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

[jbcarioca]

I'm not sure if this clarifies or obfuscates but, in the case of Vale, battery-grade nickel most likely would be coming from their Voisey Bay operation in Canada.

I am told that is true, with supplemental supplies coming from Brazil. They do have alternatives when needed, even battery-grade, even alloys.

 

[WADan]

God Weeps As 65,000 People Reserve The GMC Hummer EV

So many people have put down reservations for the electric truck that GM has to ramp up production

jalopnik.com

Craziness!

 

[2daMoon]

I don't see how this would be anything but good for Tesla. Increasing the domestic supply of materials like lithium and graphite lowers the price for everyone.

It is now more obvious than ever that reliance on foreign oil imports is a national security threat. We have to get off of oil as soon as possible. So invoking the DPA would be a good move. I just hope Biden has the wherewithal to do it.

Plus, the added benefit that the legacy OEMs will likely continue to build their cars to need replacement in 5 years, so some of the recycled battery materials will end up in Tesla's cars too.

 

[TheTalkingMule]

The Limiting Factor shared this on his Twitter feed today. A possible scenario, but who knows...none the less, always good to keep up with this part of the industry.

I was consulting for Albemarle back in 2014/15 when they merged with Rockwood, who at the time was the largest lithium operation in the world. Can remember wondering how they got away with making this deal with no one else seemingly bidding. Crazy.

$6.2B is a lot of money for a lithium operation in 2014 tho. Can't imagine you get Albemarle today for less than what...$40B if you tried?

Not worth the expense or hassle IMO. If anything I could see Elon starting an operation from scratch just to have some flexibility. We got $21B in cash sitting around creating no value.

 

[Artful Dodger]

Not everything has to screw Tesla….it can just be designed to assist legacy or at least provide further cover. Which honestly should be expected. Sure we’d love the losers to hurry up and die and stop stealing oxygen from the winners, but you will never see that attitude from the current administration.

Yeah. WSJ article says 'permitting and enviromental review unaffected'. So nothing.

Reminder, Tesla's N. Carolina Lithium source was held up by an unelected 3-person 'enviro' board:

In push to supply Tesla, Piedmont Lithium irks North Carolina neighbors | Reuters (Jul 20, 2021)

If Biden was serious, he'd tell NC 'water the damn road, eat some dust, and dig babe!'

Cheers!

 

[Ogre]

Mostly it just gives them an extended lifespan since they will be able to blame the ceiling of their production on the government’s raw material allocation rather than their own incompetence and lack of preparation. This in turn will perhaps make taxpayer assistance down the road slightly more palatable.

There is certainly some truth to this.

I am quite cynical about GM and Ford, but would ultimately prefer one of them survive if for no other reason than avoiding monopoly litigation on top of all of the other regulatory headaches Tesla ends up dealing with.

Least cynical take: If this helps one of them survive (likely Ford??) then it is serving the public good.

Weird thought here. The bigger Tesla gets, the potential of a Ford/ GM merger increases.

 

[TheTalkingMule]

The 5 day chart is hilarious! MM's doing their job I guess.

 

[Ogre]

If Biden was serious, he'd tell NC 'water the damn road, eat some dust, and dig babe!'

Maybe Tesla doesn’t need surface roads anymore. No more bitching about dust.

Just a Boring tunnel from the production facility to the source of the material. Don’t have to disturb the surface or wildlife at all.

 

[Artful Dodger]

My suspicion, based on local rumor, is that Vale really wanted Tesla because of their application expertise and that Tesla's willingness to make specific volume forecasts and what I heard as 'take or pay' made the deal fairly easy.

Wow, this Vale S.A. contract is PURE GOLD NICKEL

Ceres!

 

[2daMoon]

This looks interesting, and topical...

 

[Phobi]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1509154362706251780

 

[2daMoon]

Lars presents a compelling argument for Tesla's incredible next few years of growth and profitability.

 

[Skipdd]

Didn’t see this posted yet. Notable mostly for the title/conclusion. Still has some wrong information, esp this ignorant statement, “For some reason, the markets believe Tesla has done a better job managing its supply line.” Can’t imagine what reason that would be…


Tesla Thrives as GM Collapses
https://247wallst.com/autos/2022/03/30/tesla-thrives-as-gm-collapses/?utm_source=flipboard-auto%26utm_medium%3Dreferral%26utm_campaign%3Dflipboard-auto%26utm_content%3Dtesla-thrives-as-gm-collapses%26wsrlui%3D610779881

 

[MountainRatMat]

More like thanks to the Biden EV Tax Credit that Tesla was clearly raising prices in anticipation for + inflation, which allowed Tesla not only keep those higher prices, but increase them even more.

