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

[RobStark]

The free upgrades and supercharging were offered not because there was no demand; it was offered to get interested buyers to take what was available in inventory rather than wait for a custom order in October..

That is functionally a lack of demand.

And lowering of price to generate demand.

That I can sell a product in a few weeks or months that I need to sell today does me no good.

If Tesla had more demand, demand for the vehicles in stock, they would not need to lower price to get consumers to buy.

 

[scaesare]

I'm just one data point here, but I bought for the low maintenance, technology, performance, then the planet in that order. However, I just bought solar and 2 powerwalls and expect to pay a bit more on utilities. So what's up there?

Basically, I'm starting to quack like a duck and not just looking like one anymore. I'm also feeling more free from the many things we just assume are OK. Part of this is because I'm learning more on the topic (I have a better grasp for what a kWh is for example). Likewise, I didn't switch to Almond Milk because of the cows/methane problem. But when I look back, boy that was dumb. You just can't lie to the facts.

In the end, who cares how I got to renewable.

I think this underscores that Elon understood that making the products desirable, practical, and economical was critical to get beyond the "activist population" and spur mass adoption.

 

[Causalien]

So that argues rather that people don't have money to burn, since they're not buying many luxury non-Teslas.

None of these Tesla numbers make any sense except from a highly supply-limited scenario. You never see that sort of X:3 ratio or that sort of M3P/other-M3 ratio, or anything close to it.

More like they don't enjoy burning cash. Like I said, pretending to be poor is a national past time. Plus no car culture.

 

[Carl Raymond]

She needs to convince the mass of global society, the political centre ground, and work with capitalism not against it.

There’s zero chance she will bring down capitalism.

There’s an excellent chance she will fix a way that capitalism is broken (pollution is free).

If she got bogged down in nuance the core message “act now” would be diminished. Saviours don’t come along very often. Toss Greta out and we may well run out of time, if we have not already.

 

[MC3OZ]

"All you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!...You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil".

All's I'm saying, she doesn't need to convince you or me or anyone reading and writing on this forum. She needs to convince the mass of global society, the political centre ground, and work with capitalism not against it. Her language, message and demeanour is totally counterproductive to that goal.

And outside of the bubble in the wider world, I can tell you that she's coming across very badly indeed with the people that need are yet to be persuaded. I know it will make me unpopular for saying so. Oh well. We've got Q3 P&D to look forward to today. That's real action on solving the problem and turning the tide of opinion.

She is genuine and with good intentions ... those that are not convinced may only be convinced by a significant personal or financial loss.

Essentially EVs are important to displace oil, which IMO is funding a lot of the narrative which is pushing in back against action on climate change. Battery factories and R&D aimed towards EVs, will lower the cost of energy storage batteries which makes RE more competitive and helps accelerate the closure of coal..

The main game is Elon and Tesla, Greta is making a contribution with her age group, their parents and anyone with a open mind,.

But as we have seen recently, it is foolish to rely on politics, but a cheaper superior product always wins in the end, and sometimes wins quickly... Greta isn't going to cost Tesla any sales and may get some people over the line...

 

[elasalle]

DeepScale means Tesla FSD needs more help ..
Also, when does DeepScale appear in financials Q3 or Q4?

 

[MC3OZ]

DeepScale means Tesla FSD needs more help ..
Also, when does DeepScale appear in financials Q3 or Q4?

I don't know if it means they need more help....

They are perhaps just taking advantage of an opportunity to improve the efficiency of the solution.

DeepScale is a fairly small acquisition... it should be barely noticeable...

 

[CalX]

That is functionally a lack of demand.

And lowering of price to generate demand.

That I can sell a product in a few weeks or months that I need to sell today does me no good.

If Tesla had more demand, demand for the vehicles in stock, they would not need to lower price to get consumers to buy.

The upgrade was for people who already placed an order but had a delivery scheduled next quarter. They were given an incentive to take a car that was in stock but slightly different than what they ordered. That doesn't change the number of orders or demand. That's very different than giving a discount to get someone to place an order which would be trying to goose demand.

 

[kengchang]

DeepScale means Tesla FSD needs more help ..
Also, when does DeepScale appear in financials Q3 or Q4?

It's about doing more with less

 

[RiverCard]

it was offered to get interested buyers to take what was available in inventory rather than wait for a custom order in October. Elon commented that there were 110,000 net orders in Q3 - that's higher than their production rate.

Why build cars for inventory if orders exceed production capability?

 

[elasalle]

It's about doing more with less

View attachment 461675

As in Short Squeeze

 

[MC3OZ]

Why build cars for inventory if orders exceed production capability?

