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

[growler23]

That was my first reaction as well. But this is Texas, soon enough the grid will be awash is way too much excess solar/wind.

All Tesla needs to worry about in Texas is storage. Huge, massive gobs of storage. Hopefully they are also compensated appropriately for saving this trainwreck of a grid.

Hear hear! Much agreement in this Wild West of utility hell, where it is still apparently 'no one's fault' (except maybe a few board members) that we had to trim power use in MAY (FFS) after freezing our butts off last Feb - heaven knows how this summer will go. Batteries and solar for the win.
After all my posts about Model Y's taking over the world - and my heart gladdens every time I see those fleets of them outside the Gigafactories - I think I may need to refocus. Model Y's may be the foot soldiers for world domination optimization but batteries are their stomachs. And an army travels and fights on its stomach - this we all know.
So batteries, Tesla. Batteries, by the millions and millions. Batteries for cars, batteries for grid, batteries for homes. Batteries (and their already-developing recycling of course - already saving resources and money) everywhere.
Anyone know if Tesla is working on this battery thing?

 

[StealthP3D]

I drove my Bolt for 4 years and 110,000 miles. Then GM gave me a new battery for free. Also, my Bolt now has a range of 259 miles instead of the original 238.

The inconvenience of parking outside the garage for a few months was worth it!

So, what you are really telling us is that the Bolt was/is a huge money sink for GM and you were the beneficiary?

That's excellent! I'm happy for you but not for GM.

 

[Cherry Wine]

Where’s the “super bad feeling” quote in that email?

 

[bkp_duke]

That was my first reaction as well. But this is Texas, soon enough the grid will be awash is way too much excess solar/wind.

All Tesla needs to worry about in Texas is storage. Huge, massive gobs of storage. Hopefully they are also compensated appropriately for saving this trainwreck of a grid.

Lived 10 years in TX, 7 years in CA now. I've had 5X as many power outages in CA as in TX. The wild-fire related outages were a major contributing reason as to why we bought powerwalls. The other was the fact that power is 4-5X as expensive here as in TX.

TX grid isn't perfect, and the Feb storm 2 years ago showed that, but your statement glosses over that other grids in the US have some serious issues as well.

 

[JRP3]

Sadly I've stopped recommending TSLA as a investment to most people that ask me about it. I essentially make a character judgment on the person on if I think they can handle the Elon factor. Elon's just too destructive to the stock at this point. There's a difference between a CEO not tailoring his actions to pump or prop up the stock and a CEO actively harming/being destructive. And Elon's definitely in the latter camp at this point. Yes the payoff is going to be huge which is why I won't sell. But I've had multiple people that were invested sell simply because they were fatigued by non-stop Elon induced sell offs.

This

 

[Usain]

So, what you are really telling us is that the Bolt was/is a huge money sink for GM and you were the beneficiary?

That's excellent! I'm happy for you but not for GM.

Yep. That's the way it worked out. I got a great deal out of it but the recall hurt GM pretty bad. LG Energy built the battery packs, so they are bearing a lot of the actual cost of the recall. But it appears that the whole fiasco has killed demand for the Bolt.

If the recall never happened then GM would be in a pretty good position offering a low cost EV with good range. They might have figured out how to ramp production and produce them at a profit. But now instead of being in a position to raise prices like everyone else, they have to cut prices instead.

 

[Singuy]

Where’s the “super bad feeling” quote in that email?

Apparently that email was sent to executives only, this one to all staff.

 

[TheTalkingMule]

This

If it were easy, everybody would be a TMCer!

 

[NicoV]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1532728341865943040

Reduce salary headcount and increase hourly headcount. Ramp is still a go

Can somebody explain what’s the difference between salary headcount and hourly headcount?

 

[StarFoxisDown!]

Can somebody explain what’s the difference between salary headcount and hourly headcount?

Simple way to think of it is hourly headcount are all the manufacturing workers, across every product. It's everyone that works inside the factories (minus some management that might be axed because they're redundant).

Salaried headcount is everyone else. Hourly headcount probably makes up at least 80% of Tesla's total workforce (likely more like 85-90%)

 

[bkp_duke]

Can somebody explain what’s the difference between salary headcount and hourly headcount?

Salary = management (white colar)
Hours = production staff (line, battery, etc. etc.)

So this "headcount cut" has nothing to do with production, and everything to do with leaning down management.

 

[Singuy]

Can somebody explain what’s the difference between salary headcount and hourly headcount?

Headcount =employees

Hourly workers=paid on an hourly basis. Must pay OT at 1.5x hourly rate if worked over 40hrs. Must have 30min lunch break unless a healthcare worker. These are all under the law.

Salary worker= gets paid at a specific yearly salary. Will get this money if the person worked 20hrs that week or 80hrs that week. Zero protection under the law.