The Biden ev tax credit that never was has turned out to be a massive tailwind for Tesla while being a huge negative for the likes of GM, F, etc….

Nailed it! I 100% agree.

I've been saying this in my head for 6 months, the planets have aligned for Tesla. Not so much for the consumer but it hasn't mattered, demand stays at record highs and people keep buying even at the higher prices.

 

[Prunesquallor]

Tesla on LinkedIn: Tesla volunteers are providing support in Ukraine with custom-designed…

Tesla volunteers are providing support in Ukraine with custom-designed off-grid power units, solar panels and free electric vehicle charging to assist drivers…

www.linkedin.com

Tesla volunteers are providing support in Ukraine with custom-designed off-grid power units, solar panels and free electric vehicle charging to assist drivers providing aid.

To provide the off-grid energy access, employee volunteers designed, prototyped and deployed custom Powerwall kits.

When paired with any of the 250 solar panels dispatched by volunteers at Giga Berlin, these mini power plants provide continuous energy by recharging Powerwall with solar.

Volunteers created an instructional video showing a simple step-by-step assembly. Each unit can begin providing power in five minutes, with no tools or technical experience needed.

Our Supercharging teams have also enabled free Supercharging for Tesla and non-Tesla vehicles at stations bordering Ukraine. Since enabling, usage has doubled at sites bordering Ukraine.

 

[Knightshade]

Yeah. WSJ article says 'permitting and enviromental review unaffected'. So nothing.

Reminder, Tesla's N. Carolina Lithium source was held up by an unelected 3-person 'enviro' board:

Reminder- this claim is flat out false and you've been repeatedly corrected on it- as recently as last week in this very thread- but keep making it for some reason.

The company itself held this up for years from gross incompetence, as cited in numerous sources.

Hilariously- including yours

The company, however, has not applied for a state mining permit or a necessary zoning variance in Gaston County, just west of Charlotte, despite telling investors since 2018 that it was on the verge of doing so.

In September 2018, Piedmont told investors it expected to obtain permits by the end of 2019

It's 2022 now BTW- no permits applied for.



So far, for years now, the only people holding up this project is the company themselves

 

[ThisStockGood]

Lars presents a compelling argument for Tesla's incredible next few years of growth and profitability.

Not a fan of his fake laughs now and then in general, but I agree - this video is great content.

TL;DW: Good times ahead

 

[jerry33]

"The metallic asteroids are composed of up to 80% iron and 20% a mixture of nickel, iridium, palladium, platinum, gold, magnesium and other precious metals such as osmium, ruthenium and rhodium."
So when will Starship be operational?

 

[StealthP3D]

More like thanks to the Biden EV Tax Credit that Tesla was clearly raising prices in anticipation for + inflation, which allowed Tesla not only keep those higher prices, but increase them even more.

The Biden ev tax credit that never was has turned out to be a massive tailwind for Tesla while being a huge negative for the likes of GM, F, etc….

Sure, there was plenty of speculation that Tesla was jacking prices to get ready for government subsidies. But that's all it was, speculation.

I never fully bought in to the idea that Tesla, who is very data driven and not especially prone to political speculation, was raising prices based on anything other than increasing demand (which they have up-to-the-minute data on). I wasn't convinced the EV subsidies would happen, or when they might happen, and it's not clear why Tesla management would be convinced either. At least not enough to raise prices pre-emptively. At best, they may have considered there was a certain chance the subsidies might come and it might be good to be prepared, but demand backlog (order book) would probably be the real driver.

 

[jbcarioca]

I'm not sure if this clarifies or obfuscates but, in the case of Vale, battery-grade nickel most likely would be coming from their Voisey Bay operation in Canada.

There are several major projects now underway that could reach production within the planning period, as well as some now nearing production. Among these are lithium, nickel, cobalt and some unusual ons that now have very limited supplies. It takes not a genius to observe that neon is not the only one that presently has very limited supplies. Five years go some Brazilians led a project to define long term outlooks for a variety of metals and other mined products. That included political and repetitional risks.

What we are beginning to see in the Northvolt and tesla deals, among others is a deliberate corporate repositioning to concentrate on evolving major markets.
Coal has been on the way out for some time, for example, but will continue for a few more years. Tesla is explicitly part of that. Nothing exclusive in any way for either.