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

[Tenable]

No way was that guy actually watching the road.

He definitely wasnt. But the fact that AP never pick ups road cones seems pretty egregious.

 

[sweter]

Sorry for OT, but it's nearly AH now and I need to brag a bit My Model 3 ended up on Elon's Twitter the other day, advertising newly opened Warsaw Service Center!

Thanks to Cleantechnica's Zachary though

That's me parked outside Wroclaw, PL airport, one of the 1st (if not 1st) Model 3's in the country (but now we have like 16... ). Will it increase its resale value?

 

[AlMc]

Model S raven with perforated seats/solid leather dash....100KW 'E' battery...

 

[Papafox]

From the secret microphone hidden in the short-seller's secret central command:

"Sell! I don't care what it costs, just sell!! We can't let bloody TSLA close above 260. All hands on deck!!"

 

[MarcusMaximus]

OT


FYI, "fazed" is the word you're looking for. "Phased" is a change in the state of matter, "fazed" is disturbed, from old English fesian. Your English language nerd here.

Karen, being a robot, is commenting that she wouldn’t be melted down.

 

[MarcusMaximus]

There's a thread for that. Driver admits in first post to falling asleep.
Automatic Emergency Braking Failure, the Movie

Ah, so autopilot saved his life, then.

EDIT: reading through his post, it wasn’t even that he intentionally fell asleep because he figured autopilot would take care of driving. He just accidentally dozed off. The car absolutely saved his life here.

 

[humbaba]

From the secret microphone hidden in the short-seller's secret central command:

"Sell! I don't care what it costs, just sell!! We can't let bloody TSLA close above 260. All hands on deck!!"

and yet:

Close Chg Chg %
$260.17 4.49 1.76%

 

[humbaba]

Although FUD has certainly been less intense than it was late last year there do seem to be some attempts to control the narrative of a recovering stock. For example, this marketwatch article, "Sales of Tesla's high-end Model S are dropping in key markets."

The story is "Falling sales of the Model S" which is known from "Registrations of new Model S sedans in the second quarter plummeted 54% to 1,205 in California." From this we can conclude that "the stylish sedan that arguably changed car buyers’ view of electric cars is losing its luster".

Strangely, Tesla is selling a lot more vehicles QoQ, but I guess it doesn't matter if there's a dip in one market of one model.

[Edited: "Tesla’s Q2 2018 production totaled 53,339 vehicles" -- so 92,500 or so represents ~73% QoQ increase in volume. Can't report that, no way.]

 

[Speedr117]

Although FUD has certainly been less intense than it was late last year there do seem to be some attempts to control the narrative of a recovering stock. For example, this marketwatch article, "Sales of Tesla's high-end Model S are dropping in key markets."

The story is "Falling sales of the Model S" which is known from "Registrations of new Model S sedans in the second quarter plummeted 54% to 1,205 in California." From this we can conclude that "the stylish sedan that arguably changed car buyers’ view of electric cars is losing its luster".

Strangely, Tesla is selling a lot more vehicles QoQ, but I guess it doesn't matter if there's a dip in one market of one model.

WSJ had a similar article by Tim Higgins. It's so predictable what games they play right before the Earning Report...

 

[Causalien]

Ah, so autopilot saved his life, then.

EDIT: reading through his post, it wasn’t even that he intentionally fell asleep because he figured autopilot would take care of driving. He just accidentally dozed off. The car absolutely saved his life here.

PPL will never take personal responsibility.

 

[Nocturnal]

It's not to save four hours of travel a year, it's to be sure you can make it in winter and/or towing a trailer, or in those places where SCs are few. Of course, if you never go on trips it's not an issue, but for those of us that do it's important. Remember, a pickup towing one of those 8,000 lbs. trailers is only going to get about 8 mpg in good weather. (This is what my trailer towing acquaintances tell me). That 500 miles is going to disappear really fast in those conditions.

This only applies to Pick Ups. I'm addressing all the people who think they need 500 miles in their Model 3/S/Y, they simply don't. Or at least the cost doesn't make any sense at current battery prices.

I'll see what they release, but I will be very surprised if the Tesla truck has enough range to tow an 8k trailer for long periods. I've spent a lot of time towing large trailers and they suck the diesel up like crazy.

 

[humbaba]

Front could provide power while rear transmission shifts, then vice-versa.

An interesting approach though I think it would be non-trivial to make it seamless (but hey, I'm not an engineer, much less a transmission engineer). I do wonder how Porsche did the transmission and how well it works.

But, in the end, I don't think it really matters for the issue of whether or not EVs should have multi-gear transmissions. I don't think that there's any doubt they can be made, but similarly there should be no doubt that they will weigh more, cost more and have reduced reliability.

None of those are negatives to the legacy makers, but to anyone making a competitive EV they are obstacles to overcome and a 5% range increase from a larger battery will not just improve range, but also improve discharge/recharge rates.

 

[DrMazeppa]

department of justice may open antitrust review of big tech....fangs going down.
TSLA still mighty today.

