work charging that usage data is something that investors would very much like Tesla to release.

 

[ThisStockGood]

Re Elon's delivery.
I don't think he was under-prepared.
My take is that his pauses seemed to happen when he was waiting for the next slide to come up.
Once it appeared he knew exactly what he was going to say.

The awkwardness is not Elons fault in this case. The stream production was the problem. Not enough cameras, no mics to capture audio from the audience, slow faders, bad camera work, too dark scenery... all this add up and made the experience a little awkward... would love Tesla to put twice as much money in the production and hire a good multi camera director. Would be worth it I think.

 

[mickificki]

Tesla Owners UK have posted a ton of good stuff from the owners’ manual. Also

https://twitter.com/x/status/1403228699827347458

Found this on Twitter. Unsure how he’s connecting the dots to 4680’s.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1403325907960487936

 

[Krugerrand]

Yes: I did indeed remember too late that the cold weather improvement claim also deserves a slot in Audie’s “plus” side. Your “interior” comments detail the “check” mark I gave. The “towing” comment…well, that encompasses both overall range as well as cold weather, mountainous range and so forth so, for me, no. “Around” 400 mile range still is significantly inferior to an average ICE vehicle of comparable size in terms of usefulness. During the pandemic hellathon, we were able to test the away-from-Interstate/Urban megalopolises corridors by exposing Gus to many parts of the western and Intermountain western states and National Parks in our P100D Model X…and the need to go way out of our ways to Supercharge - in 2020! - badly diminished the experience.

The SpC Network‘s buildout is, indeed, commendable in urban lower-48 but as another Early Adopter, you know as well as I that the initial goal for Tesla was to have this network enable REAL long-distance driving. That means the good parts of the continent…not the commuting corridors. I am very much aware that Tesla changed focus and I do fault them for that decision. And yes, since 2013 I have held up Alaska as the shibboleth by which Tesla either is or is not failing at its promise. Nine years of failing to deliver that makes this acceleration/speed focus as demonstrated last night bitter, indeed. I’m still pretty good at higher mathematics and I figure that I’m nine years older now than I was then. That hurts.

Simply put, bigger fish to fry. That’s just the truth of it. I wish Tesla could go a million times faster than they are and do everything they want, but the reality is that priorities change. I hope you’ll be here to see it ‘finished’ and can then die a happy man. I certainly plan on sticking around as long as I can to see the tsunami rock this planet.

 

[redan]

Gene Munster of Loup Ventures. Here's his summary: Putting it together, Plaid is a reminder to the rest of the auto industry they're going to need to innovate more quickly to stay alive.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1403374582174601221

 

[Prunesquallor]

Good question. No idea. Guessing that it means units, not locations.

Yes, stalls. From supercharge.info. (Big jump is from China data).

 

[Beltsbear]

EPAmiles, lol. On Edmunds' range test Taycan exceeds EPA by 59%, all seven Teslas they tested came in below EPA by 2-17% (Taycan beat Model S Performance outright). Side-by-side tests all show similar results.

Yea mean the test where they charged the Tesla to 90% and charged the Porsche to 100%? Where they tested the Porsche in 10 degrees warmer conditions?

 

[Curt Renz]

Former money manager Gary Black attended the event. Those who have a problem with him can simply ignore this post.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1403264648015536132

 

[AudubonB]

Even your Mod has other priorities, so I’ve not been able to vet all posts since the middle of last night. Has there been any discussion of the audience-generated clamor to create trip waypoints? I thought that tied with the carbon-sleeved rotors as the single most unexpected portion of last night’s event.

 

[jerry33]

Even your Mod has other priorities, so I’ve not been able to vet all posts since the middle of last night. Has there been any discussion of the audience-generated clamor to create trip waypoints? I thought that tied with the carbon-sleeved rotors as the single most unexpected portion of last night’s event.

There has been a bit of discussion on waypoints. No one is opposed to having them, so there isn't a lot of debate.

 

[MXWing]

When's the Model S Plaid event happening?

I look for 5% drops indicating something got announced. Stock oddly not deep red and oddly above max pain.

 

[Curt Renz]

Even your Mod has other priorities, so I’ve not been able to vet all posts since the middle of last night. Has there been any discussion of the audience-generated clamor to create trip waypoints? I thought that tied with the carbon-sleeved rotors as the single most unexpected portion of last night’s event.

