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

[Antares Nebula]

From the CC today:

"Musk issued yet another forecast for how many vehicles Tesla will produce this year, predicting somewhere in the range of 420,000 and 600,000. Three days ago, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked a federal judge to hold him in contempt of a settlement reached last year over a tweet in which he said the company would make as many as half a million cars.

The CEO doubled down on his defense against the SEC’s claims by reiterating comments he made on a Jan. 30 earnings call that Tesla would sell as many as 500,000 Model 3s this year.

“350,000 to 500,000 Model 3s is what I said in the earnings call,” Musk told reporters. “And we expect to make somewhere between 70,000 to 100,000” Model S sedans and Model X crossovers."

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Maybe they actually read my email?

 

[Ulmo]

Also, does anyone else think its incongruent that the P3D now has the highest top speed of any Tesla? I mean, I agree they shouldnt limit the vehicle just for the sake of doing so. Also, I've never taken my MS over 125 (hypothetically), but still.

No. Model S & X were development funding cars.

 

[oneday]

Dumb.

100% agreed. Maybe I missed it but what do you think Lathrop is for?

 

[UnknownSoldier]

Am I the only one who sees a mountain of slightly used Model 3's from people with no intention of keeping the car?

I'm curious if the bears would intentionally orchestrate a scene where they bought a lot of cars and returned them in an effort to destroy the company. I don't think unlimited returns on cars is a good idea when there are so many malicious actors out there.

 

[sundaymorning]

second round of layoffs sucks

This is the new Tesla, leaner and smarter with their money. Imagine all the rent, overhead, employment cost, hiring, electricity, insurance, benefits that they won’t have to pay anymore. When I ordered my Model 3, I did it online, there’s no need for retail stores when you’re a brand like Tesla/Amazon, etc. Car buyers tend to do their research quite rigorously before purchases. When you have 100,000 people lining up to order car without seeing one, let alone a test drive, you know you’ve broken the retail model.

I love this move in that it instills confidence, that even without a store front, our product will sell like hotcakes.

And btw, I’m sure they have all the data, most people order online. If you want a test drive, ask a friend..

 

[Ulmo]

You buy it, and test drive it for up to 7 days/1000 miles and return it if you don't want to keep it.

Or you rent one on Turo or ask your friends/neighbors who are all going to have one.

I can attest that Turo works, but be prepared to pay 5x what the Turo contract says you must pay, since Turo is basically a scam service.

 

[sundaymorning]

I'm curious if the bears would intentionally orchestrate a scene where they bought a lot of cars and returned them in an effort to destroy the company. I don't think unlimited returns on cars is a good idea when there are so many malicious actors out there.

So you’ll lock up $40k in Tesla, wait another 2 months to get it refunded just to be malicious? While I can see Mark Spiegal doing it, him getting in one might even change his mind. Shorts just need to own their car for a week in order to see the light. I can see this move converting a lot of shorts. Just look at Kramer’s face after he drove the Model S. Says it all.

I agree, there shouldn’t be unlimited returns. A second purchase should be non refundable.

 

[Thekiwi]

The glass roof was a wow moment for me. Very nice. And almost everyone will reach for that SR+ model.

Looks like a “great, better, more better, betterist, betterist plus, GTFOAMAZEBALLS” product positioning model.

 

[Tenable]

So you’ll lock up $40k in Tesla, wait another 2 months to get it refunded just to be malicious? While I can see Mark Spiegal doing it, him getting in one might even change his mind. Shorts just need to own their car for a week in order to see the light. I can see this move converting a lot of shorts. Just look at Kramer’s face after he drove the Model S. Says it all.

I agree, there shouldn’t be unlimited returns. A second purchase should be non refundable.

A gentleman attempted to buy a M3 reservation from me when they first came out. He was blackballed from buying a Tesla due to some apparent bad behavior in a gallery. I'm sure Tesla would catch on to bad actors and attempt to prevent this from becoming an issue.

 

[AlexS]

OMG I was away, did really Tesla committed suicide by killing their sales centers? And I always thought Elon is a sales guy. OMG this is disaster, I hope I am reading misleading news at the moment. If what I red is true, we are at 190 tomorrow. Congrats to shorts and I am so stupid so stupid idiot, who was believing in this company? You just cannot take away personal connection out of car sales. It is not buying socks?

 

[KarenRei]

Am I the only one who sees a mountain of slightly used Model 3's from people with no intention of keeping the car?

I've wondered about it, but I honestly doubt it'll be a "mountain", unless the person honestly can't afford a new car. Still raises the question of what they plan to do with returns.

 

[SOULPEDL]

Difference between Standard and Premium interior:

Was it better lighting?

 

[neroden]

The vast majority of amicus briefs are filed in appellate courts. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which govern proceedings in federal district (trial level) courts, do not even mention amicus curaire filings. But see: Rule 29. Brief of an Amicus Curiae Rule 37. Brief for an Amicus Curiae .

