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I hope Earnings are out earlier too...but for the ER to be published earlier, not only does Zachary have to get better at closing the books, the auditors (PwC) have to improve their audit process.

Last year, the Q4 earnings were released on Jan 30 and the 10K issued on Feb 19.
The PwC Audit Report is dated Feb 19th, but the Jan 30th Earnings press release was signed off by PwC as well.
PwC substantially completed the audit last year by Jan 30th (allowing the earnings announcement). From there until Feb 19, PwC audited the "Notes to the Financial Statements" and the rest of the 400 page 10K Annual Report.
So, to get earnings out by Jan 20-24, PwC has to get there act together as well.
I think the best we can expect is Jan 24th but Jan 27-29 is likely.
It has never not been on a Wednesday after the closing. 22nd (90%) or 29th (10%) is my bet.
 
That is a big Cybertruck reveal.
tesla.com Competitive Analysis, Marketing Mix and Traffic - Alexa.png
 

Good video from Dave ... explains the benefits very well.
@MC3OZ thanks for posting that.

I think the China-designed Tesla car might just be the gen4 car that I’ve referenced many times in the past. And perhaps they can get the price down to near $25k which would be remarkable. It would be by far their best-selling vehicle.
 
@MC3OZ thanks for posting that.

I think the China-designed Tesla car might just be the gen4 car that I’ve referenced many times in the past. And perhaps they can get the price down to near $25k which would be remarkable. It would be by far their best-selling vehicle.

I doubt it. Tesla designs cars 4-5 years in the future. The China car will be radical, as was the CT. As far as we know, the Chinese design center doesn't even exist yet.
 
The problem is that they just don't get it. Tesla at $200? Ridiculous! Tesla at $400? Doubly ridiculous! Tesla at $800? Quadruply ridiculous! The rising SP just makes them all the more eager to short it because they don't understand why people invest in the company. And as long as they fail to understand that, they're going to keep losing more and more money.

For those that don't understand, a nice encapsulation by StMP:

 
I don't think that signifies anything. Elon Musk has umpty-ump tweets to him on every subject imaginable. I think that often, when he wants to say something, he just searches for a tweet to respond to. That way he gets to say what he wants to say and be responsive and interactive for free.

Not that he doesn't often respond to tweets in the flow of things, but I don't think you can really distinguish meaningfully between announcements and responses.

Exactly, and the user he replied to had no connection to Elon other than Elon liking one of his tweets long ago, which probably made his subsequent tweets more prominent in Elon's Twitter feed. Elon didn't follow him, so it wasn't in his regular feed, but in the comments to Elon's tweet about fonts.

My guess: Elon saw the FSD question, of which there are numerous in every single comment section of Elon's tweets (really, just check it), and yesterday Elon decided that it's time to post a small update about feature-complete FSD, on a weekend, outside trading hours: "soon".

IMO it's absolutely an announcement, possibly subject to the Elon time dilation factor - but best-case the HW3 based City Navigation FSD update could start rolling out to the early access program in as little as a few days. HW3 is already active via the visualization preview, and Tesla is probably already collecting broader city driving object recognition feedback from the fleet.

If the City Navigation update goes well I'd also expect a price hike of FSD from $7,000 to $8,000, conveniently timed to the Q1 end of quarter push, I.e. a "FSD price will increase on April 1 (this is not a joke)" type of announcement by Elon sometime in February-March.
 
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New Gigavideo:


Lots of new construction, land prep, and parking lot demo going on, but two things that people might miss.

1) The buildings on the northeast side that would have been in the way of the Y line? They're being demoed :)

upload_2020-1-12_8-53-10.png


As a reminder of what used to be there:

upload_2020-1-12_9-9-30.png


2) There's a foundation for something heavy being built in the building adjacent to the press line. Perhaps it's a second press line, to support the Y?

upload_2020-1-12_8-54-56.png
 

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@MC3OZ thanks for posting that.

I think the China-designed Tesla car might just be the gen4 car that I’ve referenced many times in the past. And perhaps they can get the price down to near $25k which would be remarkable. It would be by far their best-selling vehicle.

Thanks, it was a very well thought out video.

I see the Gen4 cars as important, even in a world with working Robo-Taxis, there are some Robo-taxi jobs Gen4 cars can do.

If Tesla are eventually making 20 Million cars per year, then my guess is at least 5 Million will be Gen4.

