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

[MP3Mike]

Is the CC that Elon had today available anywhere to listen to? If not is there a transcript? If not, where can I find the best reporting on it?

Since it appears that this isn't available I think we should all write to Tesla Investor Relations requesting that they make this CC, and all future ones, available to us retail investors.

 

[RobStark]

Yes, this is key. Why is Amazon so successful? Partly because they don’t have bricks and mortor real estate to pay for. IF Tesla can sell completely online, it will end up being yet another moat. Even if Elon hates moats, he sure is building a lot of them

Amazon pays Whole Foods, Cheaper version of Whole Foods, and Amazon Kiosk at mall rents.

There are return centers inside Kohl stores. That can't possibly be free.

 

[madodel]

OT


March 28, 1979, actually. Three Mile Island. Funding dried up instantly; only projects already in progress continued, and not all of those. Nuclear power was already on the decline on April 25, 1986 when Chernobyl exploded.


Yep!

Due to inertia, we're still operating the nuclear reactors designed in the most overconfident period -- really stupid, really unsafe designs -- since they happen to have already been built. Examples include the totally deranged ice condenser designs. Perhaps the only reason they haven't blown up is that it is completely obvious that they are unsafe, even the workers know they are totally unsafe, and so they're probably more careful than they were with the Fukushima, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island designs. The Fukushima clones, like Nine Mile Point, are probably more likely to blow up.

Lived in Elizabethtown PA for 3 years 89-92. Had absolutely no idea we were so close to TMI when we built the house. When I read the TMI Emergency Evacuation Plan we were given after we moved in I realized if that ####er went up we were screwed. There is no way sane people site any nuclear reactor near 100,000s of population. I don't care how safe they claim they are today. Nuclear is perfectly safe until it isn't.

 

[RobStark]

Owning a Tesla in Michigan

Tesla can't own a repair facility, but mobile techs aren't repair facilities.
Things they can't do:

That seems like a court fight waiting to happen.

I can see a judge saying a service vehicle is a service facility.

 

[Curt Renz]

Since it appears that this isn't available I think we should all write to Tesla Investor Relations requesting that they make this CC, and all future ones, available to us retail investors.

Indeed, we are the owners of the company.

 

[Mars ☰mperor]

Elon has now completed the switch over to lowering expectations, under-promising and over-delivering:

• SR was tentatively promised for late summer (Q2), available now instead
• FSD was promised for later this year, available now, with 3 big pieces of functionality, which effectively increases the old EAP equivalent feature set price to $8k.
  
• Standard Interior is a lot more luxurious than originally promised - and yet they kept the $35k base price.

I'd expect this to continue in 2019.

Yeah seriously and big time!

IIRC, the infamous "standard battery available in 4-6 months" came out with the Mid-Range Model 3 on Oct 18, 2018.
So 4 months and 10 days later...

Voila!

Note the Mid-Range 0-60 has improved from 5.6 to 5.2. Magical!

Tesla Launches $45,000 Model 3 With 260-Mile Range

 

[StarFoxisDown!]

My fav quote of the night is "No more reductions on model 3".

I'm happy that they got down to the 35k price point so we have finally get past that BS narrative that Elon didn't fulfill his promise. But I'm looking forward a whole lot more to the fact that there will not be anymore price drops for the media to claim "No demand"...…….so damn tired of that headline everytime Tesla would drop the price.

 

[AudubonB]

Continuing waaaay off topic...
...
"Fanboy" and "fangirl" are much older, but were considered mildly derogatory due to the implication of youth; "fan" was (and still is) preferred. "Fangrrl" was reclaiming a positive association for the more slash, shipping and squee aspects of fandom (traditionally derogated by the term "fangirl"), but squeeing fans who identified as male needed a term...

I haven't the blue blazes first notions of an idea what that word possibly could be; regardless, I love it as it's one of only a few English-language words with four consecutive vowels.

Outside of that, I'll bet it possesses no justifiable reasons for its existence.....

