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

[anthonyj]

Why is everyone ganging up on WarpedOne?

Once again, Elon manages to drop the stock 10%+ by doing something completely avoidable. Funding Secured, smoking weed, declining SEC deal, announcing store closures then backtracking, and now this silly email.

These things are avoidable. We are allowed to criticize Elon for silly crap like this. These shenanigans cause institutions to sell shares. This is no way to run a public company. In the end it might all be fine, but why help fund the short sellers along the way?

And don’t say that we have to take the good with the bad. These shenanigans are completely, completely avoidable

 

[JRP3]

Once again, Elon manages to drop the stock 10%+ by doing something completely avoidable. Funding Secured, smoking weed, declining SEC deal, announcing store closures then backtracking, and now this silly email.

Funding secured, "smoking" weed, declining SEC deal, were all fine by me. The store closures then quick backtracking did seem like a bit of a bungle but not a huge deal. This email was just boneheaded.

 

[Mars ☰mperor]

Elon Musk on Twitter

Elon on advertising:

@BillM_HB Maybe so eventually, but it will be information & entertainment, not trickery

 

[Mars ☰mperor]

T☰SLA Mania on Twitter

@elonmusk @BillM_HB Yes, no exaggerated ads. No need for that. Just the truth will blow people’s mind. Let’s start with bite sized informative mini videos to fight the dark side.

 

[Carl Raymond]

Building 2170s in Japan is a non-starter. There are import tarfiffs on Japanese 18650s that currently power the S/X. Avoiding these tariffs (hence lowering the cost of Model 3) was one of the primary objectives of moving battery cell production to the USA.

But what if those 2170s are destined for Shanghai? Maybe they get they same special Chinese stamp of approval that GF3 gained. China has observed USA government’s mistake in failing to embrace the EV transition. They plan to be king of the automotive hill following this disruption.

 

[DaveT]

I don’t get it. Does EM get some kind of bonus for pushing the stock price as low as possible?

 

[Freder Reeve]

@elonmusk @BillM_HB Yes, no exaggerated ads. No need for that.

CNBC regularly hosts free advertising for tesla. Such nice.

 

[anthonyj]

Funding secured, "smoking" weed, declining SEC deal, were all fine by me. The store closures then quick backtracking did seem like a bit of a bungle but not a huge deal. This email was just boneheaded.

True, the weed and declining SEC wasn’t that damaging long term. The email was suspicious. I’m thinking he wants the SP to tank? Maybe someone is loading up big?

 

[JRP3]

I’m thinking he wants the SP to tank? Maybe someone is loading up big?

Or, he just screwed up with over the top hyperbole.

 

[dww12]

Mercedes-Benz recalls 354,000 late-model cars for fire risk - Roadshow
Should this receive more attention? 30 starter fires in the US alone, vs Tesla what 2? They aren’t even in an accident!!!!!

Audi won’t even tell you how many have caught fire:
Audi recalls 75K vehicles due to fire risk

Maybe it was this one:
2019 Audi A7 Catches Fire while Testing - GTspirit
or this one
Ohio man says his car burst into flames
or this one:
Second report of Audi Q5 SUV catching fire in Ontario
or this one:
Audi R-8 engulfed in flames on Texas City highway

Gees, I am getting tired. Was this all just in the last year? Why isn’t CNBC on this? Seems like an epidemic, oh wait that advertiser thing. We like having the lights on. Just keep on Tesla, we’re an entertainment organization anyway not a facts and figures business.

On the AP semi wreck. Any other car the focus would be on the careless truck drive, but it’s a Tesla. And honestly it will push Tesla to be even better, the problem is HW3 most likely addresses this with 3D mapping that HW2.5 can’t do. A real “story” might focus on the quickly upcoming changes that will prevent this. But alas, if you don’t eat there you are free to *sugar*.

So about 300 side strikes of tractor trailors end in fatalities every year (first column in chart). In the last 3 years I have heard about 2 of those 900. That’s 0.2%.

The hard thing to stomach is that iihs has a cheap retrofit solution that can reduce this. I am counting on HW3 fixing this for Teslas but what about everyone else?

IIHS tests show benefits of side underride guards for semitrailers

Passenger vehicle occupant deaths in 2-vehicle crashes with tractor-trailers

Year Passenger vehicle strikes side of tractor-trailer Passenger vehicle strikes rear of tractor-trailer All crashes with tractor-trailers
2005 441 258 1,932
2006 394 260 1,853
2007 417 218 1,771
2008 290 180 1,526
2009 269 174 1,237
2010 319 181 1,417
2011 246 189 1,362
2012 306 216 1,376
2013 274 213 1,377
2014 308 220 1,409
2015 301 292 1,542

 

[Artful Dodger]

Thanks for the spoiler

OT:

Too right! Should always be cloaked as a:

Spoiler

 

[Carl Raymond]

It's barely profitable because it's still investing heavily.

They invented "retail as a service" nobody even noticed yet, it's not only highly profitable, they can make or break a manufacturer! And they have all capital intensive pieces almost ready, now they are crushing ups and FedEx to complete the vertical integration.

The day robotaxis are legalised, both TSLA and Amazon stock jumps. Delivery gets cheaper when done by robots.

 

[JohnDinger]

Funding secured, "smoking" weed, declining SEC deal, were all fine by me. The store closures then quick backtracking did seem like a bit of a bungle but not a huge deal. This email was just boneheaded.

What I don't understand is...

Why doesn't Elon have someone review his communication?

I'm not saying that he should get someone who approves or denies his communications; just someone that looks at it and goes "Have you thought about how X might be perceived?"