Because it is more efficient to build and ship in batches,,, with the temporary issue of not always having cars of the right type/color in the right locations at end of quarter...

What is more efficient is to scale back the end of quarter push, and sell those cars early next quarter..

 

[FoverM]

I consider myself conservative, and I bought a Tesla. Primarily because I am tired of smelling what comes out of the backside of an ICE and because I liked the idea of my own personal "stick it" to the countries that we are forced to buy oil from that obviously hate America and everything it stands for. Just one person's opinion of course. Buying a Tesla wasn't even remotely a political action for me.

Dan

Same here, except I bought my 3P+ for the acceleration (the primary reason), lack of transmission (gears), and ease of use. My wife, also a conservative, is about to steal my car so I'll probably get another Tesla to replace her LS460. She's totally into the ease of use and performance, which is weird because she never cared about performance before. For example, I loaned her the 3P+ the other day and when she came home she said something along the lines of, "it was a bad day at work but once I floored it at a light that all faded away". Who is this woman???

 

[3Victoria]

Because it is more efficient to build and ship in batches,,, with the temporary issue of not always having cars of the right type/color in the right locations at end of quarter...

What is more efficient is to scale back the end of quarter push, and sell those cars early next quarter..

Yes, more efficient, but given how the market views the world, it is understandable. Given the enormous task of predicting the future, getting right cars to exactly the right place at the right time is difficult. I think Tesla does a remarkably good job and improving. Logistics is not trivial.

 

[StealthP3D]

She needs to... work with capitalism not against it.

I disagree that she is working against capitalism. She is against the form of capitalism that got us into this climate crisis in the first place. Specifically, a form of capitalism that doesn't require the profiteers to pay all the costs their business activities but, instead, allow them to pass the costs onto those who didn't profit from the activity. She probably doesn't care if the carbon tax is levied at the consumer level or the corporate level because either way the net effect is the same, it raises the cost of activities to reflect their true costs.

That would actually be a purer form of capitalism than what we have. We actually do the opposite of this by subsidizing activities that already burden us with more cost than anyone is paying for. It's a very perverted form of capitalism that is driving our only home into the ground by leaving many of the costs off the balance sheet.

 

[EVNow]

Specifically, a form of capitalism that doesn't require the profiteers to pay all the costs their business activities but, instead, allow them to pass the costs onto those who didn't profit from the activity.

Capitalism is poor at handling commons. See tragedy of commons.

Sometimes you have to regulate/ ban. Taxing murder is not ok, for eg. But that is exactly what is being prescribed. Climate Change is not murder, it is genocide.

 

[avoigt]

Predictions come true. Many reasons for this but it will also be people holding back their purchase considering a BEV. Also this will have severe consequences for ICE companies now missing urgently needed funding for R&D

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Mod: @avoigt and all, you put in a comment that is unintelligible without looking at the article. Please include something about the article itself, or even just the actual title. --ggr
Grim Start to U.S. Auto Sales Stirs Alarm That Collapse Is Here

 

[StealthP3D]

If Tesla had more demand, demand for the vehicles in stock, they would not need to lower price to get consumers to buy.

That's not really true because when there is not enough supply to meet demand, long waiting lists form. Which then decreases demand (because people want to buy without planning ahead for weeks). For the last several months Tesla has been barely meeting demand in most large markets. But if there were Model 3's of every configuration and color sitting in big parking lots everywhere and you could just walk in, sign the papers and drive home in a new Model 3, I guarantee you the quarterly sales numbers would sky-rocket. Demand is not fixed but is influenced strongly by how easy it is to buy the car you want.

The demand problem you speak of is just clearing out the channels at the end of the quarter and moving the last few cars at the end of each quarter can only be facilitated by offering incentives for people to buy cars that might not be configured quite as desired.

 

[StealthP3D]

Why build cars for inventory if orders exceed production capability?

I think what you're asking is why don't they build cars to order. And the answer is building to order is not as efficient as building batches of various configurations and shipping them out to various destinations in proportion to expected demand. If they built them to order, delivery times would increase, costs would increase and demand would drop.

Basically, whenever you build vehicles in batches you are building for inventory even if they are being shipped as accurately as possible to various areas in proportion to local demand.

 

[Curt Renz]

TD Ameritade sent me an email late this evening to announce that commissions will be zero effective October 3. Their share price fell 26% today after their competitor Schwab (-10%) made a similar announcement this morning that becomes effective October 7.

I am a TD Ameritrade client, but do not own their stock. My greater concern is how this will affect the Chicago Cubs who are 100% owned by the same family that founded and still owns 12% what is now called TD Ameritrade. Will their TD Ameritrade losses today prevent them from splurging in the MLB free agent market?