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

[JRP3]

A love of great cars, and protecting the environment should never become a left/right issue.

However it sort of was from the beginning. Tesla was the vehicle of liberal greenies in the beginning and drew the ire of conservative fossilists. Now that seems to be flipping as Elon is losing more and more support from the left while gaining from the right. Hopefully the long term effect is an overall gain.

 

[JRP3]

he’s walking a tightrope right down the center and both sides are reaching out their hands helping stabilize his walk. It’s beautiful to watch. A genius move.

That's not really what's happening though as I pointed out in my previous post. He's been charging pretty hard to the right and losing support on the left recently.

 

[Krugerrand]

OT. TMC Cats in Action (against trolls, ultra bulls etc etc.)
Rex Chapman on Twitter

At first I thought he’d do the right and smart thing and leave, but nope.

 

[canoemore]

However it sort of was from the beginning. Tesla was the vehicle of liberal greenies in the beginning and drew the ire of conservative fossilists. Now that seems to be flipping as Elon is losing more and more support from the left while gaining from the right. Hopefully the long term effect is an overall gain.

I suppose this was probably inevitable as Tesla got large enough to start throwing its weight around politically. Combine that with entrenched interests that have a lot to gain by painting Tesla as especially bad re: labor relations and a rightward drift (or, as you accurately point out, more of a charge) was going to happen.

 

[Kenypowa]

this is the beauty of what Elon is doing. He’s appealing to everyone who believes in the constitution, which I hope is for everyone that lives in the US.

he’s walking a tightrope right down the center and both sides are reaching out their hands helping stabilize his walk. It’s beautiful to watch. A genius move.

As Michael Jordan once quipped, republicans buy sneakers too.

The Last Dance is a great documentary. In episode 7 & 8, there are lots of similarities between Elon and Jordan and their respective controversies. The media, the politics, the distractors/supporters. In the end, the only thing mattered is the result. MJ's pure dominance on the court and Tesla's dominance on sustainable energy is the only thing that counts.

 

[JustSaying]

Alameda County doesn't have internet yet. They're still waiting for approval for a 14.4 k baud modem. Then they'll install Netscape so they can read those 'blog' thingies. 3 mths probably, 6 mths max.

In the mean time, you CAN send them a fax...

/S

A telex for sure....

 

[Krugerrand]

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

Um...might want to add some color to that comment otherwise one’s imagination...

 

[RobStark]

I'd rather trump did not get directly involved with tesla. the USA is a country bitterly divided, especially in election year. Making owning/buying a tesla, or its stock a tribal issue is never a good idea. A love of great cars, and protecting the environment should never become a left/right issue.
I hope elon realises this.

That horse has left the barn.

 

[Right_Said_Fred]

That's not really what's happening though as I pointed out in my previous post. He's been charging pretty hard to the right and losing support on the left recently.

What will those disappointed on the left do? Buy an F-150 Raptor?

 

[feigen66]

I suppose this was probably inevitable as Tesla got large enough to start throwing its weight around politically. Combine that with entrenched interests that have a lot to gain by painting Tesla as especially bad re: labor relations and a rightward drift (or, as you accurately point out, more of a charge) was going to happen.

Left or right is just superficial label.
As we recently witnessed the hypocrisy recently.

More importantly it is Tesla's long term survival -- there is no permanent allies, only permanent interest.

 

[RobStark]

What will those disappointed on the left do next? Buy an F-150 Raptor?

Buy an electric bicycle

 

[Todd Burch]

So when I surmised a few days ago as to what Tesla's production roadmap would look like for the rest of Q2, I pointed out that it would likely be most worthwhile to produce exclusively for North America to maximize Q2 profit and minimize logistical and other issues that could come up during the quarter.

One critical part that I didn't think about, however, is that if Tesla delivers no cars to Europe, they get no FCA money. So it does make a lot of sense that they will produce European spec cars for a few weeks so they can get some sort of FCA credit payment, then shift to North American cars. I would think that Model Y would start right off the bat doing North American production though. It's not clear to me why that wouldn't start right away, unless there's either a supplier shortage, or they can't produce Euro-spec 3s and NA-spec Ys at the same time for some reason.