A few years ago, I worked at a company where the CEO hired a full-time leadership coach, and he became a much better CEO over time because of it. The coach had no power and stayed out of company strategy; he just focused on interpersonal stuff.

Elon's communication is clearly a weak point:

• The pedo nonsense
• 420 funding secured should have waited until the decision was firm
• Attacking journalists is a poor move, no matter how stupid they are
• Communicating store closures
• Last week's email

Again, I am not suggesting that someone APPROVES his communication.

But would it be so bad to force him to have a 15-minute buffer between hitting "send" and the message actually going out?

Just seems extremely arrogant at this point not to admit that Elon's communication skills are clearly lacking.

 

[SPadival]

To those beating the drum on behalf of the advertising industry & click bait media, fresh off the press (pun intended):

Tesla does not advertise or pay for endorsements. Instead, we use that money to make the product great.

Elon Musk on Twitter

I support this approach. Advertising, like Lidar, is a crutch. It is, as Chomsky famously said, manufacturing consent. I wish Boeing spent more money testing their planes instead of spending it on ABC Meet The Press, advertising planes that consumers can’t even buy!! I.e. it’s a bribe by another name.

 

[Todd Burch]

Shareholder meeting is in June. Hopefully a few people there (instead of the usual "can you give me a job at Tesla while making the steering wheel vegan?" nonsense) make it clear that many shareholders are not happy with his communication and behavior over the last few years.

 

[eloder]

What I don't understand is...

Why doesn't Elon have someone review his communication?

I'm not saying that he should get someone who approves or denies his communications; just someone that looks at it and goes "Have you thought about how X might be perceived?"

A few years ago, I worked at a company where the CEO hired a full-time leadership coach, and he became a much better CEO over time because of it. The coach had no power and stayed out of company strategy; he just focused on interpersonal stuff.

Elon's communication is clearly a weak point:

• The pedo nonsense
• 420 funding secured should have waited until the decision was firm
• Attacking journalists is a poor move, no matter how stupid they are
• Communicating store closures
• Last week's email

Again, I am not suggesting that someone APPROVES his communication.

But would it be so bad to force him to have a 15-minute buffer between hitting "send" and the message actually going out?

Just seems extremely arrogant at this point not to admit that Elon's communication skills are clearly lacking.

My higher-ups (I work for a fortune100 company) make really stupid internal communications, too. It just doesn't get the media attention that Elon does.

 

[tinm]

Reuters specifically? (since their FUD triggered Fridays drop in SP)

Reuters Spreads Electric Vehicle FUD On Behalf Of Laggard Japanese Auto | CleanTechnica

Ongoing Media FUD in general? Cleantechnica.com covers it with a routine series:

"Check our Pravduh reports to see how common it is for established media outlets like Reuters, which purports to be a factful source of information, are instead spreading disinformation. This case is just one amongst many"
​

Btw, this is 10 seconds of Googling. But I type slow.

Cheers!

I read that whole CleanTechnica piece and I see not a shred of evidence that Reuters craps on Tesla because Tesla won’t advertise for Reuters.

Again my point is it is common on TMC to hear this theory that the reason so many media outlets trash Tesla in their reportage is because Tesla’s not an advertiser. But nobody here ever produces evidence. Sure, in 5 seconds of Googling you can find mainstream media pumping out misleading b.s. about Tesla. But none of it says “we’d treat Tesla different if they advertised in our publication.”

Hell, Reuters isn’t even a publication, it’s a newswire like AP. Does any company advertise on AP or Reuters? I don’t think so. So the reason their reporting on Tesla is often sloppy, misleading, biased, full of FUD, etc., must lie elsewhere, no?

 

[EVNow]

It's barely profitable because it's still investing heavily.

They invented "retail as a service" nobody even noticed yet, it's not only highly profitable, they can make or break a manufacturer! And they have all capital intensive pieces almost ready, now they are crushing ups and FedEx to complete the vertical integration.

Amazon has become too powerful and will be broken up.

 

[MP3Mike]

But would it be so bad to force him to have a 15-minute buffer between hitting "send" and the message actually going out?

I think that comes back to one of Elon's quotes: "The longer you wait to fire someone, the longer it has been since you should have fired them." It fits with how he runs the company, you don't wait for anything. For example you don't wait for a model year change to make an improvement. All things that drive people crazy, but he is what he is. If you don't like those things then you need to stay away from him/Tesla.

And I suspect a really good example will come up in the next 6-9 months when they do an interior/exterior refresh on the S&X. People will have a fit because they just bought a raven refresh version and he devalued their car. Why can't he just wait and make all of the changes at the same time... Because the longer you wait to make an improvement, the longer it has been since you should have made the improvement.

 

[EVNow]

Again my point is it is common on TMC to hear this theory that the reason so many media outlets trash Tesla in their reportage is because Tesla’s not an advertiser. But nobody here ever produces evidence. Sure, in 5 seconds of Googling you can find mainstream media pumping out misleading b.s. about Tesla. But none of it says “we’d treat Tesla different if they advertised in our publication.”

Advertising is one part of it. But nobody is going to come out and say they are treating Tesla badly because they don't advertise - or they won't say they are treating BMW better because they advertise. What kind of "proof" do you really expect to see ?

What Tesla is missing is a PR department that picks up the phone and calls the editor and screams for hours when they write hit pieces. But that may not have much of an impact if the only tool the PR department has is access.

Finally, the fact that Tesla in the headline gets clicks is a very powerful motivator. Much more than advertising.