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

[KarenRei]

Didn't know anything about this company. Now I feel little better about loosing dealerships.

I disagree. I wish that dealerships had never been loosed upon the world.

 

[Tslynk67]

Those who know how to read it the WhatsApp 0day is worth any Tesla fans time.

You'll have to enlighten us, I went to the site and it was gobbledegook...

 

[MarcusMaximus]

There are state laws that will not allow an auto manufacturer to sell a car if that manufacture has a signatory franchise dealership. Even if it is a franchise in another state. That’s one of the reasons Tesla can not have a franchise dealer in a single state. It would void their store in another state.

Is that sell a car or own a dealership? Because the former would violate the US constitution, while the latter is kinda obnoxious in a free market but legal.

 

[StarFoxisDown!]

Seen a few posts defending Tesla and essentially saying it's not their responsibility to respond to changes in the share price.

I could not disagree with this more right now. I'm all for Tesla going the Amazon route and going for growth. If closing the stores in order to lower the price to support their expanded production rates is what it takes, that's fine with me.

But Tesla does owe a responsibility to shareholders to not harm the value of the company. Tesla and Elon are the one's putting out confusing and contradicting things and then staying silent over the next 3 trading days while the value of the company cratered. Tesla is the one holding private media calls and then making comments to analysts off the record about margins/profitability/etc while being silent on those things in public. Radio......silence...…..from Tesla so far about how orders are going, demand etc... They don't have to be specific but they can give simple statements to easily re-direct the narrative and stop the really outrageous FUD going on or just simple statements to clarify their own confusing comments from the 35k model 3 reveal. How hard is it clarify the "expect delivery in 2-4 weeks" on their own damn website. We're hearing reports from on the ground about delivery being much longer than that. We have Tesla giving a rather low/conservative production guidance while at the same time registering a insane amount of Vin's and Elon giving much, much higher guidance in the media call (that wasn't reported on in the media one bit and was apparently not even on the transcript if I remember correctly...)

Just to be clear, I actually don't put all the blame on Elon this time. I'm actually just as upset with the Tesla board.

The share price is recovering.....oh yippie that's great. I'm so happy Wall St was able to so easily construct a panic to drive the price lower for them buy(and likely cover A LOT) using Tesla's own PR/Communication blunders and confusing statements.

Just in case you guys can't tell based on this post and the one I made earlier......I'm pretty upset lol.

 

[anthonyj]

Rephrasing this point to make even more compelling: Would you rather order online, or pay $2500 for a test drive? Honestly?

The person about to pick up their new 3 series would’ve paid $37,500 for the SR if they knew it existed. I think they should’ve reduced pricing by $1500, and used the other $1000 to educate about Tesla. Tesla’s are stupid cheap now, and if sales don’t grow exponentially due to these price cuts, the bottleneck will be lack of consumer education

I think California is in its own little Tesla bubble, and Elon might not realize this. A lot of people up here in northeast don’t know much about Tesla. The people that do, have been following the company for a while

 

[StarFoxisDown!]

Also, we're headed for 60 million shares traded over the past 3 trading days...….60 million!

 

[adaptabl]

Production costs in China are low, and it's a more price-sensitive market.. I wouldn't even rule out Tesla eventually (e.g. perhaps a year from now) cutting a few thousand dollars off the price of the GF3-made Model 3s (e.g. selling them cheaper than Model 3s in the US); there will be IMHO an obvious business case to do so, as the boost in volume (and thus profitable options sales) would be huge. You might get a little grumbling from US consumers, but I think most people expect Chinese-made cars to be cheaper and won't make a fuss.

EV are also heavily subsidized in China but that will soon be ending.

 

[Drax7]

Production costs in China are low, and it's a more price-sensitive market.. I wouldn't even rule out Tesla eventually (e.g. perhaps a year from now) cutting a few thousand dollars off the price of the GF3-made Model 3s (e.g. selling them cheaper than Model 3s in the US); there will be IMHO an obvious business case to do so, as the boost in volume (and thus profitable options sales) would be huge. You might get a little grumbling from US consumers, but I think most people expect Chinese-made cars to be cheaper and won't make a fuss.

What are health care benefit costs per employee in China?
$10 per month?

 

[jhm]

Anyone know why CVNA is surging more than 12% today?

