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

[SOULPEDL]

Happy Birthday Elon.
You should spend it all at work - you deserve it
Cheers!

It's Friday somewhere isn't it?

 

[SteveG3]

I totally agree that they are in these ways: The Tesla Smear | CleanTechnica

However, I think there is too much conspiratorial thinking about journalists and even editors. I think they have been duped, but I don't think they are financially corrupted (in most cases) by advertising* or direct benefits from short sellers. There's a big difference between those possibilities when it comes to how we should respond.

*Edit: I still contend that editors are generally separated from sponsorships/ads in most cases — until someone shows me strong evidence otherwise.

please read Pulitzer Prize Winner Chris Hedges’ emphatic case for corporate goals having pretty much imploded journalism

The Day That TV News Died | BillMoyers.com

 

[dqd88]

Biological systems are much more energy efficient than robotic systems, so that idea will move us in the wrong direction. A male human needs 2500 kcalories per day which is 2900 Wh per day, or slightly over 100W. Try making a robot that can do anything a human can do within a power budget of 100W.

Good point, but it's not really about efficiency. The energy source for robots can be infinite if from solar. So it can be very inefficient and still have limitless expansion since it's not capped by energy availability.
I guess my point is that it's not about energy efficiency, it's about the energy source/type. Drastically growing the food supply is not sustainable. Requires too much deforestation. Must metabolize energy from Sun to allow for infinite expansion of the species. Must restore the forests of earth.

It would also help us become space faring as our bodies will be hard to manage over long periods in outer space. Robots can handle the non-earth conditions much better. Probably it will be just our brains that exist, at least until our consciousness is digitizable, which may precede "robotification." (this is just thought experiment stuff that I find fun, fyi, impossible to predict the future. And ideas for sci-fi writing)

 

[Alphacrux]

Big Step For Self-Driving Semis As Starsky Tests Unmanned Robo-Truck On Florida Highway

 

[Fact Checking]

Big Step For Self-Driving Semis As Starsky Tests Unmanned Robo-Truck On Florida Highway

Wait what?

Wasn't this moment supposed to be 20-30 years away, with the Sun blotted out from the sky by a swarm of lawyers? I'm confused.

Put differently, the trucking industry is estimated to be about $700b in the U.S. alone. Florida is about 5% of the U.S. economy, so the size of the Florida trucking industry is ~$35b per year. Plenty of revenue stream to grow FSD solutions starting in a single big U.S. state.

 

[Fact Checking]

This kind of FUD doesn't work in an international forum.

LOL, indeed.

Am I the only one who has read that anti-universal-healthcare FUD which was blatantly lying about Canada and thought: "what a lame attempt at FUD, you should learn from some of the better anti-Tesla talking points!!"

 

[Fact Checking]

However, I think there is too much conspiratorial thinking about journalists and even editors. I think they have been duped, but I don't think they are financially corrupted (in most cases) by advertising* or direct benefits from short sellers. There's a big difference between those possibilities when it comes to how we should respond.

May I ask a question: could your opinion be influenced a bit by the happy new world of disruptive green technologies, which are all growing massively and cooperatively, and which industry hasn't had the time to build out their spider web of corruption yet?

The ICE industry is a 100 years old stagnant industry that is mostly playing a zero sum game: what I gain today is at the expense of my competitors - it's not a new industry growing semi-cooperatively into a much larger market. Auto journalists are primary gateways to new car customers ...

But let's put history and economic logic aside, let me quote the corruption of auto journalists straight from the horse's mouth. Alex Roy (former and I suspect future Tesla critic) has recently bought a Tesla and has published a very entertaining article about it a couple of days ago on The Drive, and described how his TSLAQ friend Ed "Tesla Death Watch" Niedermeyer reacted to his decision to buy a Tesla:

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Buy A Tesla

"Are you out of your f***ing mind?" said journalist Ed Niedermeyer, whose name is allegedly painted above the drain of the replica Duchamp hidden in Elon Musk's private bathroom at Tesla's Fremont factory."

"I'm buying a Tesla," I said, "and nothing you say can stop me."

"Maybe you should read my book."

