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

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Inspired by @SarahsDad and apologies to the late Merle Haggard...

Well today I started buying TSLA shares again
I'm set up with sufficient dry powder to spend
I stopped buying stock just long enough to see Jim Chanos bend
So today I started buying Tesla shares again



Sorry, I just couldn't resist...
 
Idk if short sellers think this is their best time to position themselves for a fall, but in the history of these intense drops it’s not their time. There’s a good chance the markets and Tesla will rebound in a big way. Maybe this week, possibly next or next month but it’s likely to happen.

Now idk how Q1 will look, but we do have a couple wild cards like China, Premium connectivity, seat heaters, outgoing ships look strong, but I give it 50/50 on profitability. After Q1 I think we drop back in the 600 range, or go past 1000 and never look back. Just depends on cash flow and profitability, but we should have a better idea when we get delivery numbers.

After we get past this sell off though I think it will reshuffle some funds and Tesla could benefit from watching more money move into their name. Investors know Tesla is a solid play right now with so many catalyst for future growth and coming off a $2.3 billion raise Tesla is playing this sketchy time in the markets beautifully.
And don't forget Battery Day sometime in April, but pre 1st qtr financials (and after the hot weather kills off the corona virus).
 
At this stage I think probabilities are:
  • >95% Tesla will use CATL cells
  • >90% chance Tesla will use CATL LFP cells
  • >80% chance Tesla will use CATL LFP Prismatic cells. (Prismatic cells are the optimum format for lower energy density chemistry, while cylindrical are optimum for higher energy density, but only if the pack hardware & software can assemble/handle them affordably)
  • If the above is true, ~50% if these will be whole CATL modules or whole CATL cell to pack design.

What is unclear is:
  • If this will be for the SR+ Model 3 or for a new SR lower range China specific version?
  • If these packs will be cheaper (in $ per KWh) than Tesla's SR+ packs made at GF1? (I'm very skeptical about this, I think on the whole CATL packs are likely to be more expensive, however I expect Tesla got a great deal, and possibly -ve margin for CATL)
  • Will charge rate be as high? (I think unlikely)
  • Will battery life be as high in miles (Maybe similar, possibly higher cycle life cancelled by smaller battery meaning more cycles per mile)

I think the key rational of this deal for Tesla is:
  • Accelerate ramp up of GF3 production without using cells produced in GF1. This will allow them to ramp faster than LG can ramp its new 2170 cell lines. It will also likely allow them to ramp faster than the NMC811 supply chain can ramp cathode powder production.
  • Establish a relationship with CATL, who will likely be the leading third party battery supplier. This relationship can be leveraged to accelerate short term production again in the future and to complement Tesla's in-house cell production.
  • To reduce raw material risk and establish that Tesla can make cells without Nickel and Cobalt if needed (even if the cars are likely inferior).
I think the rational for CATL is:
  • Find a use for overcapacity which resulted from Chinese EV companies falling far short of production targets and delaying EV programs over the past year
  • Establish a relationship with the leading EV company and leading battery purchaser. This is beneficial both for future business opportunities and for short term share price.

I do not think CATL, Panasonic or LG cells will be a focus on battery day.
I expect Elon to run through the deals and say how Tesla has established relationships with all the key battery cos and how it can accelerate supply whenever they hit cell bottlenecks, but I think the real focus will be on Tesla's in-house cell design which I expect to account for the vast majority of new capacity going forward.

I think people are unnecessarily negative about LFP, it is just a tool that can do a job when it is suitable..

CATL CTP LFP has 200Wh/kg, assuming a standard SR has 280 Wh/Kg .. the difference is 80/280 = 28.6%
My guess is they go close to fitting a 55 kW pack....
Let call the Chinese SR, SR-C assume it has a 50 kW pack, with 10% less range and 20% less acceleration...
Perhaps Tesla can make changes to improve the efficiency of the motor or reduce weight in other areas....
But lets say on average an SR-C is 15% worse than an SR ..Does that make it a bad EV? Not IMO.

