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

[Buckminster]

This has the smell of FUD about it:

"In a rare interview, Panasonic's EV battery boss provided a glimpse of the company's response to the larger battery cells promoted by client Tesla. Speaking to Bloomberg, Yasuaki Takamoto said bigger cells are the key to affordable electric cars, but indicated he's not convinced by Tesla's proposed cell format."

Aslo perplexing as to why a Tesla "partner" is speaking publicly like this.

Panasonic sees bigger cells as key to affordable EVs but is skeptical of Tesla format change

A top Panasonic executive told Bloomberg fewer of the larger 4680 cells would be needed, saving money; but the cells would be harder to produce and prone to overheating.

www.greencarreports.com

Pana:

What does the Wiki badge mean in the front of the thread title? I can't find a reference to the badges anywhere.

Maybe everything posted here is considered factual and automatically uploaded to Wikipedia under EV history?

 

[joh01652]

Insight: Once ‘green’ plug-in hybrid cars suddenly look like dinosaurs in Europe

Remember when plug-in hybrid cars were the go-to technology for the climate-conscious driver? Turns out, they're not good for the environment, according to some experts, and they could be phased out by carmakers in the face of tougher European rules.

www.reuters.com

According to Reuters, European finance regulations currently being drafted "would ban manufacturers from labelling them [plug-in hybrids] as “sustainable investments” beyond 2025." To be clear, the regulations aren't passed yet, they're being drafted, I'm just pointing out that at least some European regulators aren't falling for the "hybrids are clean/green" arguments from Big Auto.

"One study, from the International Council on Clean Transportation last September, said PHEVs’ fuel consumption and CO2 emissions are up to four times the level they are approved for because people do not charge them often enough.
Julia Poliscanova, senior director for vehicles and e-mobility at European NGO Transport & Environment, said its own research showed that when driven in combustion-engine mode, hybrids’ CO2 emissions were higher than conventional cars’ - they’re heavier than combustion-only cars so used more fuel."

The transition to BEVs is accelerating. Even hybrids won't be allowed to be sold.

 

[goinfraftw]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1379117042897391621

 

[30seconds]

The most interesting thing I saw in that video was that VW felt the need to paint their aluminum motor/inverter/gearbox case. I can only think of two reasons why they might have spent the money, one good and one bad:

Good: It's a ceramic insulating paint to reduce heat loss during cold weather. Normally, this would not be done because removing heat is generally a good thing to prevent over-heating but they could have designed the coolant system to take care of all thermal management and this provides more thermal efficiency and control.

Bad: During testing it was discovered their motor design generated stray electrical currents that induced galvanic corrosion so they decided to coat it to prevent water from touching the metal. This will delay galvanic corrosion until the coating fails.

Personally, I think the latter is about 4 times as likely as the former because a thermal coating that thin would not matter enough to make it cost effective.

In both cases it's an added expense that makes the car less cost-competitive.

These Munro teardowns are gold for my investment rationale. So far it looks like VW made a VW with a battery and electric motor. It isn't going to take long to see if they are doing anything to try to catch up with Tesla on the manufacturing end.

Compare with the latest teardown of Shanghi Model Y

Tesla Giga Shanghai’s Model Y Teardown Shows the Crossover SUV Is World's Most Integrated EV

Recently, Zhihu Automobile teardown of made in China Tesla Model Y and carried out a comprehensive analysis in terms of body construction technology, internal interaction, electrical system, battery safety, etc., and concluded that Tesla Model Y is undoubtedly the most integrated electric...

www.tesmanian.com

 

[cyclingthealps]

Short interest increased from the period 03/15/2021 (share price $707) to 03/31/2021 (share price $668).
The short amount stayed pretty flat in this period.

• Shares shorted from 44.730.000,00to 46.270.000,00
• Float shorted from 5,80% to 6.00%
• Amount shorted from $31.624.110.000,00 to $30.862.090.000,00

It looks like it cost them quite a bit to get the price below $600 last month.