"That definitely won't stop me."​

Funny TSLAQ anecdote aside, this is how he is characterizing the relationship between carmakers and auto journalists:

"The truth was that I'd been talking to Tesla higher ups for months, alternatively promising to buy new and threatening to buy used. They'd never offered anything other than best wishes, which made conceding Ed's point a whole lot easier. However much a dark part of me hoped for a discount and a specially prepped car, I'd have to order one like every other shlub. But calling in manufacturer favors is what other people do. You know them; those auto "journalists" with nary an unkind word for a car until its model cycle is over."

"Me? I've got a reputation to uphold."​

And yes, despite the funny and sarcastic packaging of a rich, independent and overly honest Alex Roy, what he describes is what I've seen how much of auto journalism works in practice, manufacturers are actively and systematically bribing auto journalists via various favors and benefits:

• Do you think when Volkswagen "introduced" the I.D. in South Africa it was just for the photo shoots? Or maybe to invite select journalists to an exotic all-inclusive trip to a beautiful country?
• Do you think when Jaguar "introduced" the i-Pace in Portugal it was just for the photo shoots? Or maybe to invite select journalists to an exotic all-inclusive trip to a beautiful country? To quote one of the resulting articles:
  • "It's why I found myself 12,000 miles from the office for a weekend. It's why Jaguar spent millions of pounds rotating 26 groups of journalists from all around the world through Portugal's charming sunbaked hills for a month and a half. I'm not sure how much it costs to rent a private plane, a world-class race track, an entire hotel, and truck in over 100 cars for six weeks - but you better believe me when I say they spared literally no expense for the I-PACE."
• And the expense paid off, to quote from the article:
  • "From conception to reality, the 'luxury performance SUV' was born in a mind-boggling four years. “Where other companies talk about the future, we build it. We have torn up the rulebook," were the words spoken by JLR's top dog Dr. Ralf Speth himself."
• No, that's not an infomercial or press release from Jaguar. It was penned by an independent auto journalist.
• The article also refers to Tesla:
  • "I've tried to resist bringing up Tesla until now, but while we're debunking that bandwagon, let's agree that the I-PACE's aesthetics are infinitely more appealing than the Model X."
• Note how unintentionally revealing that sentence is, not primarily in its false negativity, but the "I've tried to resist bringing up Tesla". WHY would an auto journalist NOT want to talk about the market leader and primary competitor of a new model when informing readers??
• There's also a couple of straight lies and pieces of FUD about Tesla:
  • "Unlike the Tesla, the Jaguar can actually do other things beyond driving quickly in a straight line (and it doesn't cook itself after two laps either). The I-PACE went time and time again, as long and as hard as I pushed it, without noticeably letting up at all."
• ... and Jaguar got what they paid for:
  • "Aside from the fact the Tesla's blown-up body looks like it's had an allergic reaction to a bee sting, it's interior really is just too minimal. The I-PACE, meanwhile, looks like it should have a cameo roaming another planet in an episode of Lost In Space and has enough buttons for you to feel in control of the essentials."

In pretty much any other industry (except maybe the oil exploration industry) accepting "gifts" like 'discounts', 'special prepping' or expensive trips from customers/suppliers would get you fired for cause and escorted out of the building the day your boss learned about it, with a possible referral to the police for FCPA violations.

In the auto journalism world it's apparently totally routine to get "specially prepped cars", "discounts", in addition to free trips to "introductions", which result in gushing articles and Tesla-bashing to make sure the next invitation is in the mailbox...

This is not a "conspiracy" as @tinm is suggesting, it's a sporadically but consistently documented quid pro quo scheme between car manufacturers and auto journalists whose true scope I'm sure is an order of magnitude larger than what gets documented accidentally and indirectly.

I'm pretty sure that Tesla's well documented refusal to dance with auto journalists: "[Tesla] never offered anything other than best wishes" is one of the major reasons behind the generally unfriendly coverage by auto journalists.

 

[Fact Checking]

NASDAQ and Dow futures are looking bad, they just had a negative spike in the last 30 minutes - some negative G20/China news perhaps. There were no scheduled economic data releases for this time range.

If this sentiment continues into market hours then it will be a drag on TSLA as well.

 

[ZachShahan]

For the general press I honestly think it has more to do with the fact that many reporters don't earn enough money to afford Tesla's offerings and or they perceive them to be for the rich.