Tomorrow is going to be "entertaining"..

 

[kengchang]

Short update

 

[dc_h]

I have trouble imagining what type of people they are.

Could these ppl be the bully type that *sugar* on nerds i. HS? Or are these just normal ppl who doesn't like the elites? But how come no such things exist for ppl lime Warrwn Buffett? I don't get the hate.

I think it is more complex social and more simple business issue.
The complex story is that Tesla started out as a little tiny upstart. A lot of media liked them, they were quirky and bold. Queue up 2016 and suddenly Elon Musk is a big shot billionaire. The former upstart is boldly pushing an agenda and shaking up legacy companies and twitter. The media and liberals in general don't see the quirky upstart, they see a non-union big shot bullying its way into the big leagues. Liberals might also see a billionaire big shot and nonunion guy. Conservatives may see a guy trying to save the environment, which is stupid because the environment is fine. Those environmentalists are in it for government handouts, or a new way to micromanage the world by like minded bureaucrats. The Elon is a handouts story played to conservative fears of environmentalism as a big handout festival. Elon is an iconoclastic dude, and doesn't fit into a democrat or republican box, so people who just care about picking sides and party polemics, are not going to understand Elon or Tesla.
On the simple business side, Elon bailed out Solar City. It may have been and be the right decision, but it brought in a holy host of bad-ass short sellers. These guys are warriors and they do not take prisoners. They put a social media smear campaign on that continues through today and probably wont' end, even if Tesla has a billion in profits tomorrow. Big oil and auto have hopped on the big short media campaign for now, but this has a limited shelf life. Big auto is now trying to market their own EV's and can't really say Tesla is crap or EV's don't work without undercutting their own investment thesis. Big oil may be big and bad, but there is a historical confluence of technical capabilities way beyond Tesla that are kicking their tails. A social media campaign against Tesla just puts them further at risk of missing the strategic challenge coming their way and it is not going to dissuade consumers and nations from acting in their best interests (in the long run). If big oil got it, they would be focused on squeezing every dollar out of their existing assets and minimizing new investments. Both the shorts and big oil are missing the big picture, or getting it and fighting a short term fight against a long term trend. That won't end well if that's all they got.

The people that will matter long term are consumers. They will buy Tesla's because the rest of the cars out there suck in comparison. As Tesla options broaden out and I can pick a luxury sedan, SUV, premium mid-sized car and SUV, I have 1/4 of the market covered. As Tesla adds a truck, now we've got probably about 1/3 of the addressable vehicle market covered. They add in a jeep like vehicle, a minivan and a compact car\CUV and they're addressing 75% of the vehicle market. At that point party politics, or fear of change or short selling and big oil won't matter. Profitably selling 3 or 5 million or more cars a year and selling transportation as a service with big margins will matter.

 

[Tslynk67]

Also according to Ihor:

Ihor Dusaniwsky on Twitter

 

[EVMeister]

Another very positive review from a popular UK motoring website and YouTube channel.

 

[Krugerrand]

From what I remember , the crystal structure of aluminum castings is significantly less strong than forged or rolled material. This property must be designed around with larger cross sections, gussets etc. Have there been improvements in this area in the last few years? How do the mavens here see this issue for the giant injection molding machine?

Plus they didn't notice the weight was on rails...
Such a deliberately misleading and meaningless towing weight reported by Ford, but you wouldn't expect anything more from them, or CNBC.
Just imagine Lora's outrage at Elon's fraud for reporting a towing weight on rails as if it was actual towing ability.

I’m pretty sure I saw Moses’ mother greasing the wheels too.

 

[njzimmic]

Tesla’s Higher-End Sales Erode in Key Market Amid Model 3 Gains
Tesla’s Higher-End Sales Erode in Key Market Amid Model 3 Gains

This Tim guy always fails to report as a reporter the relevant stories :/

 

[Krugerrand]

OMG! I'm surprised no one commented on how sick Mark Siegel looks these days! While he was never handsome at least he looked relatively normal. Now he looks like a sick cartoon caricature of himself who has acid reflux and is about to puke any minute. His face has morphed into a twisted and tortured ghoulish form that one might expect to run into during a bad dream in which you are on a tour of the underworld. He barely looks human. He must hate appearing in front of the camera looking like this but his big bets against Tesla demand that he does in an attempt to further his goals. He only appeared stumped one time during the interview, it was when he was asked what he would need to see to change his mind about Tesla. As he paused I could see him thinking "I will NEVER change my mind about this sugar-hole of a company". And his answer was not much different.

I guess I just don't see how his life can turn itself around and leave him better off than before he went on this anti-Tesla crusade. The ending will not be pretty for him. I would say I have not an ounce of compassion for such a cretin but he looked so tortured and sick, that would be a lie. It's sad.

No worries. I got you covered. Not an ounce of sympathy from me. He’s ugly inside and out. If I ever see him choking on his toothbrush, I’ll turn and walk away. Reap what you sow, lay in the bed you made for yourself, yadda, yadda, yadda.