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

[Tes La Ferrari]

Tesla Dominates 2021 American-Made Index, 4 Cars Make The Top 10

Tesla dominates Kogod's 2021 Made in America Index with four cars in the top 10 and the highest average total domestic content at 81 percent.

insideevs.com

TL; DR: "EV maker has the highest average total US domestic content (TDC) at 81 percent. The Chevrolet Bolt EV ranks 55th with 24% content from the US and Canada and a TDC score of 41, the Nissan Leaf is 61st with 35% and 37.5 TDC, while the Mexico-made Ford Mustang Mach-E is only 75th with 15% and 19.5 TDC. "


Tesla's White House invitation must have gotten lost in the mail.

 

[larmor]

Tesla Dominates 2021 American-Made Index, 4 Cars Make The Top 10

Tesla dominates Kogod's 2021 Made in America Index with four cars in the top 10 and the highest average total domestic content at 81 percent.

insideevs.com

TL; DR: "EV maker has the highest average total US domestic content (TDC) at 81 percent. The Chevrolet Bolt EV ranks 55th with 24% content from the US and Canada and a TDC score of 41, the Nissan Leaf is 61st with 35% and 37.5 TDC, while the Mexico-made Ford Mustang Mach-E is only 75th with 15% and 19.5 TDC. "


Tesla's White House invitation must have gotten lost in the mail.

Tesla is going to the greenhouse (double entendre intended).

 

[DarkandStormy]

Anywho...legacy auto is so unabashedly arrogant and pompous.

Another short tid bit. Elon pulled all the HQ managers into a room and declared TSLA would be bigger than Apple eventually.

*chef's kiss*

 

[Bet TSLA]

For AAPL the primary reason is a cut in iPhone production due to chip and other supply chain problems.

Not at all sure why you would believe or repeat Bloomberg's FUD. This sort of thing, coming from Apple's supply chain is notoriously unreliable even if the source is to be trusted. I give it no credence whatsoever. Well, about as much as Jalopnik's reporting on Tesla.

 

[Singuy]

Amazing macro reversal, the signal we have been waiting for. Macro ATH coming in the next few months.

 

[Paul_SF]

Someone is really happy to get this out!!!

 

[Stretch2727]

I'm still surprised that no legacy auto maker has thrown in the towel and attempted to license Tesla tech, software, drivetrain and/or FSD. I know egos are strong but joint ventures have been very common in the industry.

Unless it is a merger most of the joint ventures are to fill a gap in the product line either by saving money on development (Subaru and Toyota) or until they can fully develop their own products.

Auto companies capabilities are mostly development and manufacturing. Sales is mostly done by the 3 party dealerships.

Take away a differentiated development and manufacturing and what do you have? Just a brand name that everyone will know is Tesla technology. I think this is why they will not do it. They will loose what little margins they can generate today to Tesla.

 

[CHGolferJim]

Thank you for the detailed explanation. My only problem is understanding the "common wisdom" in the sentence I highlighted. That wisdom (delaying the exercise as long as possible) is logical for the last 2 ways of exercise -- where share sales are used to pay for the tax -- as long as the company growth rate is higher than the tax rate, as that means fewer shares will pay for the tax. However, if someone really believes in the company and chooses the first way to exercise -- keeping all the shares and paying from pocket for $X as well as the tax, then it seems more logical to exercise the options as soon as possible, so that the ($Y-$X) tax burden is as low as possible. In case of Elon's options about to expire next year, I believe they have vested already before the great TSLA run-up of 2020, so he could have exercised them at much lower tax burden (when the delta was a small fraction of what it is today).

I believe the dot.com burst was so bad, and so many people in CA were underwater with their ISOs, that federal tax law was adjusted to allow people to recoup those taxes paid on “phantom profits”. Happened to me with a NY company, but CT didn’t participate and I have an irrecoverable AMT carryforward (?) that I’ll never recapture after leaving 20 years ago.

 

[Knightshade]

Auto companies capabilities are mostly development and manufacturing.

Are they though?

GM or Ford spent more in any 1 year on R&D from 2009-2019 than Tesla did for that entire 10 years combined

Toyota spends more in a typical year on R&D than Tesla has in its -entire existence combined- yet Toyota has 0 BEVs for sale today.

Not seeing much in the way of "development" capabilities here from legacy.

 

[StealthP3D]

None of that is my point though. My point is everything about the Cybertruck‘s design is built for easy manufacturing. The folding body with very few welds. Single piece rear and and front end, structural battery, etc etc etc. Everything about it is designed to be easy to build. No other vehicle in their lineup has been designed with ease of construction as a primary design goal.

