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

[MarcusMaximus]

Thanks!!

No I did not get the bigger battery. I only drive about 140 mi per week and still have ICE that big enough to haul family on long trips. Plan to replace ICE with Y or possibly X in next couple years.

FWIW, 220 miles is plenty for any long trip outside of, what was it, North Dakota?

 

[Ulmo]

Also I'm wondering whether they'll shift test drives to service centers. This has several advantages: there are still people who won't buy without trying, and it also familiarizes prospective owners with service centers.

The letter I read I thought said no more free test drives; now that I re-read it, it seems logical to me that they intend to not offer free test drives, but since it doesn't outright state that, I suppose that is still a mystery, but it seems to me they said they will not offer free test drives any more.

"To achieve these prices while remaining financially sustainable, Tesla is shifting sales worldwide to online only. You can now buy a Tesla in North America via your phone in about 1 minute, and that capability will soon be extended worldwide. We are also making it much easier to try out and return a Tesla, so that a test drive prior to purchase isn’t needed. You can now return a car within 7 days or 1,000 miles for a full refund. Quite literally, you could buy a Tesla, drive several hundred miles for a weekend road trip with friends and then return it for free. With the highest consumer satisfaction score of any car on the road, we are confident you will want to keep your Model 3."​

$35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now

 

[Dwdnjck]

How did you do that?

I just called my broker.

 

[jerry33]

No. People need to do test drives. Owners need service centers. I fear Tesla's gonna try to keep skirting around the service center issue in states currently banning them (MI, NM, etc) by hiring more Tesla Mobile Technicians. I also fear that if that is the case, we will see the auto dealer cartel shift its strategy to suing Tesla in those states for having mobile technicians. However, I have less fear that Tesla would lose such suits

IIRC, some states had conditions that Tesla would have to close the stores once they sold a certain number (in that state) or had a certain percentage of sales. I'm guessing that this move is really targeting those states where they would have to close anyway. That way there won't be any "Tesla forced to close stores". After all, Tesla isn't closing all the stores, only the non-profitable ones (and presumably the ones they would have to close anyway).

 

[wipster]

whats weird to me about the store closures is that they opened several in late 2018

And I will miss not being able to go inside several of them in street view on Google Earth (pretty cool actually).

 

[Cherry Wine]

No. People need to do test drives. Owners need service centers. I fear Tesla's gonna try to keep skirting around the service center issue in states currently banning them (MI, NM, etc) by hiring more Tesla Mobile Technicians. I also fear that if that is the case, we will see the auto dealer cartel shift its strategy to suing Tesla in those states for having mobile technicians. However, I have less fear that Tesla would lose such suits

Are you at all encouraged by the re-stated emphasis on service put forth by Elon / Tesla today?

 

[Zaxxon]

"If you live where it snows, you might as well get a Performance Model 3" says the price structure.

The P is $58k, not $48k as in Karen's table.

 

[Donatas]

Elephant in the room. I need to find that Tesla Model 3 elephant comic.

 

[Mars ☰mperor]

I love it. It's a great move. Very nice. Sad there was no Supercharger announcement but hey - we got plenty other stuff! Alright signing off for today - over & out.

One buzz at a time.
These are all free ads

 

[Fact Checking]

Difference between Standard and Premium interior:

(Source: Reddit.)

 

[HG Wells]

The standard range is 220
The standard range plus is 240
The mid range is 264

Is the 220 a software limited 240 or is the 240 a software limited mid range ?

 

[tinm]

Are you at all encouraged by the re-stated emphasis on service put forth by Elon / Tesla today?

Not really. We have one mobile tech in the whole state, and no doubt soon will pass 1000 owners in the state. A service center outfitted with loaners would be, like, nice. We have a bill pending in the legislature right now. This is going to be an interesting next two weeks to see what happens.

 

[Fact Checking]

The standard range is 220
The standard range plus is 240
The mid range is 264

Is the 220 a software limited 240 or is the 240 a software limited mid range ?

Very good question.

My guess is the 220 and 240 are both SR battery packs.

 

[tinm]

Sigh... the price of a Model S LR with certain options I like is now $84.5K. And the price of the M3P is like around $59K. Tesla is making it extreeeeemely difficult for me to not trade in my aging 2013 S with nearly 97K miles on it.

 

[Krugerrand]

Tesla: SEC Latest Action Unfounded, Short Squeeze Possible - Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) | Seeking Alpha

Thinks Lathrop could be the factory for the US SR model 3.

Dumb.

 

[GOVA]

Standard Interior with no center console cover
Note the dash is now a black plastic instead of a wooden trim.
Also no white seating for standard interior, makes sense.
...

Frankly, I really like the vanilla interior - gray cloth and no bamboo bar over anything else. Very nice move, IMO.

 

[Ulmo]

@sokane1
NEW: Tesla does not expect to be profitable in Q1 2019. Profitability “likely” in Q2.

A lot of one-time charges (and changes) this quarter are the reason, Musk says.

Musk answer’s @andyjayhawk’s question about why Tesla ditched Full Self Driving language last fall, and why it’s back. “We werent close enough at that time, and it was creating too much confusion,” Musk says.

Someone asks Musk what the profit margin is on the $35,000 Model 3. Musk laughs. “Yeah, we’re not going to answer that on this call.”

The new Model 3s will available in Europe and China in “three to six months,” according to CEO Elon Musk.

“From the beginning, this has been the goal,” Musk said on a press call about the news. “It’s an incredible car.”

That will mean layoffs, Musk said on the call. “There’s no other way for us to achieve the savings required to make this car and be financially sustainable,” he said. “Unfortunately, it will entail reduction in force on the retail side.”

“My top priority this year is making service amazing,” Musk said.

Musk did announce on the call that long-time reservation holders will get priority for deliveries. “We need to assess how many reservation holders wish to buy [the new cars],” he said.

“I mean, I don’t know what the demand is. We’ll see,” Musk said.

Thanks for the report!

Anyone have link to that call?

 

[MarcusMaximus]

Holy hell this is misleading:

Tesla has changed its Autopilot package — customers now have to pay more for some features

Repeatedly calling out the higher price of FSD without noting the price reduction for AP seems downright unethical.

 

[Ulmo]

President Sanders declares a National Pollution Emergency and decrees Tesla Stores legal in all States by Presidential Order. LOL

That party has found every excuse in the book not to do what they promised with solar panels and electric cars for 40 years. Musk called their bluff. He kept with them, but their bluff was called.

 

[wipster]

So...WTF was Tusk all about?

I think he may have been hinting at the name of the new drone ship:
"Just say that you want me"