In the US most salary workers are white collar because they have more autonomy and the company probably need said person to work beyond 40 from time to time and doesn't want to deal with OT.

 

[TheTalkingMule]

Lived 10 years in TX, 7 years in CA now. I've had 5X as many power outages in CA as in TX. The wild-fire related outages were a major contributing reason as to why we bought powerwalls. The other was the fact that power is 4-5X as expensive here as in TX.

TX grid isn't perfect, and the Feb storm 2 years ago showed that, but your statement glosses over that other grids in the US have some serious issues as well.

I'm well aware, but would argue that's more a function of millions of people living in wildfire areas they shouldn't be. The issues in Texas are just plain corruption and negligence.

So I guess you could say it's "plain corruption and negligence" vs "annoyingly complex corruption and negligence".

I don't think we even need to point out that CA is a hot mess anymore. Everyone knows this!

 

[elasalle]

OK - this is the "official" copy -

https://twitter.com/x/status/1532728341865943040

View attachment 812156

This clarification email should have caused SP to trend upwards ... not happening ...MSM will try to let the other story run as far as possible
some lotto plays for next week ??

 

[jbcarioca]

Elon has created an easy excuse to can anyone who pisses him off with his recent directives to come to work.

Almost everyone seems to be ignoring the 'coincidence'. Companies all over the world are dealing with this issue. As usual, Elon gets to the point. Go to work!

 

[bkp_duke]

I'm well aware, but would argue that's more a function of millions of people living in wildfire areas they shouldn't be. The issues in Texas are just plain corruption and negligence.

So I guess you could say it's "plain corruption and negligence" vs "annoyingly complex corruption and negligence".

I don't think we even need to point out that CA is a hot mess anymore. Everyone knows this!

Nope, those people have lived in "wildfire" areas for decades, and this problem has only gotten worse for 2 main reasons:
1) Climate change (it's hotter and drier here)
2) less maintenance to keep trees, etc. cut back - PG&E was taken to court on this one, lost, and declared bankruptcy to protect themselves against the judgement

#1 is a bigger problem to deal with, but #2 if done properly would mitigate a TON of the wildfire risk here.


TX grid - they were just cheap and didn't want to weatherize the grid against sub-zero temps. The temps 2 years ago were the lowest recorded, for the longest period of time, in over 100 years in that state. Not defending them, but that's really hard to protect yourself against.

 

[TheTalkingMule]

This clarification email should have caused SP to trend upwards ... not happening ...MSM will try to let the other story run as far as possible
some lotto plays for next week ??

I assumed I would miss the bottom, but yeah.....zero outlets have any interest in clarifying their now 90% false narrative.

Was able to sneak in after seeing this email and sell my put spreads for next week. Not usually the case when info pops up clarifying something like this.

CNBC 5 minutes ago had a Roth analyst on talking about 10k layoffs. Riiiiight.

 

[JRP3]

If it were easy, everybody would be a TMCer!

The idea is to have more people wanting to buy the stock.

 

[replicant]

Tesla has a twitter account and they use it. The media chooses to ignore that account (I never see a CNBC piece on the building of the latest megapack installation) so what would be the point of more PR?

Because everything that is of interest is posted by Elon under his personal account.

Just in the past few days: AI Day #2, new litigation department, new currency supported by Tesla shop…

Even this the tweet below was posted by Elon and reposted by the company. Makes zero sense, especially after Elon posted this.

You say the media chooses to ignore @tesla's account but I (investor) could perfectly ignore @tesla since @elonmusk tweets everything. Take the "AI Day #2 annoucement: if posted by @tesla, it would have the exact same effect as @tesla RTing @elonmusk – except that @tesla would gain more exposure (and followers) for the benefit of the company's mission.

Do you believe Elon and his memes needs more exposure in the media? Tesla definitely needs more people interested in the mission and their products though. Unless we aren't investors but fans of a media personality…

If Elon tweeted through two accounts (private and corporate), the bears/media would STILL jump on every one of his (private) comments and draw conclusions for Tesla the business.

This makes no sense. You say Tesla should not a voice because Elon has the megaphone and everything he says would be confused with Tesla-the-company. So maybe start giving @tesla a voice, then? I would not care about Elon tweeting Tesla's stuff if he did not enjoy messing with his political opponents.

Of course people would continue jumping on his personal comments but I and everyone else could follow @tesla and not be have to bear Elon's lame jokes, memes and rants. Of course the media is to blame for this stupid game but Elon does not even try to change it. He loves it, all the more if it make some people hate him in return.

 

[Singuy]

This clarification email should have caused SP to trend upwards ... not happening ...MSM will try to let the other story run as far as possible
some lotto plays for next week ??

Well there's that bit about recession fears from the original email that spooked the market.

If that didn't exist and only the staff email went out, sp would probably be green.