 

[AudubonB]

Moderator Note:

The Wicca, assembled, have removed the wicked “Wiki Thread” designation.

Quite a sticky wicket, that.

Thank you for your forbearance.

PS: Did I ever relate how I was, if not instrumental at least quite influential, in getting one of the early Superchargers in Wickenburg? True story!

 

[UnknownSoldier]

Today's helpful reminder that your first tranche of 2021 Estimated Taxes is due in 2 days, on the usual April 15th. The 2020 filing date was extended to May 17th, but Estimated Taxes was NOT extended.

 

[jw934]

These Munro teardowns are gold for my investment rationale.

Did you see how he talked about FSD Beta? He said he has seen everybody else’s stuff and Tesla kicks them to the curb.

. At 35 minute mark.

 

[EVMeister]

Today's helpful reminder that your first tranche of 2021 Estimated Taxes is due in 2 days, on the usual April 15th. The 2020 filing date was extended to May 17th, but Estimated Taxes was NOT extended.

I didn't realise this was the US tax reminder thread. Guess there are enough US tax payers on this thread for that to be a helpful reminder, but I'd hope they're already aware of this deadline? After all, we're all extremely financially cautious on this thread.

 

[jeewee3000]

I didn't realise this was the US tax reminder thread. Guess there are enough US tax payers on this thread for that to be a helpful reminder, but I'd hope they're already aware of this deadline? After all, we're all extremely financially cautious on this thread.

I chuckled cause it's true.

However, whilst I feel most TMC members are US residents, I appreciate how common interests connect us from all over the world, regardless of nation, wealth, belief or background.

That is what I love most about TMC, and it gives me hope for the future of humanity. It's a large contrast between say TMC and the divisions visible in society and exploited by the media (hatred sells). The path forward for society is to focus on what connects us rather than what divides us.

#thanksTMC

 

[RobStark]

Not Best Electric Compact Luxury Sedan. But Best Compact Luxury Sedan.

The Best Compact Luxury Sedans to Buy In 2022

The segment once defined by the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class has grown to include nearly a dozen offerings. We rank all of them.

www.motortrend.com

BTW Sorry if already posted.

 

[CLK350]

We all knew there is a special/ friendly relationship between Elon Musk and VW's Herbert Diess - now more details, apparently Elon wanted to hand over the management of Tesla to VW boss Herbert Diess in 2014 according to this Business Insider article . It's in German, an approximate Google translation is here.

.. According to research by Business Insider, Diess had an employment contract from the Americans that was ready to be signed. Accordingly, Elon Musk wanted to hand over the management of Tesla to Diess. A spectacular process that Diess has so far only let in on a few people at Volkswagen. When asked, a VW spokesman said: "No comment."

Diess left unanswered why the then head of BMW development ultimately decided against Tesla. Certainly, the importance of Tesla in 2014 was not comparable to the current splendor of the most valuable automobile company in the world. "

PS. The Google translation leaves much to be desired. Anyone wants to polish it can suggest an improvement directly on the Google translate page (and here, too of course: faster)

 

[Drezil]

We all knew there is a special/ friendly relationship between Elon Musk and VW's Herbert Diess - now more details, apparently Elon wanted to hand over the management of Tesla to VW boss Herbert Diess in 2014 according to this Business Insider article . It's in German, an approximate Google translation is here.

.. According to research by Business Insider, Diess had an employment contract from the Americans that was ready to be signed. Accordingly, Elon Musk wanted to hand over the management of Tesla to Diess. A spectacular process that Diess has so far only let in on a few people at Volkswagen. When asked, a VW spokesman said: "No comment."