It may take a few years to get the design done, but both Tesla and China have a track record of moving fast... and I have no doubt about the talent available in China, Germany and the US. So while Chinese staff will do most of the work, I'm sure German and US staff will help and they will start from existing knowledge and existing components..

Keep in mind the battery can be smaller and perhaps higher energy density, the car will be smaller and lighter, there are efficiency gains and cost savings at this end of the scale .. with smart design, talented people, and existing knowledge.

And in terms of using raw materials efficiently, every vehicle should be sized for the job it does...

Apart from making money, the aim is to retire the ICE fleet ASAP, Gen4 is compatible with both aims.
 
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Yes, the Cybertruck reveal seems to have had a very significant effect on the traffic rating potentially amplifying demand for the current vehicles. Also Tesla has apparently achieved 1337 status.

This explains the lack of any "end of quarter push" special deals in Q4: almost all inventory not bolted down was sold by December 31. (And there are rumors of Elon running around with a bolt cutter.)

This should help Q1 too, because fewer people will now wait until end of March in the hope of price cuts, making it difficult for Tesla to manage the "wave".
 
If the City Navigation update goes well I'd also expect a price hike of FSD from $7,000 to $8,000, conveniently timed to the Q1 end of quarter push, I.e. a "FSD price will increase on April 1 (this is not a joke)" type of announcement by Elon sometime in February-March.

This! Spot on. Wouldn't be surprised to see FSD option @ $10k by the end of 2020.
 
New Gigavideo:

Lots of new construction, land prep, and parking lot demo going on, but two things that people might miss.

1) The buildings on the northeast side that would have been in the way of the Y line? They're being demoed :)

2) There's a foundation for something heavy being built in the building adjacent to the press line. Perhaps it's a second press line, to support the Y?

The amount of activity is phenomenal compared to when the China GF was being constructed. Now, swarms of brand new Model 3's charging up for their new owners and being staged for delivery. That alone would scare the *holy water* right out of me if I was sitting on a short position right now! Now it looks like the Model Y is going to hit the market earlier than expected worldwide.

Oh, wait, that's right, I heard they lose money on every car they make and the more cars they make, the more they lose. Whew! ;)

Jokes aside, that has me thinking. Even though Elon said the GF3 margins per car will be similar to Freemont, what do you think are the chances for an upside surprise? After all, he did say that after he switched to his "under-promise and over-deliver" mode.:cool: Also, the Yuan has been strengthening since last summer which makes the cars more valuable in USD. That's probably one reason they were able to reduce the sales price in China recently but it looks to me like it will continue to strengthen in the coming months.
 
1) The buildings on the northeast side that would have been in the way of the Y line? They're being demoed :)

Thanks for highlighting this. Is there any info that the Model Y production will be build there?
I know Tesla likes to build parking lots just to demolish them a month later (and I'm fine with that), but isn't it more logical to build the Y building in the south-east corner (upper right in the below image). There is land preparation going on for more than a month now and they demolished the container and car storage lots there.
The south-east building in the render is longer and has no stamping "module". Its paint module is adjacent to the southern stream hub building (which is next to the energy hub).
This means more parallel lines for the Y are possible, (if the paint shop can keep up).

Either way, the stamping module of the Model 3 building would just be adjacent to the start of the BIW line of the Y building.

Pile driving for the Model 3 building stared in January 2019, so a muddy ground does not matter for that :)

3d_model_finished_late2019.jpg

source: Jay in Shanghai on Twitter

2) There's a foundation for something heavy being built in the building adjacent to the press line. Perhaps it's a second press line, to support the Y?

Yeah, I think so too. In the above render, the stamping module is longer than it currently is built. This extension would fit the render.
 
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New Gigavideo:


Lots of new construction, land prep, and parking lot demo going on, but two things that people might miss.

1) The buildings on the northeast side that would have been in the way of the Y line? They're being demoed :)

View attachment 499262

As a reminder of what used to be there:

View attachment 499265

2) There's a foundation for something heavy being built in the building adjacent to the press line. Perhaps it's a second press line, to support the Y?

View attachment 499264

3) I counted 8 trailers loading M3s, presumably to bring to a delivery center. Six cars at a time, so that means 48 cars being simultaneously sent off to a delivery center at the time of filming.

4) So many buses! I assume these are for transporting employees to and from the factory?