When it comes to automotive reporters my theory is more that they are and have been for a long time in bed with the traditional automakers. They provide press cars, paid for trips to exotic locations etc etc... Why bite the hand that feeds them?

Yes, I agree with that.

May I ask a question: could your opinion be influenced a bit by the happy new world of disruptive green technologies, which are all growing massively and cooperatively, and which industry hasn't had the time to build out their spider web of corruption yet?

The ICE industry is a 100 years old stagnant industry that is mostly playing a zero sum game: what I gain today is at the expense of my competitors - it's not a new industry growing semi-cooperatively into a much larger market. Auto journalists are primary gateways to new car customers ...

But let's put history and economic logic aside, let me quote the corruption of auto journalists straight from the horse's mouth. Alex Roy (former and I suspect future Tesla critic) has recently bought a Tesla and has published a very entertaining article about it a couple of days ago on The Drive, and described how his TSLAQ friend Ed "Tesla Death Watch" Niedermeyer reacted to his decision to buy a Tesla:

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Buy A Tesla

"Are you out of your f***ing mind?" said journalist Ed Niedermeyer, whose name is allegedly painted above the drain of the replica Duchamp hidden in Elon Musk's private bathroom at Tesla's Fremont factory."

"I'm buying a Tesla," I said, "and nothing you say can stop me."

"Maybe you should read my book."

"That definitely won't stop me."​

Funny TSLAQ anecdote aside, this is how he is characterizing the relationship between carmakers and auto journalists:

"The truth was that I'd been talking to Tesla higher ups for months, alternatively promising to buy new and threatening to buy used. They'd never offered anything other than best wishes, which made conceding Ed's point a whole lot easier. However much a dark part of me hoped for a discount and a specially prepped car, I'd have to order one like every other shlub. But calling in manufacturer favors is what other people do. You know them; those auto "journalists" with nary an unkind word for a car until its model cycle is over."

"Me? I've got a reputation to uphold."​

And yes, despite the funny and sarcastic packaging of a rich, independent and overly honest Alex Roy, what he describes is what I've seen how much of auto journalism works in practice, manufacturers are actively and systematically bribing auto journalists via various favors and benefits:

• Do you think when Volkswagen "introduced" the I.D. in South Africa it was just for the photo shoots? Or maybe to invite select journalists to an exotic all-inclusive trip to a beautiful country?
• Do you think when Jaguar "introduced" the i-Pace in Portugal it was just for the photo shoots? Or maybe to invite select journalists to an exotic all-inclusive trip to a beautiful country? To quote one of the resulting articles:
  • "It's why I found myself 12,000 miles from the office for a weekend. It's why Jaguar spent millions of pounds rotating 26 groups of journalists from all around the world through Portugal's charming sunbaked hills for a month and a half. I'm not sure how much it costs to rent a private plane, a world-class race track, an entire hotel, and truck in over 100 cars for six weeks - but you better believe me when I say they spared literally no expense for the I-PACE."
• And the expense paid off, to quote from the article:
  • "From conception to reality, the 'luxury performance SUV' was born in a mind-boggling four years. “Where other companies talk about the future, we build it. We have torn up the rulebook," were the words spoken by JLR's top dog Dr. Ralf Speth himself."
• No, that's not an infomercial or press release from Jaguar. It's an independent auto journalist.
• The article also refers to Tesla:
  • "I've tried to resist bringing up Tesla until now, but while we're debunking that bandwagon, let's agree that the I-PACE's aesthetics are infinitely more appealing than the Model X."
• Note how unintentionally revealing that sentence is, not primarily in its false negativity, but the "I've tried to resist bringing up Tesla". WHY would an auto journalist NOT want to talk about the primary competitor of a new model??
• There's also a couple of straight lies and pieces of FUD about Tesla:
  • "Unlike the Tesla, the Jaguar can actually do other things beyond driving quickly in a straight line (and it doesn't cook itself after two laps either). The I-PACE went time and time again, as long and as hard as I pushed it, without noticeably letting up at all."
• and Jaguar got what they paid for:
  • "Aside from the fact the Tesla's blown-up body looks like it's had an allergic reaction to a bee sting, it's interior really is just too minimal. The I-PACE, meanwhile, looks like it should have a cameo roaming another planet in an episode of Lost In Space and has enough buttons for you to feel in control of the essentials."

