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

[Cosmacelf]

He is dropping some material information in those tweets if true.

Not necessarily. He could easily have misunderstood Jerome (model Y probably in Giga 1 => gets heard/translated/exaggerated to model Y in Giga 1).

 

[AcesDealt]

This is a tough company to hold on to. So much potential. Such lousy management.

 

[ls7corvete]

This is a tough company to hold on to. So much potential. Such lousy management.

Growing pains. Remember your youth.

 

[Cosmacelf]

The story is a bit long, but my original rep was working with me for a couple of weeks. He found me a P3D with 2k miles on it discounted. I've paid full sticker for custom orders on my last 2 cars and I wanted to feel like I was getting a tiny deal for the first time. He found a car that was a good fit, that was last Tuesday. I told him I'd likely take it, but I wanted to wait until the event on Thursday that Elon had tweeted before deciding. While he had not heard of the event / announcement, he said it was no problem. He said that I could put a $2500 deposit on the car to hold it, and if I changed my mind they would refund my card shortly. I said fair enough and placed the reservation. Thursday came around, I called him after the event and he said they would honor the markdown amount off of the new pricing. I agreed to move forward. For the next 6 days I called and texted him frequently with no response. Finally on Wednesday he sent me a text indirectly letting me know he had been let go and did not respond to me again.

I agree, unfortunate, but geez you are really trying to have your cake and eat it too aren’t you? Lock down a car at a set price, and then when prices change, demand new pricing on the same car. And your original post made it sound like Tesla is screwing up a routine transaction, which this clearly is not.

 

[elasalle]

Absolutely.

We should be seeing some analysis of how well Tesla can support the new prices with their estimated margins and business model and battery efficiency, vs competitors with (as I understand in general) lower BEV margins and battery efficiency, plus legacy ICE vehicles and dealerships to support.

We should be seeing a sober analysis of how this competition stacks up by the numbers, and how it changes as the story develops, both for Tesla and its competitors. Is it out there? I don’t see it anywhere. Closest thing I have found is this forum. Should I be reading ARK investment website and blogs?

ARK is banking on FSD and autonomy. Says 4K and has algo that keeps TSLA investment at 10%
Best bets might be watch quarterly vehicle sales numbers as they come - next 1-2 quarters and I think we will see it happen.

 

[omarsultan]

More detail on store closure reversal rumors: Tesla temporarily freezes store closures and layoffs in chaotic sales strategy change

Doesn't sound like they are reversing strategy since that opex savings was central to them being able to deliver the SR Model 3 and the price cuts on the S & X. Sounds more like they realized the chaos is going to tank the qtr, which shouldn't have been a huge shock. My guess is they were trying to dump all the costs and charges into this qtr since its a little squishy anyway.

 

[Cherry Wine]

Can you be more specific? I thought all those has been mentioned by Tesla before.

Model Y production at GF1. (Again, if true.)

Not necessarily. He could easily have misunderstood Jerome (model Y probably in Giga 1 => gets heard/translated/exaggerated to model Y in Giga 1).

For sure -- thus the "if true".

 

[JRP3]

After hours off thread:
Finally, a very useful and understandable explanation of Lithium Ion batteries and ultra capacitors, and how Tesla might merge the 2 technologies to improve power storage and consumption in its cars and trucks. Highly recommended.

While the video gets the basics correct their conclusions about the use of ultracaps in EV's is completely flawed. Caps are not needed for the Roadster to achieve it's acceleration numbers nor do they make any sense for passenger EV's. There may be applications in heavy vehicles with a lot of stop and go driving, such as buses, but probably not in long range trucking.

 

[mekberg]

While the video gets the basics correct their conclusions about the use of ultracaps in EV's is completely flawed. Caps are not needed for the Roadster to achieve it's acceleration numbers nor do they make any sense for passenger EV's. There may be applications in heavy vehicles with a lot of stop and go driving, such as buses, but probably not in long range trucking.

Caps could be used to buffer Regen braking due to their better operating temperature range. Would provide year-round consistent Regen braking levels.

Enough caps in the pack for one full regen brake at ~n speed.

 

[tinm]

Interesting point. I wonder what a refresh would entail?

Funny, I actually think the exterior would be the last thing tackled since the just did a refresh for the S and X is still pretty new. I would imagine the top of the list is an update to battery and drivetrain upgrade to support V3 supercharging (but still using the 16850 cell). I would also think the interior gets a refresh and they move to a single screen interior. This would simplify SW ad UI development for SW in general and FSD in particular.

I am eagerly awaiting the next gen S, but I think it's going to be a while.

My bet for an S/X refresh:

• Even longer range
• Heads up display
• Model 3 style dash and landscape touchscreen

 

[Cosmacelf]

Caps could be used to buffer Regen braking due to their better operating temperature range. Would provide year-round consistent Regen braking levels.