I wouldn't be surprised to see it eventually slot between the 3 and Y in terms of volumes. But the average Cybertruck will take about twice the batteries vs. the average Model Y so that is one thing about it that makes it harder to build than the Y. But I will be thrilled to see it start replacing the inefficient guzzlers legacy auto passes off as all-purpose vehicles.

 

[RobDickinson]

The CT will sell mostly in USA where the Y will be a huge seller everywhere.

I dont see the CT outselling the Y

 

[M|S|M MYP]

Firing a scapegoat gives you time to cash out some stock options.

All this while....we were looking for a replacement for you know who....i thought Diess could finally be the one who 'Out Elon' Elon.

 

[redan]

Interesting (short) article on Giga Austin site selection:

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2021/10/14/crea-deal-of-the-year-tesla-plant.html

Elon Musk was in town. At the time, it was a novelty.

Real estate broker Matt Mathias was pulling up his ski pants in Telluride, Colorado, when he said he got the call that would further change Austin's trajectory.

Musk likes Austin, but he doesn't see any land that fits his grand vision, Mathias recalls a Tesla Inc. executive saying to him. The eccentric billionaire was on the verge of heading out disappointed until Mathias presented a jewel of a site not far from the airport.

…

 

[Ogre]

I wouldn't be surprised to see it eventually slot between the 3 and Y in terms of volumes. But the average Cybertruck will take about twice the batteries vs. the average Model Y so that is one thing about it that makes it harder to build than the Y. But I will be thrilled to see it start replacing the inefficient guzzlers legacy auto passes off as all-purpose vehicles.

Yep.

That’s a big part of why the Model Y is first I’m sure. Each CT3 is 2.5 Model Ys worth of battery. With Fremont being the only 4680 cell production and still ramping up production, they probably couldn’t even produce 1000 trucks a week.

 

[jbcarioca]

What is your opinion of this specifically? E.g., (1) the use of large castings increases the rate of scaling, (2) that it makes the increased scale possible, (3) that it increases the economic benefit of scale, (4) that it allows for uniformity of product across multiple geographies.

Yes

 

[jerry33]

Are they though?

GM or Ford spent more in any 1 year on R&D from 2009-2019 than Tesla did for that entire 10 years combined

Toyota spends more in a typical year on R&D than Tesla has in its -entire existence combined- yet Toyota has 0 BEVs for sale today.

Not seeing much in the way of "development" capabilities here from legacy.

Spending money on R&D and spending R&D money effectively are two different things.

 

[dhanson865]

Interesting (short) article on Giga Austin site selection:

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2021/10/14/crea-deal-of-the-year-tesla-plant.html

Elon Musk was in town. At the time, it was a novelty.

Real estate broker Matt Mathias was pulling up his ski pants in Telluride, Colorado, when he said he got the call that would further change Austin's trajectory.

Musk likes Austin, but he doesn't see any land that fits his grand vision, Mathias recalls a Tesla Inc. executive saying to him. The eccentric billionaire was on the verge of heading out disappointed until Mathias presented a jewel of a site not far from the airport.

…

That article has a few nice soundbites but they don't explain how it came together.

Did Mathias fly back and show it in person? Did he just give them an address and hope they liked it?

 

[Singuy]

Are they though?

GM or Ford spent more in any 1 year on R&D from 2009-2019 than Tesla did for that entire 10 years combined

Toyota spends more in a typical year on R&D than Tesla has in its -entire existence combined- yet Toyota has 0 BEVs for sale today.

Not seeing much in the way of "development" capabilities here from legacy.

Have to realize there are like 20 different models with 2-3 engine/hybrid options for each, all requiring a face lift every 3 years to stay competitive. So it's not surprising these legacy companies spend so much in R&D. So if a company doesn't build an ecosystem to lock buyers in, it's pretty tough to make higher than 10 percent in operating margins.

Electric cars however has the ability to software limit speed and besides going up in efficiency, there's really not much more that needs to be done with the motor as they are super reliable and ridiculously capable of nausea inducing speed. So this alone simplify r&d by.a boatload.

 

[RobDickinson]

Yeah its like the opening paragraph of a story then oof: no story

 

[Curt Renz]

Benzinga - hour ago: Tesla Co-Founder Has Warning For Legacy Automakers Investing In Electric Vehicle Production

Excerpt:

“So many different OEMs, countries, factories, customers are leaping into EVs. I don’t think they’ve done the math fully (on) what that entails on the supply chain and tracing it all the way back, literally all the way back to the mines,” Straubel said on “This Week in Startups” with Jason Calacanis.