In pretty much any other industry (except maybe the oil exploration industry) accepting "gifts" like 'discounts', 'special prepping' or expensive trips from customers/suppliers would get you fired for cause and escorted out of the building the day your boss learned about it, with a possible referral to the police for FCPA violations.

In the auto journalism world it's apparently totally routine to get "specially prepped cars", "discounts", in addition to free trips to "introductions", which result in gushing articles and Tesla-bashing to make sure the next invitation is in the mailbox...

This is not a "conspiracy" as @tinm is suggesting, it's a sporadically but consistently documented quid pro quo scheme between car manufacturers and auto journalists whose scope I'm sure is an order of magnitude larger than what gets documented accidentally and indirectly.

I'm pretty sure that Tesla's well documented refusal to dance with auto journalists: "[Tesla] never offered anything other than best wishes" is one of the major reasons behind the generally unfriendly coverage by auto journalists.

I agree with that criticism of auto journalists.

I thought we were focusing on more generic tech and business journalists here, and journalists at the top newspapers, which often have a very strict sense of duty and rules regarding bias.

One of our people went to Portugal for the i-PACE drive and we've been invited to other nice press events, but anyone who goes is instructed to not hold back and write honest, useful reviews. And those events certainly don't influence our broader editorial.

I do agree auto outlets and 100% auto journalists live in a different world. And I have heard a direct personal anecdote about it (a soft issue but a conversation about not ruffling feathers — the journalist reported something a CEO said, the company denied the claim, the journalist wanted to write a response clarifying that it came from the CEO, and the journalist's editor basically said, "Come on, what's the point? We don't want to piss them off over this." I definitely do not think that is the case at the editorial level at the NYTimes and WaPo and Bloomberg. But I could be wrong.

I will refrain from responding to anything further on this topic since this isn't the thread. But I have a lot of material and thoughts for a long piece on the topic. Thank you all At the very least, I think this is a critical question/discussion to raise more broadly so that people think about the potential bias at big media outlets.

 

[ZachShahan]

Strongly recommend everyone stop overreacting to every departure. It happens. Every day. In every company. And it almost always has virtually zero impact on the real success of the company.

Gali had a good video on this. (Think it was him, someone debunking Chanos concerns.)

Obviously, reporting on this kind of thing at Tesla and nowhere else makes Tesla look abnormal. Need to publish another piece on how that is warping perception of Tesla.

Which automakers have had their CEO and/or CTO change in the past 10 years? Just asking that question puts the "issue" into perspective, imho.

And this is not the 1950s — people don't stay at one company for a whole career in most cases. Log a few years, get experience, and move up the ranks elsewhere.

 

[bhtooefr]

What sound does an alarm clock make in Europe?

2021 CO2 targets would generate €34 billion euros in penalty payments within Europe | JATO

How to reduce the penalty?

View attachment 423313

"The conclusion of this study is the worst case scenario for manufacturers. We are assuming that nothing would change from now until 2021, and unfairly excluding the plans for electrification. Effectively, OEMs can claim up to 7.5 g/km of CO2 from 2020 to 2022 to offset their total CO2 number for vehicles that meet the eco-innovation criteria.

"Moreover, we will definitely see many models dropped where investment to reduce their averages is larger than the profits generated. This will include the axing of more combustion engines, large and heavy cars, or those slow-selling models. To sum up, the manufacturers may have the technology to launch cleaner cars and alternatives to reduce the fines – their only limitation is time."​

Spoiler

Tick Tock 2021

If I look into my article and what I wrote as a worst case Szenarien for the German Automakers last year and compare it with today, the worst case scenario I painted just happened.

Unfortunately I do not see many indications this to change. The reason why I am pessimistic is the technology they have and work with, how they discuss with politicians and demand support and the internal company fight between gas, diesel, Hybrid and FC that is happening in this organizations as well as between OEMs and VDA. Some are way behind where I thought they are a few months ago.

Its bad and it gets worse. If Tesla can continue to execute and it all looks like that some won't survive.