While we are doing hypothetical calcs lets assume applying Maxwell tech to LFP gives 220Wh/kg with a CTP format..
The difference is now 60/280 = 21%
Let's now say a SR-A with this pack is about 7% worse than a regular SR, but Tesla can put SR-A on menu and free up 2170 cells/packs for other Model 3/Y variants...
That is a real long shot... and not what I would have expected,,, so I will not be overly surprised if it doesn't happen ... I would put it at about 20% chance...

Perhaps something is wrong with my calcs.....regardless LFP is useful for energy storage and SR-C.

What I expect out of battery day us a pragmatic plan that maps cell availability to vehicle production ramps and includes some use of Maxwell tech... Some use, may be more than 1 chemistry, I'm keeping an open mind....
 
Oh look...is this an ok for reversal tomorrow?
Screenshot_20200224-161247_Chrome.jpg


Btw, it's been a while since we heard about China tariffs deal, what's up with that? Will there be a progress or not?
 
I'm gonna laugh so hard into my lobster and wagyu if we bust 900 by end of week.
The virus is a total head fake and only sheep are scared of it.
This forum and the market in general has completely missed the point on covid-19 for weeks. The mods have not helped by forcing by far the most important short term (and potentially medium term) macroeconomic driver into a sub forum.

Unless you get off on doomsday predictions, from an economic perspective it is largely irrelevant how dangerous covid-19 is relative to other outbreaks. I can sit here and agree with you that I am more likely to slip and die in my own home than from this virus.

What is far more important is how economic actors have responded to the risk. And in affected areas, you only have to look at the response from: governments, employers large and small, airlines and individual consumers.

Life in big chunks of Asia has for most people changed beyond recognition in the last month, and there is very little economic activity taking place. It’s just been made too damn hard.

Governments have rolled out quite stiff restrictions that have been gold plated by Health and Safety officers of employers, which in turn has further affected the behaviours of individuals, who are taking their cue on how scared to be from those in authority.

It is clear to anyone living here that we’ll have a recession, though you’re purely guessing if you think at this moment you can predict whether this will be a shallow V Shape or something else.

Because covid-19 had barely arrived outside Asia, most of the money in global markets has remained relaxed. But in Europe you are now starting to see cancellation of public events, impediments to short haul business and leisure travel and even short term visitors to affected areas being told to self isolate for 14 days. Monday’s market correction was overdue.

None of this should matter to long term investors, Tesla just raised $2.3bn of cash for only 1.5% dilution, equivalent to about 30 weeks of Opex. Well done Tesla.

But not everyone in the market has such a well structured balance sheet (I am largely uninterested what you see in S&P 500 4q’s, look more widely at SMEs and households, and at emerging markets that have been the engine of the last decade’s growth). There is a risk though hard to quantify, that this may yet be the trigger for a wider economic correction. Hope not but let’s see.

Outside of TSLA, personally I intend to ride the gilts and gold I’ve been holding a little longer and in the coming weeks gradually buy back into blue chip companies like APPL and global indices.

As for TSLA, you don’t think I’m selling at these prices do you?
 
I sold 10 Puts for 7/17/20 with 500SP right before close today. I will gladly buy more shares for $500 in July if we drop that low. If we drop another 20%, I will sell 400SP Puts. I have lots of core shares, and I had previously sold covered calls for March, April, June, and July for SP of 1500, 1200, 1200, 1500 respectively. As of right now, I have options that I've sold, but nothing that I've bought. We can talk about how the coronavirus is not a big deal, but if the rest of the world thinks it is a big deal, we could easily be looking at TSLA at 500 or below in a few months. I got killed with "safe" LEAPS last year, and I'm not making that mistake again.
 
Bunch of TSLAQ Twitter talk that Model S and X are not being delivered because they can't be labeled as "LR+" until new firmware comes out. Any insights to this?

I saw some stuff on this yesterday. A couple people were told to come back in ~3 weeks so they could install an update. One of them was being spammed by TSLAQ types. Speculation was that the update unlocking the extra range is required in order to match the Monroney sticker. It does sound plausible, but not sure why TSLAQ would be pushing that... it's unlikely to move deliveries out of the quarter, just shove more of them a little bit later within it.