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

[MC3OZ]

There's at least 3 Models S at the 'ring this week:

1. Grey colored Raven production model
   
2. Red colored Plaid prototype
   
3. Blue colored Plaid prototype

Cheers!

I'm now curious about the difference between the Blue and Red Plaid prototypes...

Perhaps they are an identical car, and Tesla is playing it safe by having 2 cars available.

Or perhaps one of them is a "base model" with a smaller battery and smaller motors.

We will have to wait to be told officially, but if one is faster, my money is on the Red, but perhaps that is just the color making a difference

 

[Fred42]

Or it could just be a redesign of the 3rd row seats instead of the zomebie-rumor-that-just-won't-die interior refresh.

You guys act like Tesla should just flat out never refresh anything because it will "osborne" everything. No one in the market for a new S right now is going to wait a year just in case there is an interior refresh. If they want a 3 motor performance version they may, but that is not going to be a huge volume car in any case, more of a halo vehicle.

I will believe until proven wrong that the Plaid will be the performance version of the next generation S and X, coming to market fall 2020.

I expected this in 2022, when the S is ten years old, and not sooner because Tesla has so much in the pipeline. Perhaps the Taycan helped to move up the timeline.

 

[adiggs]

I'm now curious about the difference between the Blue and Red Plaid prototypes...

Perhaps they are an identical car, and Tesla is playing it safe by having 2 cars available.

Or perhaps one of them is a "base model" with a smaller battery and smaller motors.

We will have to wait to be told officially, but if one is faster, my money is on the Red, but perhaps that is just the color making a difference

Red cars are definitely faster.

As are clean cars. I know my Roadster drives better and faster right after I've washed it.

 

[Carl Raymond]

CNBC - half hour ago: Trump administration plans to block California from setting its own vehicle emissions standards

Wow, I wonder what Greta thinks of this.

What’s his next trick to undermine the next generation - bring back the incandescent light bulb?

 

[Christine69420]

I'm now curious about the difference between the Blue and Red Plaid prototypes...

Perhaps they are an identical car, and Tesla is playing it safe by having 2 cars available.

Or perhaps one of them is a "base model" with a smaller battery and smaller motors.

We will have to wait to be told officially, but if one is faster, my money is on the Red, but perhaps that is just the color making a difference

Red cars are always faster. Duh!




Perhaps two Plaid cars so one can charge while the other one is racing? To avoid downtime when renting the track.

 

[Fred42]

Premium prices are now not longer justified for the Taycan and likely not for the next BEVs of Porsche and with that their strategy is imploding. I believe Porsche has a very hard awakening in front of them.

Porsche's investment in Taycan might be salvageable. They could announce that in America the interiors will be furnished with Corinthian leather. (Does Ricardo have a grandson or granddaughter?)

 

[anthonyj]

Taycant.com

 

[jerry33]

How do you know its not using bio-diesel? Or better yet methane sourced from die Kuhställe? Both options can be carbon neutral which is what counts wrt climate forcings.

Doesn't bio-diesel use more petroleum to grow the crops than just burning it in the engine? (not counting the methane).

 

[jerry33]

1. the alternative is a 2 week ship passage
2. how much food does your crew+pax eat in 2 wks?
3. what's the carbon footprint to grow/transport that food?

Wouldn't the crew have to eat during those two weeks anyway?

 

[Curt Renz]

Red cars are always faster. Duh!
...

That's what traffic cops believe, and why red cars are those most likely to be ticketed.

 

[jerry33]

Summer tires don't mean racing tires. If you KNOW any modifications compared to the stock car, please provide links. Roll cage is pretty understandable.

True, but they could be street legal racing tires.

 

[Krugerrand]

I'm now curious about the difference between the Blue and Red Plaid prototypes...

Perhaps they are an identical car, and Tesla is playing it safe by having 2 cars available.

Or perhaps one of them is a "base model" with a smaller battery and smaller motors.

We will have to wait to be told officially, but if one is faster, my money is on the Red, but perhaps that is just the color making a difference

I can say with certainty that one difference is that one is red and the other is blue.

 

[Fact Checking]

I can say with certainty that one difference is that one is red and the other is blue.

I can say with certainty that the visible side of the car was blue.

 

[M3Rider]

Wow, I wonder what Greta thinks of this.

What’s his next trick to undermine the next generation - bring back the incandescent light bulb?

Wow, you didn't know? Already done
The Trump administration's not-so-bright idea on light bulbs

 

[Artful Dodger]

next trick - bring back the incandescent light bulb

Yup, that's his plan.

Trump rolls back regulations on energy-saving lightbulbs
and
Trump on energy-efficient light bulbs: 'I always look orange'

 

[jerry33]

It's extremely hard for large companies to be nimble. I'm not as familiar with the German auto industry, but without government intervention the US companies (all but Ford perhaps) would have been gone years ago. Big corporations don't last forever. I agree that anyone seeing those profits and assuming that Porsche is safe is making some big assumptions.

Ford received a $6bn loan from the same program Tesla got their $500M loan. That's why they didn't go bankrupt. They have 27 years (from the loan date) to pay it back. I wonder how much the tax payers are actually going to see? Tesla paid back their loan in full a few years ago.

 

[Artful Dodger]

Wouldn't the crew have to eat during those two weeks anyway?

Accounting fallacy. They'd be doing other work, or living their lives, instead of slogging across the Pacific. Different carbon budget.

 

[Todd Burch]

A week ago, people were saying:

“More Elon bullshit! A Tesla can’t even complete a lap around the ring before going into limp mode! My Miata is faster around the track!”

Now:

“Porsche only lost to Tesla by 20 seconds on the ring because they weren’t using street-legal tires!”

That’s a big change in 7 days. Love it.

I respect Porsche’s racing chops but am under no illusions that their designs are unbeatable on the track.

 

[Artful Dodger]

I can say with certainty that the visible side of the car was blue.

Certainty is an illusion.

"There is no spoon"

 

[KarenRei]

To the extent Porsche is sitting on better times (which from the article isn't clear that the Turbo S's limited duration performance boost would have made a difference over the non-S Turbo, but that aside), they would be holding back so as not to surpass their ICE cars. Note the Taycan's Ring time of 7:42 vs. the Panamera's 7:38. All too convenient.

TLDR version: "No, we published a time from our slow car, without telling anyone at the time that it was our slow car, because that's a totally normal thing to do! What, did we race our fast car, and what time did we get? Um.... no further questions."

And of course, the car they raced was neither Turbo nor Turbo S; it was a stripped pre-production prototype:

Stock my arse.

Oh, and remember that dispute earlier over whether Turbo S could be gotten with summer tires on the Mission E wheels at all (let alone the specific ones they raced on)? There wasn't any disagreement at all that the Turbo can't.