Oh, and it gets even worse.

EEA: average CO2 emissions from new cars and new vans in Europe increased in 2018

Dieselgate-related issues are driving higher adoption of (higher CO2) gasoline engines in Europe (and I suspect it's even worse than that in the real world, as the diesels had lower CO2 emissions when in cheat mode, whereas the popular downsized-and-turbocharged gasoline engines in Europe have very poor real-world CO2 emissions performance relative to their test performance), SUV/CUV adoption is increasing, and vans are getting larger. And, HEV/PHEV/BEV adoption isn't increasing fast enough to make up for this.

As in, the European automakers are going the wrong direction on CO2.

 

[Sean Wagner]

please read Pulitzer Prize Winner Chris Hedges’ emphatic case for corporate goals having pretty much imploded journalism

The Day That TV News Died | BillMoyers.com

Quote ... / The celebrity trolls who currently reign on commercial television, who bill themselves as liberal or conservative, read from the same corporate script. They spin the same court gossip. They ignore what the corporate state wants ignored. They champion what the corporate state wants championed. They do not challenge or acknowledge the structures of corporate power. Their role is to funnel viewer energy back into our dead political system / ... Unquote

Thank you.

 

[Sean Wagner]

(former and I suspect future Tesla critic)

Glorious. But owning a Tesla might instead transmute into a growing affinity for other new entrants in the field like Rivian. Or the criticism might be sensibly grounded in well-presented facts set in logical contexts, peppered with relatable experiences.

Generally speaking, it's a smallish world, and not everyone will choose to stand out among peers by giving the seemingly boisterous "underdog" who promises to upend the industry a semi-fair shake. What flabbergasts me is the now documented penchant of one LA Times jourrnalist to embrace something as small-minded and petty as TESLAQ.

[Edit: but then I've seen more than enough of the Financial Times Alphaville section's relentless bias that still somewhat overpowers my ability to understand what's going on, let alone why.]

Alex Roy with his new job at least clearly points to where the automotive industry is going: a software-first paradigm nearly everywhere that "old timers" feel passes them by. Herbert Diess of VW gets that, while Tesla ostensibly already built the digital factory backbone Volkswagen is only now attempting to implement together with Amazon Cloud Services.

 

[Fact Checking]

Oh, and it gets even worse.

EEA: average CO2 emissions from new cars and new vans in Europe increased in 2018

Dieselgate-related issues are driving higher adoption of (higher CO2) gasoline engines in Europe (and I suspect it's even worse than that in the real world, as the diesels had lower CO2 emissions when in cheat mode, whereas the popular downsized-and-turbocharged gasoline engines in Europe have very poor real-world CO2 emissions performance relative to their test performance), SUV/CUV adoption is increasing, and vans are getting larger. And, HEV/PHEV/BEV adoption isn't increasing fast enough to make up for this.

As in, the European automakers are going the wrong direction on CO2.

This table posted by @Lycanthrope captures the 2018 increase in CO₂ emissions very well:

Note how FCA's emissions increased from 120.1 g/km to 125.3 g/km - a 4.3% increase. Only Nissan managed a meaningful reduction of -2.6% - and they are what FCA had in mind when they tried to merge with Renault.

Penalties start at 90 g/km, and most carmakers are very, very far away from that threshold.

The CO₂ pooling agreement with Tesla is going to be very valuable to FCA in the years to come: the EU penalty is €95 per g/km per vehicle, resulting in ZEV credits earned per Tesla vehicle sold in the EU of €10,500, with up to €21,000 per Tesla car for the first 30k-50k units sold according to this previous estimate by @Prunesquallor.

I.e. if FCA and Tesla are sharing the EU ZEV credit benefits 50%/50%, then Tesla earns about €10,500 for the first ~37k Teslas sold next year (2020), and €5,250 for every car in addition to that. (With a taper and different limits for 2021 and 2022.)

So if we pessimistically take about 25k Teslas delivered in Europe per quarter in 2020, that's 100k Teslas for 2020, 37k*€10,500 + 63k*€5,250 = €719,250,000, or about $812m per year at the current exchange rate. For every additional 10k units more delivered in Europe it's an incremental income of about +$52.5m.