Enough caps in the pack for one full regen brake at ~n speed.

To get consistent regen braking, all you need to do s for the computer to apply friction brakes when regen is limited. Cheap solution.

 

[gringotuanis]

This is a tough company to hold on to. So much potential. Such lousy management.

Lol at the downvotes. Just cuz the echo chamber thinks Elon is god...doesn't mean Tesla is well managed. Elon's an engineer, not a manager. He actually sucks, yes, sucks at managing. Probably Tesla's greatest weakness. Just look at the S&$-_+ show with the store closings announced with model 3 $35k and now they're backpedaling that.

 

[madodel]

A good friend bought a model 3 last fall. She is comfortable with basic computer/wireless devices but not technical.
One of many things she was not briefed on when she picked up her car was how almost anything in the car can be changed and/or improved in some way by OTA downloads. When something doesn't work as advertised or expected she doesn't know how to get help and advise. She tried calling Tesla Customer Service once and got nowhere. Is the online manual the source she should be looking to for good explanations of everything? Is it updated appropriately every time the UI or other features are changed?
Thanks in advance.

Some options to get some information or report issues besides calling her service center:

She can log onto her Tesla.com account select "Manage" for her vehicle and than use the "Support" area to describe her problem.

If she is in her Tesla:

1. Note: You can also use voice commands to provide feedback to Tesla. Say "Note", "Report", "Bug note", or "Bug report" followed by your brief comments. Model X takes a snapshot of its systems, including screen captures of the touchscreen and instrument panel. Tesla periodically reviews these notes and uses them to continue improving Model X.
   

Also in her tesla.com account screen for her car under "My Documents" is the most current manual, which can be downloaded. A link to the North American version is https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/model_x_owners_manual_north_america_en.pdf

 

[jerry33]

Caps could be used to buffer Regen braking due to their better operating temperature range. Would provide year-round consistent Regen braking levels.

Enough caps in the pack for one full regen brake at ~n speed.

If the pack is cold, one regen won't be enough. A really cold pack in 0 C weather needs 45 minutes of city driving to get full regen back. The experience of good simulated regen, no regen, regen would be much worse than the current no regen, regen. In addition, the capacitor charging doesn't come free so range will suffer. Remember that there will be energy conversion losses, so more energy will be used to charge the capacitors than the braking requires. In my opinion, this adds cost and complexity for dubious benefits.

 

[Starno]

Lol at the downvotes. Just cuz the echo chamber thinks Elon is god...doesn't mean Tesla is well managed. Elon's an engineer, not a manager. He actually sucks, yes, sucks at managing. Probably Tesla's greatest weakness. Just look at the S&$-_+ show with the store closings announced with model 3 $35k and now they're backpedaling that.

Tesla has many really competent managers. And Elon is an amazing CEO. He needs to be the CEO in order to instill the vision, and make sure the company is going on the right path. Which is one of the main role of a CEO. And he's doing a great job accomplishing this task.

 

[jerry33]

To get consistent regen braking, all you need to do s for the computer to apply friction brakes when regen is limited. Cheap solution.

Not even remotely cheap. In the Toyota Prius New Car Features Manual, there are four pages of diagrams showing how this kind of braking works--and that's just the mechanical plumbing. It's very complex and doesn't give a great braking feel. This is, in my opinion, worse than the supercap idea.

 

[JRP3]

Caps could be used to buffer Regen braking due to their better operating temperature range. Would provide year-round consistent Regen braking levels.

Enough caps in the pack for one full regen brake at ~n speed.

Not practical or necessary. When looking at all parameters involved caps are not a solution outside of a very heavy vehicle in frequent stop and go situations.

 

[anthonyj]

The source is "some random guy in Shortsville". Take it with a healthy dose of salt.

Tesla temporarily freezes store closures and layoffs in chaotic sales strategy change

 

[Cosmacelf]

Not even remotely cheap. In the Toyota Prius New Car Features Manual, there are four pages of diagrams showing how this kind of braking works--and that's just the mechanical plumbing. It's very complex and doesn't give a great braking feel. This is, in my opinion, worse than the supercap idea.

Well that may be how a Prius has to do it, but Tesla’s have built in drive by wire braking for AP.

 

[Heart Land]

Lol at the downvotes. Just cuz the echo chamber thinks Elon is god...doesn't mean Tesla is well managed. Elon's an engineer, not a manager. He actually sucks, yes, sucks at managing. Probably Tesla's greatest weakness. Just look at the S&$-_+ show with the store closings announced with model 3 $35k and now they're backpedaling that.

I’ve been managed by engineers and non engineers. When you do engineering work, trust me, you would want to be managed by an engineer rather than a bean counter.

Alot of companies celebrate 3% growth. Tesla is doing 50% consistently. Not sure how people deduce Elon is a poor manager when the main goal is growth.