Diess left unanswered why the then head of BMW development ultimately decided against Tesla. Certainly, the importance of Tesla in 2014 was not comparable to the current splendor of the most valuable automobile company in the world. "

PS. The Google translation leaves much to be desired. Anyone wants to polish it can suggest an improvement directly on the Google translate page (and here, too of course: faster)

If you measure it with Teslas mission statement (to accelerate), then it might be wiser to install Diess at VW & Elon at Tesla to push both companies forward - even one-upping each other in a friendly rivalary to fulfill teslas main goal.

 

[Johan]

We all knew there is a special/ friendly relationship between Elon Musk and VW's Herbert Diess - now more details, apparently Elon wanted to hand over the management of Tesla to VW boss Herbert Diess in 2014 according to this Business Insider article . It's in German, an approximate Google translation is here.

.. According to research by Business Insider, Diess had an employment contract from the Americans that was ready to be signed. Accordingly, Elon Musk wanted to hand over the management of Tesla to Diess. A spectacular process that Diess has so far only let in on a few people at Volkswagen. When asked, a VW spokesman said: "No comment."

Diess left unanswered why the then head of BMW development ultimately decided against Tesla. Certainly, the importance of Tesla in 2014 was not comparable to the current splendor of the most valuable automobile company in the world. "

PS. The Google translation leaves much to be desired. Anyone wants to polish it can suggest an improvement directly on the Google translate page (and here, too of course: faster)

Very interesting, would love to know more about this if it in fact has some truth to it. We also know of course that in the very early days Daimler too had an active ownership position in Tesla (9% stake in 2009, cost them at that time $50 million).

If someone creates a better translation please don't change the "current splendor" phrasing though, it has a nice ring to it!

 

[lascavarian]

I believe Panasonic had a chance to go "all-in" a couple of years ago and passed. Probably a prudent/reasonable business decision at the time. Now it looks to everyone like they are stuffy and lack vision. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

Years ago I bought a basket of Tesla/EV related stocks from batteries to robots to chips to even paint protection film (vehicles with just paint on the nose). Eventually sold them all (Panasonic included) and bought only Tesla. One exception was the paint protection film which has been 15X.

Panasonic never seemed to benefit much from EV growth and exploding battery demand and an intimate relationship with the EV leader. This changed my investment thesis with EVs.

Traditionally, you can buy the comodity or the infrastructure and do well - the oil company or the pipeline company. With EVs, this did not seem to apply. This was uncomfortable but a focused investment in Tesla proved the exception.

 

[UkNorthampton]

The Nurburgring times are for only one hot lap. It's a long track but the temperatures were probably cooler. It was also not a production car.

Even given all this, I'm shocked that Porsche, a company whose name rests on it's track performance, didn't simply put in a more robust thermal cooling system to provide for track usage. This would probably only add a small number of lbs. and less than $100 to the production cost. Probably because they were squeezing for every last ounce of efficiency at the end of the design phase and a more powerful thermal management system would have a small hit to efficiency that they couldn't afford. The Model 3 is considerably more aerodynamically efficient at speed and has a more efficient drivetrain so there is a lot less heat to manage.

This efficiency makes the Model 3 incredibly fun to drive at higher speeds for longer periods of time if you are somewhere that a speeding ticket is not a concern. It just eats up the miles effortlessly and you can feel the way it slices through the atmosphere at high speeds. I realize this doesn't matter to 99% of the market (let them drive Y's) but I love it!

My emphasis above. So relaxing to drive compared to previous cars.

German autobahns & Model 3: smooth asphalt as Bjorn might say. When you go around Europe, the road quality in different countries can be very different. My family get car sick easily.

From memory, might be a bit off.

Road Quality:
Germany - incredible - 150km/h (limit of autopilot) - 160km/h cruise and 180+km/h overtaking on unrestricted sections (overtake quickly & get back in lane). No car sickness/complaints. Drive fast, charge every 2-3 stops (semi-civilised European family not using pee bottles; stretch/coffee to keep alert, kids)

Switzerland - excellent - 100-120km/h ok - some complaints above 110km/h

France - mostly very good

Belgium/UK - safer with smaller wheels/bigger tyres... can be pretty dodgy at times.