Thanks very much, Brian!

Whether a district court judge will allow an amicus brief to be filed, let alone consider it once filed, is entirely at the district judge's discretion. "Friend of the court" submittals that offer the district judge information not otherwise available in the parties' filings are as rare as ethical politicians.

Let's do it. The extreme rarity of such a filing should wake up the judge and make her think twice about what's going on, *even if she doesn't allow it to be filed*.

What we're trying to do is to make the judge aware that there's something hinky going on here: tons and tons of deceitful market manipulation done by bears ignored by the SEC, multiple examples which appear to be trading on inside information (the puts bought after Consumer Reports leaked to the press but before they published anything publicly, and IIRC there was another dramatic example some months ago), but the SEC jumps on a tweet with non-material information which doesn't move the stock price. This situation is something the judge is not aware of. Let's MAKE her aware of it.

....uh, going over to other thread --> SEC pursuing a contempt charge for tweet

 

[KarenRei]

OMG I was away, did really Tesla committed suicide by killing their sales centers? And I always thought Elon is a sales guy. OMG this is disaster, I hope I am reading misleading news at the moment. If what I red is true, we are at 190 tomorrow. Congrats to shorts and I am so stupid so stupid idiot, who was believing in this company? You just cannot take away personal connection out of car sales. It is not buying socks?

Cuts 6% off the price of the car, and most Teslas are sold through word of mouth (aka a person tries the car of a friend/family member/coworker/etc and decides they want one). I can very much see the logic.

It's also a 6% off that no established manufacturer can touch.

 

[TSLA11]

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.

That is untrue. I have personally met two mobile techs (in the past month) and one told me last week they just hired another one (on that note I have had nothing but great experiences with the mobile service rangers). I was inquiring about Albuquerque but it might be true there is 3 for the entire state. That said, NM doesn't have many Teslas compared to some other states, but their numbers are still growing quickly. Tesla definitely needs to hire more mobile techs and they must be planning to since Elon said today that service is his number one priority this year.

Hoping that bill goes through. Fingers crossed.

 

[Ulmo]

SR: $35k, 220mi, 130mph, 5,6s, non-PUP
SR+: $37k, 240mi, 140mph, 5,3s, partial-PUP
MR: $40k, 264mi, 140mph, 5,2s, PUP
LR: $43k, 325mi, 140mph, 5,0s, PUP
AWD: $47k, 310mi, 145mph, 4,5s, PUP
P: $48k, 310mi, 162mph, 3,2s, PUP
P: $58k, 310mi, 162mph, 3,2s, PUP

Correction in-line.

 

[Starno]

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?





MODERATOR'S In-Line Hammer:

THIS ABOVE kind of post is precisely what any number of Moderator actions and deletions over many months have been targeting. It wastes other members' time; it is simple laziness.
DO NOT post un-referenced, un-explained references. Period. Full stop.

 

[MarcusMaximus]

OMG I was away, did really Tesla committed suicide by killing their sales centers? And I always thought Elon is a sales guy. OMG this is disaster, I hope I am reading misleading news at the moment. If what I red is true, we are at 190 tomorrow. Congrats to shorts and I am so stupid so stupid idiot, who was believing in this company? You just cannot take away personal connection out of car sales. It is not buying socks?

The way you buy cars has changed. Time to get used to it. People said the same of book sales.

 

[Bet TSLA]

So where does one do test drives.

Me. And people like me. I give people test drives (not rides) regularly. A couple of hundred so far.

 

[sundaymorning]

OK, thoughts...

The Chevrolet Bolt is going to be CRUSHED. Will be interesting to see how Chevy reacts.

I am glad they moved Drive-On-Autopilot to the FSD package. I like the TACC+Autosteer for $3,000.

Surprised to see SIX different trims for Model 3. Obviously they don't mind the complexity that brings.

325 miles of range on Long Range Model 3... that's now only 10 miles lower than the Model S. There just has to be an update coming...

162mph top speed on Model 3Perf? (Cue a fresh new set of Youtube Quarter-Mile and drag-race videos...) That's the highest top speed for any Tesla ever, and the first Tesla faster than the "gentleman's agreement" top speed of 155mph that has been common on many luxury cars.

However a lot of luxury sedans add top-end speed when you buy the most-polluting versions: e.g. 200mph for CTS-V or 189mph for BMW M5 Competition. So I guess the Model 3 Perf is the first to break that mould, since it generates the same amount of pollution as the base model

So... for S+X there just has to be an update coming. Perhaps during the Supercharger V3 reveal... since charging times will be highlighted.

I think most Bolts and Leafs are leased at a lost. The OEMs keep the tax credit keep 100% of their ZEV credits, and that’s how they’re able to make up the difference, but I suspect barely. Once the tax credits are gone, Leafs and Bolts are in big trouble.