I'm also not sure it's confirmed that Y is not being produced right now--wonder if any trucks are picking Ys up off the Fremont lot?

 

[SO16]

That's not really what's happening though as I pointed out in my previous post. He's been charging pretty hard to the right and losing support on the left recently.

The supporters on the left that he is losing are not being reasonable or objective. I say good riddance. (And I lean left).

 

[dc_h]

Not sure I want to watch the show this week. Will check back in on Friday. Sold way out of money covered calls. If Tesla closes over 1000, I'll take the win.
If you are tempted to see covered calls and don't want to cash out, make sure you have a good feel for TSLA volatility. A 10% daily jump is not unusual and even a 20% weekly gain is no unusual. Adding less than 1% on weekly covered calls is not a big percent win, but it can help you add a few shares while the stock is not making big moves. I avoid earnings and will avoid battery week, even though its likely the "Street" will not understand the significance.

 

[Reductionist]

I suppose this was probably inevitable as Tesla got large enough to start throwing its weight around politically. Combine that with entrenched interests that have a lot to gain by painting Tesla as especially bad re: labor relations and a rightward drift (or, as you accurately point out, more of a charge) was going to happen.

Also, as Tesla scales it needs to increase it's TAM. The historical situation has been that 10% of the country loves Tesla (if that), and 90% are either indifferent or hostile. This is fine, and probably advantageous for a small business that needs a small number of high conviction customers.
But if you want to sell millions of cars, you don't need 10% of the potential market to love you, you need 80% of the market to find you tolerable, ideally slightly more so than the competition.
From this perspective, I think it's inevitable and essential that Tesla won't be percieved as a "liberal, greenie" brand, which would of course lead to the brand identity shifting somewhat to the right over time.

 

[canoemore]

Left or right is just superficial label.
As we recently witnessed the hypocrisy recently.

More importantly it is Tesla's long term survival -- there is no permanent allies, only permanent interest.

That's my point. Their permanent interest is served by a shift in political alliances.

Sounds like we respectfully disagree (at least to some extent) about the difference between left and right being merely superficial.

 

[MTL_HABS1909]

That's not really what's happening though as I pointed out in my previous post. He's been charging pretty hard to the right and losing support on the left recently.

That’s the problem with the far left though. They are very easily offended and will hold a grudge for life. It’s possible that Elon has lost some people like this, but I doubt it means much in the long run.

Edit: I’m a lefty in Canada, so much more liberal than the average American. That’s why I say far left.

 

[Todd Burch]

Another few thoughts:

1. The events of the last month have made me more of a political centrist than ever before, although I have always been a registered independent and remember writing a paper about the ills of political labels and the party system while in junior high school...

2. If Tesla succeeds at continuing production without any serious COVID breakouts, then this may prove to be a shining example--a case study--that the quarantine restrictions went too far and were not properly targeted with an effective strategy, and Musk could come out looking like an oracle. If there turn out to be serious health impacts, it will backfire. While there may be a few cases here and there, I'm betting the former is more likely.

 

[Todd Burch]

More o' this going on today.

 

[Cosmacelf]

As for the other OEMs and the looming competition that never comes, I'll admit, I have trouble accepting the argument that investors just now recognize Tesla's multi-year lead and that's what is supporting the stock. It's been glaringly obvious for years to even the most casual observer that that is the case. Within the last six months, all this smart money has suddenly become convinced? In other words, I'm not arguing the market understood Tesla then, quite the opposite.
Tks

Glaringly obvious to us on this message board, but not to the general investing public.

Also, remember Elon’s comment that the Model 3 ramp was a near extinction event for Tesla? If you take Elon at his word, the market was being very rational, pricing in a possible bankruptcy.

Late last year we had a bunch of great catalysts line up all at once. Cybertruck started it. At first it was panned, but less than a month later, the huge number of reservations started pouring in (or at least word got out about it). Then Giga Shanghai came online in a big way. Then it became obvious to others that the competition wasn’t going to be a problem for Tesla. Model Y was ahead of schedule. Remember that Model Y is expected to be bigger than Model 3.

So, I would argue that the market has been fairly realistic/accurate this entire time.