Italy - safer to straddle two lanes, road surface gone downhill since Julius Caesar. Huge areas near lane edges are near undriveable in places, even on motorways.


Norway might be similar to France/Belgium/UK, listening to Bjorn Nyland

 

[Tslynk67]

My emphasis above. So relaxing to drive compared to previous cars.

German autobahns & Model 3: smooth asphalt as Bjorn might say. When you go around Europe, the road quality in different countries can be very different. My family get car sick easily.

From memory, might be a bit off.

Road Quality:
Germany - incredible - 150km/h (limit of autopilot) - 160km/h cruise and 180+km/h overtaking on unrestricted sections (overtake quickly & get back in lane). No car sickness/complaints. Drive fast, charge every 2-3 stops (semi-civilised European family not using pee bottles; stretch/coffee to keep alert, kids)

Switzerland - excellent - 100-120km/h ok - some complaints above 110km/h

France - mostly very good

Belgium/UK - safer with smaller wheels/bigger tyres... can be pretty dodgy at times.

Italy - safer to straddle two lanes, road surface gone downhill since Julius Caesar. Huge areas near lane edges are near undriveable in places, even on motorways.


Norway might be similar to France/Belgium/UK, listening to Bjorn Nyland

Spoiler: Off-Topic: Roads of Europe

The toll roads in France are my favourite in Europe, they are easily the best maintained, although he 130kmph speed limit is a bit sluggish, the péage stops can be congested, but if you have a transponder (I do), it goes quite quickly

Roads in Belgium are dreadful, bad surface and many pot-holes, really notice the difference when you cross the border returning from any other country

UK - struggle to hit the speed limit due to all the traffic

Germany varies a lot - many of the autobahns have only two lanes, which makes the unlimited speed a bit hairy at times. The stretch from Hamburg to Flensburg has been under construction for about 15 years now, but once you clear the road-works it's a wheeze, you can sit >200kmph all the way - beware the stretches around cities where there is a 120 limit, and 80/60 inroad works, there are always cameras, but the fines are quite cheap

Denmark roads are very decent, 130kmph now (recently increased), lots of police so people don't tend to speed - the small roads in the sticks are better than the Belgian motorways..

Italy = survival of the maddest...

Luxembourg has a lovely motorway, it's basically just the one, but nice

Suisse - well maintained, but strict speed limit and many police

Holland, generally good quality, but often only two lanes and the trucks like to overtake each other with 0.25kmph speed differential, many speed cameras

On-Topic: lovely walk-down by the manips when $TSLA got a bit too hot in the 712's... We need volume to push this baby up... let's see what happens when main-pre-market opens 13CET...

 

[elasalle]

Spain to subsidise electric car sales with 800 million euros to 2023

The Spanish government has approved a plan to spend up to 800 million euros ($950 million) until 2023 to encourage electric car sales, the Energy Ministry said on Friday.

mobile.reuters.com

Apologies if already posted

 

[EinSV]

Binance Launches Zero-Commission, Tradable Stock Tokens | Binance Support

Fellow Binancians, Binance is delighted to announce the official launch of its zero-commission, tradable stock tokens, allowing the users to trade fractional stocks. Stock tokens are denominated, s...

www.binance.com

FYI, to setup an account in the USA you need to go through the web portal: Binance.US | Buy & Sell Crypto

(I'm not affiliated with them, but trying to get an account open to buy some more TSLA tomorrow)

Good luck -- but just a heads-up that multiple sources have recently reported it is taking a few weeks to get an account set up at Binance, and it may take additional time if you need to transfer in cash v. other crypto.

 

[Huskyf]

Good luck -- but just a heads-up that multiple sources have recently reported it is taking a few weeks to get an account set up at Binance, and it may take additional time if you need to transfer in cash v. other crypto.

Me 4 hours but I created last months for Crypto DOGE