 

[ZachShahan]

It's very possible that the shorts are feeding articles to the journalists as described by Cramer. The journalists may not realize the inaccuracies and they are mostly interested in timely shocking news that will generate clicks. After a while they might even develop a symbiotic relationship like Russ and Mark Spiegel.

I definitely believe that. I think it's subtle/scattered enough that the journalists think they are figuring things out.

And that's also why I clarify with the term "direct corruption," because I do think this indirect corruption is at play.

Useful idiots.

 

[AlexS]

Following this, a filing with the California Department of Insurance revealed that Tesla’s insurance program for its drivers is set to be fronted by State National Insurance Company, Inc., a subsidiary of Markel Corporation.

Tesla needs to complete small acquisition before insurance product launch - Reinsurance News

so insurance will be for Califormia only in the beginning

 

[LN1_Casey]

Following this, a filing with the California Department of Insurance revealed that Tesla’s insurance program for its drivers is set to be fronted by State National Insurance Company, Inc., a subsidiary of Markel Corporation.

Tesla needs to complete small acquisition before insurance product launch - Reinsurance News

so insurance will be for Califormia only in the beginning

I can see why they'd not want country wide as their first toe dip into the program, and California has a HUGE Tesla count comparatively, so it makes sense why they'd choose this first.

Also, I wonder if this will affect their own Semi use. Do professional Semi's have personal insurance, or is it a company thing?

 

[Right_Said_Fred]

Can anyone explain to me why this thread overnight has turned into a political debating club? Don't get sucked into those discussions, you all KNOW BETTER. Show some self-control, like @ZachShahan did. Otherwise mods have to resort to simply vaporizing several pages of posts.

OtherMod: Indeed, I got sick of them and moved 23 posts specifically about health care. --ggr

 

[Boomer19]

credit suisse
ford - outperform
gm - outperform
tsla - underperform (because VW)

 

[mrdoubleb]

May I ask a question: could your opinion be influenced a bit by the happy new world of disruptive green technologies, which are all growing massively and cooperatively, and which industry hasn't had the time to build out their spider web of corruption yet?

The ICE industry is a 100 years old stagnant industry that is mostly playing a zero sum game: what I gain today is at the expense of my competitors - it's not a new industry growing semi-cooperatively into a much larger market. Auto journalists are primary gateways to new car customers ...

But let's put history and economic logic aside, let me quote the corruption of auto journalists straight from the horse's mouth. Alex Roy (former and I suspect future Tesla critic) has recently bought a Tesla and has published a very entertaining article about it a couple of days ago on The Drive, and described how his TSLAQ friend Ed "Tesla Death Watch" Niedermeyer reacted to his decision to buy a Tesla:

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Buy A Tesla

"Are you out of your f***ing mind?" said journalist Ed Niedermeyer, whose name is allegedly painted above the drain of the replica Duchamp hidden in Elon Musk's private bathroom at Tesla's Fremont factory."

"I'm buying a Tesla," I said, "and nothing you say can stop me."

"Maybe you should read my book."

"That definitely won't stop me."​

Funny TSLAQ anecdote aside, this is how he is characterizing the relationship between carmakers and auto journalists:

"The truth was that I'd been talking to Tesla higher ups for months, alternatively promising to buy new and threatening to buy used. They'd never offered anything other than best wishes, which made conceding Ed's point a whole lot easier. However much a dark part of me hoped for a discount and a specially prepped car, I'd have to order one like every other shlub. But calling in manufacturer favors is what other people do. You know them; those auto "journalists" with nary an unkind word for a car until its model cycle is over."

"Me? I've got a reputation to uphold."​

And yes, despite the funny and sarcastic packaging of a rich, independent and overly honest Alex Roy, what he describes is what I've seen how much of auto journalism works in practice, manufacturers are actively and systematically bribing auto journalists via various favors and benefits:

• Do you think when Volkswagen "introduced" the I.D. in South Africa it was just for the photo shoots? Or maybe to invite select journalists to an exotic all-inclusive trip to a beautiful country?
• Do you think when Jaguar "introduced" the i-Pace in Portugal it was just for the photo shoots? Or maybe to invite select journalists to an exotic all-inclusive trip to a beautiful country? To quote one of the resulting articles:
  • "It's why I found myself 12,000 miles from the office for a weekend. It's why Jaguar spent millions of pounds rotating 26 groups of journalists from all around the world through Portugal's charming sunbaked hills for a month and a half. I'm not sure how much it costs to rent a private plane, a world-class race track, an entire hotel, and truck in over 100 cars for six weeks - but you better believe me when I say they spared literally no expense for the I-PACE."
• And the expense paid off, to quote from the article:
  • "From conception to reality, the 'luxury performance SUV' was born in a mind-boggling four years. “Where other companies talk about the future, we build it. We have torn up the rulebook," were the words spoken by JLR's top dog Dr. Ralf Speth himself."
• No, that's not an infomercial or press release from Jaguar. It was penned by an independent auto journalist.
• The article also refers to Tesla:
  • "I've tried to resist bringing up Tesla until now, but while we're debunking that bandwagon, let's agree that the I-PACE's aesthetics are infinitely more appealing than the Model X."
• Note how unintentionally revealing that sentence is, not primarily in its false negativity, but the "I've tried to resist bringing up Tesla". WHY would an auto journalist NOT want to talk about the market leader and primary competitor of a new model when informing readers??
• There's also a couple of straight lies and pieces of FUD about Tesla:
  • "Unlike the Tesla, the Jaguar can actually do other things beyond driving quickly in a straight line (and it doesn't cook itself after two laps either). The I-PACE went time and time again, as long and as hard as I pushed it, without noticeably letting up at all."
• ... and Jaguar got what they paid for:
  • "Aside from the fact the Tesla's blown-up body looks like it's had an allergic reaction to a bee sting, it's interior really is just too minimal. The I-PACE, meanwhile, looks like it should have a cameo roaming another planet in an episode of Lost In Space and has enough buttons for you to feel in control of the essentials."

In pretty much any other industry (except maybe the oil exploration industry) accepting "gifts" like 'discounts', 'special prepping' or expensive trips from customers/suppliers would get you fired for cause and escorted out of the building the day your boss learned about it, with a possible referral to the police for FCPA violations.

In the auto journalism world it's apparently totally routine to get "specially prepped cars", "discounts", in addition to free trips to "introductions", which result in gushing articles and Tesla-bashing to make sure the next invitation is in the mailbox...

This is not a "conspiracy" as @tinm is suggesting, it's a sporadically but consistently documented quid pro quo scheme between car manufacturers and auto journalists whose true scope I'm sure is an order of magnitude larger than what gets documented accidentally and indirectly.

I'm pretty sure that Tesla's well documented refusal to dance with auto journalists: "[Tesla] never offered anything other than best wishes" is one of the major reasons behind the generally unfriendly coverage by auto journalists.

And then there was Audi as well with the e-tron press junket in Abu Dhabi - they even flew in journalists and Youtubers from my country, admittedly not a huge market for luxury SUVs.

Unfortunately I can only agree to the above and add some more first hand experience - as long as we can keep things anonymous here.

I`ve been contributing to a local EV site for almost 2 years now, written over 250 articles. We are a small site compared to the likes of CleanTechnica, Electrek and others, but have a name on the local market among enthusiasts. Yet, we struggle to get cars for test drives and often have to resort to borrowing from owners as we used to write what I would consider proper reviews and often honest criticism ("tough love") on what certain car companies were doing on the ICE front (Dieselgate) or EVs (promises of "2 years now" with no accountability or questioning by jurnos).

Recently 2 of my articles were thrown back as the owner of the site was concerned we could lose the only 2 companies who were considering giving us test cars and inviting us to (local) press events. I also had to tone down a review that I felt was pretty balanced but did point out some flaws and issues on the car end its ecosystem that I haven`t read about elsewhere.

I was actually close to parting ways with the site, but later reconsidered, so I could continue fighting the FUD on EVs and Tesla - I`ll just not touch topics where I feel like I could not get my points out.

Unfortunately "access" is just as hot a currency as a luxury weekend for a "review" or actual advertising dollars. You keep writing critical stuff, call us out on our years of EV promises and you can go and borrow a car from a buyer for review 6 months after everyone else has published their articles. Good luck with that and your little site.