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

[sparcs]

GTM - 2017: Reports: Tesla-Branded Solar Panels Arrive in Stores

Before being acquired by Tesla, SolarCity, like many other installers, bought solar panels from several different suppliers.

Thanks, so it has nothing to do with GF2 in New York. Just some legacy stuff from SolarCity.

There are definitely a lot of pieces to this story missing as none of these sound like issues that couldn't be fixed before a lawsuit. Guess we will have to wait till Tesla files a response.

 

[LTC_RRR]

That means FSD feature complete end of 2020

I never understood that V10 was supposed to be "feature complete"

 

[schonelucht]

Only two relevant questions

1/ Does the Walmart case have merit?
2/ If yes, do other SolarCity installations suffer from the same shortcomings?

 

[MP3Mike]

Why did Tesla let this go to court?

If all of those things are true where was the local code inspector in all of these places? Was it up to code or not?

 

[PhaseWhite]

Maybe someone was doing CYA and didn't let the bad news/ situation go up the chain of command?

To me it reeks of another ball (s) dropped on customer support

 

[brian45011]

It will have no measurable effect unless it causes a large increase in solar deployments.
.

What happens to GF-2 output if there is no large increase in deployments?

 

[Artful Dodger]

If all of those things are true where was the local code inspector in all of these places? Was it up to code or not?

Yup, starting to smell like a hit-piece with suspicious timing of the filing the lawsuit days after Tesla announces a new retail solar rooftop product. FUD da ROOF?

 

[Foghat]

This bears repeating on the strategic level:

You can’t be an ICE company and be a BEV company at the same time.

Completely different technologies, completely different supply chains. Completely different capital investments required to scale.

ICE companies will have to stop producing ICE and have to commit *completely* to electric in order to compete with Tesla and other full BEV companies.

If not, they disappear and useful assets get absorbed by buyers at cut rate prices.

This goes for utilities as well. The hard data is accumulating on distributed batteries and solar.

Fossil fuel demand (of any type) will just simply drop off a cliff as the infrastructure becomes plug and play electric with our current poles and wires.

Now with that, who’s strategy would you rather follow in 20 years? Ford & Buffet utilities or Tesla Motors &Tesla Energy?

 

[powertoold]

To me it reeks of another ball (s) dropped on customer support

Yup, seems like Tesla's customer support chain is a big mess. Maybe won't kill the company, but I imagine this solar thing will be a hit if judge awards punitive damages.

 

[Singuy]

Yup, starting to smell like a hit-piece with suspicious timing of the filing the lawsuit days after Tesla announces a new retail solar rooftop product. FUD da ROOF?

Nah I doubt it. Could just be a coincidence. Tesla solar leasing is very cash intensive and shorts would rather them do this vs not. Margins are thin and Tesla has to hire more people to install solar vs not focusing on service.

 

[Driver Dave]

Why did Tesla let this go to court?

I wouldn't take the suing party's filing as the exact facts of the matter.

 

[capster]

This bears repeating on the strategic level:

You can’t be an ICE company and be a BEV company at the same time.

Completely different technologies, completely different supply chains. Completely different capital investments required to scale.

ICE companies will have to stop producing ICE and have to commit *completely* to electric in order to compete with Tesla and other full BEV companies.

If not, they disappear and useful assets get absorbed by buyers at cut rate prices.

This goes for utilities as well. The hard data is accumulating on distributed batteries and solar.

Fossil fuel demand (of any type) will just simply drop off a cliff as the infrastructure becomes plug and play electric with our current poles and wires.

Now with that, who’s strategy would you rather follow in 20 years? Ford & Buffet utilities or Tesla Motors &Tesla Energy?

This is easy to keep in mind once you realize that "ICE" is better thought of as an abbreviation for "Rolling Oil Burner."

 

[mongo]

To me it reeks of another ball (s) dropped on customer support

As written, it was a long processes that involved further inspections, deactivation of systems, and payout of damages from past events. So there was communication and interaction happening, not just a busy signal.
However the llamas responsible for the llamas inspecting the system may have been sacked.

 

[kengchang]

What happens to GF-2 output if there is no large increase in deployments?

Panasonic has been exporting solar cells to other parties.

 

[Curt Renz]

Why did Tesla let this go to court?

Tesla advertises by getting in the news. The top headlines bleed, but that is understood. Nevertheless this will give Tesla a megaphone to proclaim that unlike those outside supplier produced panels installed years ago by an independent SolarCity, Tesla is now manufacturing its own safe solar panels and beautiful roofs.

 

[humbaba]

It was a promise. "Tesla advanced Summon ready in ~6 weeks! Just an over-the-air software upgrade, so will work on all cars made in past 2 years (Autopilot hardware V2+)." And stretching a 4-8 week Elon estimate to 18 weeks is perfectly reasonable given his track record on FSD predictions.

Your quote doesn't have the word "promise" in it. Nor does it have the word "guarantee." As stated, it is an expectation. People are over reacting -- does no one remember Duke Nukem?

 

[powertoold]

Tesla advertises by getting in the news. The top headlines bleed, but that is understood. Nevertheless this will give Tesla a megaphone to proclaim that unlike those outside supplier produced panels installed years ago by an independent SolarCity, Tesla is now manufacturing its own safe solar panels and beautiful roofs.

Sounds like the fires were mostly caused by poor wiring and installation, not the panels themselves.

I don't know. This isn't some joe schmoe suing Tesla, it's Walmart. I'm sure they can handle it themselves if they wanted to, but they decided to take to court, not to make a fool of themselves.

 

[SPadival]

It's hard to tell who is being sarcastic and who really believes this crap.

Hey, I just linked to the video. I know you are a bitter short, just take it easy. No need for hysteria.

 

[jerry33]

Sure theoretically volkswagen, of dieselgate 'lying to customers so as to pollute more and thus boost profits' fame, COULD in theory grab a chunk of the clean-vehicle zero-emissions market with the ID range but...
In reality, the gap between the brand image of Tesla (passionate CEO, 100% EV, climate-change in their mission, shot a car into space) and Volkswagen (CEO probably in a prison cell? known mostly as lying, polluting dinosaurs) is colossal.

People need to really do mental somersaults to justify buying a clean EV from a company like volkswagen. How many teenagers have a poster of a VW EV on their wall? How many of them follow the CEO on twitter?

Plus they might have had a VW previously, in which case they'll never buy.

 

[JRP3]

I wouldn't take the suing party's filing as the exact facts of the matter.

Sure but there were actual documented fires on multiple roofs.

If all of those things are true where was the local code inspector in all of these places? Was it up to code or not?

I wondered the same, but how many individual connections do code officials actually inspect? Very few I'd imagine. For example when I built my garage a few years ago they didn't open up any of my junction boxes to check the connections, let alone all of them.