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

[copyhacker]

In lighter news, Elon absolutely destroyed Jeopardy Guy.

I love and highly recommend Ken’s Omnibus podcast. The mixed feelings, they burn.

(He and his co-host tend to march in lockstep with Team Mainstream West Coast Progressivism, and they’ve name-checked Elon more than once, so I’m disappointed but not surprised.)

 

[MABMAB]

Premarket feeling squeezy to anyone else? Maybe new shorts that were banking on a longer shutdown are covering this AM?

I try and ignore how things "feel"
I'm okay if the price runs because of short covering.
I favor the idea of big boys buying for long run, that is where the big money is made.
I can't splain short term movements well.

 

[MartinAustin]

edit for the last time: @Artful Dodger makes the point downthread that Tesla is actually a Delaware Corporation, so most of what I wrote here is moot.

Speaking as one Texan Tesla owner to another... don't forget that we both bought our Teslas by wiring money out of the state. There are always 49 other states to wire money to, doesn't matter which state you're in. Doesn't matter which one. That's the only real restriction that the law causes for Tesla.

Guess what else? The Texas dealer monopoly law was already a total failure. How can we see this? Because Texas is Tesla's third-largest market by state. The other two being California and Washington. And not directly connected, but further proof of my point, is that Texas has NO tax incentives to buy a Tesla, whereas both California and Washington have significant incentives. Texas is still the third largest market for Tesla even without the boost that tax incentives give you. Tesla went to "online ordering only" and withdrew its 2-yearly repeated visits to the Texas Legislature where it tried and failed to reverse the dealer monopoly law. Tesla does not care if that law exists... or not. It would appear to have next-to-no effect on Tesla's sales.

Honestly Tesla doesn't need to change that law to move to Texas. What they should be working on is a clause in the agreement that prevents BEVs from getting road taxes that are any higher than comparable ICE cars. Cars are cars... they all usually weigh between 3,000 and 6,000lbs. Even the BMW M5 is 4,370lbs.

On another subject, I can't believe Rick Santelli and Joe Kernen talked positively about Tesla and about buying one. I simply do not believe it. Curt Renz where are you when I need video?

 

[BOBTHEJOCKEY]

I saw a nice little SP run up in after-hours here in the US. I think maybe it was in response to the story published on ~200 cars made already. Futures look down now, but TSLA has a way of swimming upstream. As risky as any investment with today's climate, Tesla seems to float quit well.

Full steam ahead Captain, full steam ahead!

I was thinking about Elon being arrested this week and taken to jail... then realized I ought to get over to the factory and cause some trouble myself. What an opportunity to be locked up in a jail cell for a few hours with Elon!

Just a few hours in the same room with Elon would be the dream of a lifetime.

 

[Silent Ludicrosy]

New satellite images on Buildingtesla show the Fremont employee parking lot about half full on Sunday, May 10th. It was completely empty on May 5th. This supports that Tesla has continued to restart production over the weekend. View attachment 541002 View attachment 541003

Shorty air force has some good pics. Machine Planet on Twitter

 

[Sanny]

Thanks, Elon for breaking that stupid media/social media trend on how many useless adorable things you can do at home while being useless. Hope the country will get back to work and be productive sooner now. And it seems to be working for TSLA!
P.S. Also thanks Tesla marketing team for not sending us "Let's stay at home and make origami Tesla truck" nonsense to "keep contact with the audience".

 

[gerebgraus]

I think it’s in overall appreciation of the grocery store workers (TBH it’s the one place I’m really conscientious about wearing a mask). Those are some of the front line heroes in my mind - probably in one of the most contagious environments.

I have read somewhere (no link, sorry) that a trade union representing ~1.3 million grocery store workers reported ~72 death. Of course, every death is a tragedy, but that number is likely lower than flu season death. I.e. yes, this is a serious pandemic, but for the workforce, the risk is lower than for the flu according to the very noisy data. For super seniors over 85 years old, this is much higher risk. In my area, most grocery store workers are under 85, and after their shift, they return to their home and not to an elder care, disabled facility.

 

[Tslynk67]

Just a few hours in the same room with Elon would be the dream of a lifetime.

Careful, you see what happened with Grimes...

 

[mickificki]

Look who entered the mud pit lol...problem is alameda might do the exact opposite just to spite the orange one.

 

[MP3Mike]

The context was if Tesla becomes a Texas company. Then online sales would become In-state sales.

But Tesla moving their HQ to Texas doesn't make them a Texas company. They would still be incorporated in Delaware.

 

[ggies07]

Look who entered the mud pit lol...problem is alameda might do the exact opposite just to spite the orange one.

