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

[K_Dizzle]

Interesting comment I saw on LinkedIn regarding the general counsel article. This nails it

 

[Krugerrand]

You would literally have to pay me to own that thing.

Pfft! I can’t be bought. So, there is no amount that could get me to own it...unless I became a circus clown and as part of my act all my clown friends and I tried to see how many if us would fit it one...then I could be persuaded.

 

[EVDRVN]

I have one of those. Can make it to work and back... barely. I believe the EPA estimate was ~105 miles, but that was a joke when the car was new and is just sad these days, where I realistically get ~40(fortunately, I bought it used)

I now see Nissan killing the competition, used LEAFs will outsell the cheap Chinese imports

 

[anthonyj]

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Can someone explain this to me? Why does Tesla take forever to refund a deposit? I’m still waiting for a $450 refund (reg fee overcharge) after 10 months.

 

[Sparky]

Not all bad stories in Fin Media. After hours of course.
Some annoying headlines still. Just because they're kicking BMW's a$$ in CA, it's a cult?
Is Tesla a Cult? A Dealer Wonders as Musk Takes Bite Out of BMW
Of course, inside there's some positive (for TSLA) quotes:

When asked by an analyst whether Tesla factored in BMW’s challenges, Dyke answered on Sonic’s earnings call: “There’s no question.”

“I’ve spent a lot of time in manufacturing meetings, and five years ago, Tesla was just not even a real big topic,” Dyke said. “Today, it’s at the top of everybody’s board, and it needs to be.”

 

[AudubonB]

Scenario : Did I get a bonus this year or lose my job and have to deliver Pizza now.

I guess if the latter then it's the Model 3 as I'm not sure you'll fit many pizzas in there.....

 

[ZsoZso]

Mechanical engineering background. Went back to school to get his JD/MBA from USC.

This looks like it is the new way of doing things at Tesla. Promote young executives from within. What they lack in seasoning, they make up in youthful energy, commitment to the cause, and area expertise. Denholm as Chairman of the Board. Kirkhorn as CFO. Chang as General Counsel.

Mind you, they have tried to hire external hot-shots for both the CFO (when Deepak retired the first time) and the GC position first, but the hot-shots have failed / quit. So you can't really say it is the preferred MO for Tesla, but more like a fallback.

 

[AudubonB]

Mechanical engineering background. Went back to school to get his JD/MBA from USC.

This looks like it is the new way of doing things at Tesla. Promote young executives from within. What they lack in seasoning, they make up in youthful energy, commitment to the cause, and area expertise. Denholm as Chairman of the Board. Kirkhorn as CFO. Chang as General Counsel.

I get and agree with the drift of your post, but your writing makes it sound as though Denholm came up through the ranks at Tesla...which very most definitely was not the case.

 

[Curt Renz]

CNBC - this morning:

 

[justobuf]

View attachment 379156

2 seater with 83 miles of range(not EPA certified yet) and top speed of 65 mph.

I wouldn't pay $10k for that. Much less $19,999 and wait for Fed Tax Credit.

I looks like the crumple zone comprises the whole car.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Can someone explain this to me? Why does Tesla take forever to refund a deposit? I’m still waiting for a $450 refund (reg fee overcharge) after 10 months.

No idea. My deposit was refunded within weeks of me asking last December. I requested the refund online via my Tesla account. They also partially refunded the non used part of an extended warranty I had purchased on my old Model S last year. Refunds worked for me.

 

[madodel]

I guess if the latter then it's the Model 3 as I'm not sure you'll fit many pizzas in there.....

Sure you can. Now someone needs to design a pizza box flinger so once there is FSD Model 3s can be used to deliver those pizzas sans driver.

 

[VValleyEV]

I'm pretty sure Tesla wants to make Standard Range available the moment the new assembly lines at the Gigafactory start producing battery packs. It's an expensive assembly line the size of a football field, and they'd want to start generating a return on that capital investment ASAP.

But note that it's not a binary decision and that SR can be decoupled from the $35k price:

• Tesla has the freedom to limit the supply of SR configurations via production: they could only offer say 5k such units initially, per quarter, until they are ramping up. They reap the PR and "get the customer into the showroom" benefits, with a controlled impact on effective ASP.
  
• Tesla has the freedom to limit supply and improve margins via bundling: the initial SR could be bundled with AWD or the Premium Interior. That would allow an initial price of $39,000 and probably better margins than Medium Range.
• I'm sure there's tens of thousands, maybe over a 100,000 pending orders in the U.S. alone for the Standard Range battery pack. Tesla would want to utilize that pent-up demand and serve them, before the Shanghai Gigafactory starts taking away the supply of SR battery packs.
• There's also the phase-out of the $3,750 federal tax credit at the end of Q2 (end of June) - there's just so much time to capture customers for whom that's an actionable incentive but for whom the current $41,900 price is too high.

I.e. there's a number of production supply and bundling degrees of freedom Tesla has to maintain their 20-25% gross margin target for the Model 3, even after the introduction of the SR variant.

Hmm, maybe another modest price drop after the $3750 goes away at end of Q2, maybe another, what was it $1100, notching down that “base price before savings” yet a little closer to that $35k ...

 

[X Fan]

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Can someone explain this to me? Why does Tesla take forever to refund a deposit? I’m still waiting for a $450 refund (reg fee overcharge) after 10 months.

another hit piece...I had ordered 2 but only needed 1 Model 3....obviously there are cases out there where it's taking a bit longer but my personal experience in obtaining a refund was less than a week.

 

[madodel]

CNBC - this morning:

She's great, the interviewers are clueless bobbleheads. CNBC must hire from the very bottom of the pile.

 

[Mobius484]

CNBC - this morning:

The talking heads are so painful to listen to. love Cathy wood. It astonished me that the talking head guys can’t accept what Tesla is doing.

 

[Mobius484]

Jinx

 

[gene]

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Can someone explain this to me? Why does Tesla take forever to refund a deposit? I’m still waiting for a $450 refund (reg fee overcharge) after 10 months.

When I cancelled our 4th Model 3, the deposit came back with 4 days.

 

[Carl Raymond]

She's great, the interviewers are clueless bobbleheads. CNBC must hire from the very bottom of the pile.

There’s a duality. They say what they say to appease sponsors and keep their jobs. But then they interview ARK to ensure that what they truthfully believe is heard. Just ignore the right side of the desk. I really think they want you to do that.

 

[EVNow]

I have one of those. Can make it to work and back... barely. I believe the EPA estimate was ~105 miles, but that was a joke when the car was new and is just sad these days, where I realistically get ~40(fortunately, I bought it used)

As I updated the post, the 24 kwh Leaf was 74/83 miles. In 2016 (?) they updated to 110 miles (~30 kwh).

Buying used (esp. if you didn't check battery status) is not … ideal. I could get about 100 miles in summer and 60 in winter.

Funny thing is now we recharge 3 when the range goes below 100 miles - about the max I used to get in Leaf for 6 years