 

[SOULPEDL]

I don’t believe that will be a big issue. It takes a lot of time and effort to put together the money for a car - loans down payments credit checks etc - not something that people would do frivolously. Plus 7 days is a good amount of time to fall in love with the car. If I was to be honest with myself, I don’t think the test drive of Model S I did before the Model 3 was delivered really helped much, in fact I didn’t really get a good feel because we were so distracted by all the features like autopilot and sharing the test drive between me and hubby. 7 days is perfect, I doubt any serious buyer would return just for the sake of fun filled weekend. committed shorts are a different story, but even they would have trouble coming up with enough funds to make this a big issue

Agreed. In fact, it's a win/win.
FYI, many here bought w/o a test drive already. I was fine with that flow.
Plus, he's had that offer going for some time now so it's not a mystery on the cost to Tesla.
Meanwhile, the upside is powerful in flipping some % of initial non-buyers, and as advertising where friends and family test drive it too.

 

[neroden]

Even if you assume the $35k 'base base' model, as I'll call it, is break-even or has slightly negative margins (I don't assume that, but for the sake of this thought experiment, let's do so), I don't think this is a problem. The way they've laid out the SR options is pretty smart, IMO. The SR+ is virtually a no-brainer--for $2k, you're getting 20 miles more range, better acceleration/top speed, power/heated front seats, better seat material, better speakers, fog lamps, and phone docks. I think a majority of SR buyers will opt for that. Let's say 50%. So now the SR ASP is $36k (50% $35k, 50% $37k).

But wait, that's assuming no one buys any other options, which is not going to be the case. Black is the only free color. The other four average $1875. I'll take Norway as a quick-and-dirty example since I have the stats in front of me--about 45% order black. Let's assume $1500 color cost for the others. This equates to +$675 ASP to all SR cars. Now we're at $36,675 overall for SRs.

To pile on:

Don't like black seats? You have to buy the SR+ in order to have the option to pay another $1000 for white seats.

So if you want the very common "white exterior, white interior" car, that's $35K + $2K SR+ + $2K white paint + $1K white seats, and that's $40K. This is a *very* common color preference.

 

[neroden]

OT

I haven't the blue blazes first notions of an idea what that word possibly could be; regardless, I love it as it's one of only a few English-language words with four consecutive vowels.

Outside of that, I'll bet it possesses no justifiable reasons for its existence.....

It's derived from "squeal" or "squeak" and is the noise a fangirl makes when she is really excited.

(Listen to a tape of a Beatles concert if you don't know what the noise is.)

 

[AudubonB]

I don't know if it was mentioned here but they appear to have fired the ex general counsel's law firm. Something nasty happened after that tweet.

Reference please?

 

[EVNow]

Washington? No way. Where'd you get this?

Yes, WA is wrong.

There was some anti-Tesla language in a bill that was slipped in at the last moment at one time. But was caught before it was voted on. Basically no direct sales for future OEMs, but Tesla was grandfathered.

Tesla wins battle against auto dealers in Washington state, but future rivals are screwed

BTW, this wiki page has a good list.

Tesla US dealership disputes - Wikipedia

 

[Krugerrand]

So, then what will they do ?

Die.

 

[madodel]

I've skipped a lot of the pages because I just can't keep up. But what I have read only talks about buying autos from Tesla online instead of in a store. What effect will closing most stores have on Tesla Energy consumer sales? Will that just be centralized and people will deal with an anonymous salesman via email or phone in Reno or someplace in California?

 

[riverFox]

I agree about the new autopilot: if I was buying now that is what I would get -- those are IMO the best parts. Maybe the update will change my mind, but auto steer on nav did not work well enough and while the parallel parking worked a charm (a perfect parallel every time!) the head-in parking hardly ever triggered and usually bailed part way through.

I'm happy to have those features mind (and looking forward to the summon), but for $3k the autopilot is even more of a "just buy the feature already." If anyone buys a Tesla without that... big mistake. Tesla brought back my love of driving, but TACC+Autosteer is a godsend for workaday driving.

Do yourself a favor and get the autopilot. Trust me, or get a test drive and discover for yourself.

Autopilot for me? Scary cool.

 

[EVNow]

On the contrary, New Mexico is the most anti-Tesla state.

Source: me.

But, how reliable is the source ?

BTW, there are 4 states with sales & service banned - MI, NM, AL & SC.

 

[neroden]

This is pretty BS that there's a call with important information being talked about we as investors can't listen.

Yeah, the SEC should investigate this.

 

[Curt Renz]

A test drive at a franchised dealership is actually an excuse for a salesman to ride shotgun and distract a prospect with an incessant sales routine. Tesla's return policy is far more desirable.

 

[AudubonB]

That was the euphemism eventually used by the industry. Actually, it was more often called a stick shift.

We call it a manny tranny or, in the "in" circles, a handshaker.