What is the "waypoint" matter?

 

[nativewolf]

In Norway they did the ultimate range test, run til dead. Toycan did not fare well. Tesla than Ford for best range. Kudus to Ford on fast progress. Edmunds was terrible

EV insider just did a range test and found the opposite. Edmunds didn't test correctly.

 

[JustSaying]

August.

Forgive Me Father For I Have Sinned.
I slept on it, watch the presentation again (without the Sonoma-Cutrer) and changed my mind.
The Plaid is actually amazing.
(Can I get before June 30th?)

 

[mongo]

Even your Mod has other priorities, so I’ve not been able to vet all posts since the middle of last night. Has there been any discussion of the audience-generated clamor to create trip waypoints? I thought that tied with the carbon-sleeved rotors as the single most unexpected portion of last night’s event.

Ya must have missed some earlier this year too, carbon sleeved rotors have been in the know for a while. Different priorities indeed!

The details seem to be: "Carbon-sleeved rotors"



On the screen during the order process where all the specs are listed.
View attachment 631271

 

[capster]

I don’t understand how people can be saying nothing new. There was all kinds of new stuff; new motor tech (they had to design a machine first so they could make the motors), new glass that keeps the interior quiet even at 100mph, new UI, new Tesla designed sound system, new gaming architecture, the ability to sync and use multiple devices at the same time, new placement of the interior seating to provide more rear seating room and comfort, reduced interior trims etc., etc...

Yup. And don’t forget more headroom too—that’s significant when it comes to sales. I’m tallish with a relatively long torso and would have bought an earlier S if it hadn’t lacked that bit of headroom that I needed.

Yet, Tesla also achieved record breaking low drag while increasing the headroom. That is amazing.

 

[TheTalkingMule]

Gene Munster of Loup Ventures. Here's his summary: Putting it together, Plaid is a reminder to the rest of the auto industry they're going to need to innovate more quickly to stay alive.

4/ For performance geeks, Plaid ($125k) is 0 to 60 in less than 2 seconds, compared to the previous fastest production car, the SSC Tuatara ($1.8m) at 2.5 sec. Safe to say Plaid is better in the price to performance category.

Has anyone done one of those 4-quadrant dot graphs with 0-60 times and MSRP? It's probably a good laugh.

 

[bpjod]

How do you know someone didn’t hand him that? Given how he reacts once he reads the slides, having that moment of memory refresh that he does, I’m just going to say that his brain is full all the time and racing at plaid speed all the time. There’s no room nor a quiet place to memorize a presentation like this.

I suspect the tech guys that put these events together fly by the seat of their pants just as Elon and everyone else at Tesla. The whole company is a moving target, it’s what makes them great and fallible all at the same time. A segment of the population can’t work or live in that manner. They don’t work at Tesla.

Incoming Zen; I discovered a long time ago that if I could understand a person’s motives and the why’s of their choices and decisions then I could more readily accept them for who they are and be significantly less affected; frustrated, angry, disappointed.

For instance I can totally understand your frugality as motivation for achieving a lifestyle that includes early retirement, thus forgiving the fact you’re not adding to Tesla’s bottom line - mostly.

I do agree. I also mentioned that I, for one, do enjoy the presentations. I do wish they’d have a little wider appeal though.

I watched SMR’s rehash of the presentation and I now think he did mostly know what he wanted to say for each slide. Either they took awhile to pop up (that should be someone else’s responsibility so no excuse), or it took him awhile to process each and recall what he wanted to say on each (understandable as he’s got a lot going on in his brain, but a little last minute review on the ride to the event might help), but with a little editing the presentation was quite good. I know what he’s capable of - SNL showed that. An Elon halfway between last night and SNL would be awesome.

That said, I don’t think the in-person audience cared one bit. Especially after they got their rides in.

 

[InDaClub]

Forgive Me Father For I Have Sinned.
I slept on it, watch the presentation again (without the Sonoma-Cutrer) and changed my mind.
The Plaid is actually amazing.
(Can I get before June 30th?)

Your sins are forgiven.

June 30th may be possible. Don't forget to use a referral code.