I'm reading through the CC transcript. 128% y/y organic revenue growth is pretty impressive.

Carvana Co. (CVNA) Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript

 

[TheTalkingMule]

WTF!! I turn around for 2 seconds and it bounces $10. Need to drift down to $270 a few days, get these options cheaper. Maybe I'll publish a few unsettling "articles".

 

[anthonyj]

Anyone know why CVNA is surging more than 12% today?

I'm reading through the CC transcript. 128% y/y organic revenue growth is pretty impressive.

That’s another great swing stock. I bought some a while ago when it was low and sold at the tippy top. Not touching it with a 420ft pole. Lots of short interest

 

[KarenRei]

WTF!! I turn around for 2 seconds and it bounces $10. Need to drift down to $270 a few days, get these options cheaper. Maybe I'll publish a few unsettling "articles".

Timing the bottom is tough, isn't it? I feel good with my call buy at a SP of ~$273-274. Could have been lower, but I'll take it!

 

[anthonyj]

WTF!! I turn around for 2 seconds and it bounces $10. Need to drift down to $270 a few days, get these options cheaper. Maybe I'll publish a few unsettling "articles".

No worries. Tesla goes on clearance every 3 months.

People would if Tesla made EA and FSD a subscription-based serviced vs one-time high fixed cost for customers. That’s a multi billion dollar market cap idea right there.

People do that with financing. It’s better this way because Tesla gets the cash ASAP. Plus AP adds to resale value so it’s great for the buyer

 

[Mad@gascar]

If anyone knows better, feel free to correct me, but I think Jonas is actually wrong here:

Morgan Stanley says automakers want to sell cars like Tesla does but can't: 'It's against the law'

Other manufacturers can’t legally sell cars the way Tesla *used* to(in self-owned stores), but I don’t believe there’s any legal grounds for a ban on them selling via their websites rather than via a physical store. Such a ban in any state would violate the interstate commerce clause(the ban on self-owned stores arguably doesn’t, as it just prevents them from owning such a storefront within the state). Barring federal laws preventing it, I think Tesla just opened the floodgates for all manufacturers who want to sell directly to customers.

Problem with direct online sales is, automakers would be competing against their dealers. If they sell at MSRP, people will still go to dealers to get a better price. If they undercut the dealers on price, dealers go out of business causing huge backlash. No good options.

 

[KarenRei]

Woohoo - Superchargers coming to Iceland!!!!

Tesla fundaði með OR um hraðhleðslustöðvar

Short summary: It's been confirmed that Tesla is discussions with a power company, a charging station operator, and various government officials about setting up a Supercharger network.

 

[Carl Raymond]

I wonder how much Tesla will be able to save on shipping when the cars can just drive themselves to their owners right out of the factory....

Before that they will drive themselves onto and off the ships. Musk actually tweeted that this would be soon.

 

[Nocturnal]

The person about to pick up their new 3 series would’ve paid $37,500 for the SR if they knew it existed. I think they should’ve reduced pricing by $1500, and used the other $1000 to educate about Tesla. Tesla’s are stupid cheap now, and if sales don’t grow exponentially due to these price cuts, the bottleneck will be lack of consumer education

I think California is in its own little Tesla bubble, and Elon might not realize this. A lot of people up here in northeast don’t know much about Tesla. The people that do, have been following the company for a while

Anecdotal. Now that the 35k car is released I have several people I know here in Kansas and in the MD/DC area that are asking me detailed questions about owning a model 3. People don't know much about them but that's because they don't want a 50k car so never bothered to learn. Now they are perking up.

 

[UncaNed]

I wonder how much Tesla will be able to save on shipping when the cars can just drive themselves to their owners right out of the factory....

Platooning, even. I wanna see platooning, obligatory driver in lead car only, incredibly efficient.

 

[electrichapp]

added some at 282. gotta finish the day above 282 for a nice bullish hammer reversal signal for those TA day traders.

 

[Esme Es Mejor]

Anyone know why CVNA is surging more than 12% today?

I'm reading through the CC transcript. 128% y/y organic revenue growth is pretty impressive.

Carvana Co. (CVNA) Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript

I think that explains TSLA’s recent slide: y/y organic revenue growth is only 119.75%