View attachment 541028

oh man.

 

[Sancho]

I pity those filmmakers of the future who have to decide which episodes to include in Elon Musk, The Movie.

 

[Tslynk67]

CNBC warning, but always worth listening to Chamath:

text: Chamath Palihapitiya defends Elon Musk's decision to open Tesla production in defiance of local authorities

video: Chamath Palihapitiya on Elon Musk's fight with Alameda County over social distancing rules

And did I read correctly, that grandma's favourite CNBC anchor, Joe The Hair Kernen (yes this is actually one of his nicknames, though I prefer "wiggy") is thinking of buying a Tesla? Hell hath not just frozen over, but a fragment of ice-nine escaped from that lab in Wuhan (that also produced the C19 virus, don't you know) and has rendered the whole planet to a ball of ice...

 

[JRP3]

oh man.

With friends like that...

 

[Krugerrand]

No, I would say it would be neutral - not much more than required.
For e.g. suppose I have 15 days of PTO accumulated. This is 15 paid days that the company owes me. The shutdown starts and I am furloughed. Tesla has to cash this out and pay me for the 15 days of PTO. So I get the full pay for these days, but now I no longer have any PTO accumulated when I go back to work.

Then I decide I want to take another week off before I go back to work or take some vacation days later in the year. Now, I would need to take those days off as unpaid leave since I no longer have any PTO days. So it would be fair for both - for me as the employee I already got paid for PTO days in advance and have the option to take unpaid leave if I want; the employer is not paying for time not worked. So, it is neutral.

Just throwing this out there in case people have forgotten. Tesla employees were NOT originally furloughed. The FIRST county stay at home order was for a two week period. The employees were sent home and told they would get paid via their accumulated PTO and if they didn’t have enough left to cover the two weeks they could borrow from future PTO to cover the two week period.

Then the county order was extended for another 4 weeks and it was at that time that they were furloughed and no longer received money from Tesla and would have had to apply for unemployment. Unless Tesla allowed employees to bank more than two weeks (80 hrs) of PTO, everyone who had to stop working ran out of PTO before being furloughed. The only employees with potential PTO left over were/are those who worked from home.

Then the county order was extended for another 4 weeks until June 1.

So all this talk of PTO is irrelevant all around.

 

[MTL_HABS1909]

Look who entered the mud pit lol...problem is alameda might do the exact opposite just to spite the orange one.

View attachment 541028

And the stock reacted

 

[BOBTHEJOCKEY]

Careful, you see what happened with Grimes...

View attachment 541026

For once in my life was not referring to sex....lol. Grimes is hot and I love her music.

 

[Reductionist]

Shorty air force has some good pics. Machine Planet on Twitter
View attachment 541016 View attachment 541017
View attachment 541019

Something to consider when estimating shift sizes based on parking lot pictures:
Tesla has in the past heavily encouraged ridesharing due to parking limitations. I would be willing to bet they now heavily encourage not ridesharing to limit infection risk, so employees per car should be way down. So even though the parking lots are 70-80% filled, this is still compatible with a 30% shift size imo.

 

[Jack6591]

Speaking as one Texan Tesla owner to another... don't forget that we both bought our Teslas by wiring money out of the state. There are always 49 other states to wire money to, doesn't matter which state you're in. Doesn't matter which one. That's the only real restriction that the law causes for Tesla.

Guess what else? The Texas dealer monopoly law was already a total failure. How can we see this? Because Texas is Tesla's third-largest market by state. The other two being California and Washington. And not directly connected, but further proof of my point, is that Texas has NO tax incentives to buy a Tesla, whereas both California and Washington have significant incentives. Texas is still the third largest market for Tesla even without the boost that tax incentives give you. Tesla went to "online ordering only" and withdrew its 2-yearly repeated visits to the Texas Legislature where it tried and failed to reverse the dealer monopoly law. Tesla does not care if that law exists... or not. It would appear to have next-to-no effect on Tesla's sales.

Honestly Tesla doesn't need to change that law to move to Texas. What they should be working on is a clause in the agreement that prevents BEVs from getting road taxes that are any higher than comparable ICE cars. Cars are cars... they all usually weigh between 3,000 and 6,000lbs. Even the BMW M5 is 4,370lbs.

On another subject, I can't believe Rick Santelli and Joe Kernen talked positively about Tesla and about buying one. I simply do not believe it. Curt Renz where are you when I need video?

It seems to me that free-market restrictions run contrary to Texan credos.

 

[Tslynk67]

For once in my life was not referring to sex....lol. Grimes is hot and I love her music.

Bad news, it wouldn't be with Grimes... Wear two pairs of short shorts!