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

[unk45]

And when I say copy…the manufacturing techniques which is far more valuable. The first auto company to try to use gigacasting after Tesla was a Chinese company I believe…

Is this a devil‘s bargain? Not from Tesla‘s perspective since this will indeed accelerate the world towards a sustainable future.

I largely agree, but would add a couple specific points:
IDRA was the only option for a Gigapress because their owners were brave enough to understand their potential.
Tesla contributed the alloys and implantation techniques to actually make it work.

Without the combination of Tesla engineering excellence and Chinese and Italian large machinery production and design all that could not have happened. Crucially, the Cinese approach to Capex supports deep investment in unproven but promising new technologies.

From MAGLEV to electric grids there are countless major technological innovations that work because of joint cooperation between Chinese and Western enterprises.

It’s never been a one-way street.
All the political system commentary tends to ignore tangible benefits.
I explicitly do not comment here about politics in any place.

 

[MC3OZ]

To put this in perspective. Saudi Aramco had 42 billion in profit.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/01/business/saudi-aramco-oil-profit.html

How long can Saudi Aramco sustain that 42 billion profit?

In perhaps 5-10 years time Tesla may have higher profits than Saudi Aramco.

 

[unk45]

It's not just percentages and volumes. It's tit-for-tat. Protectionism is not a US-only trait. For decades the EU has protected their auto industry from outside competitors, the French their wine industry from California Napa Valley wines, the list goes on and on. Finding "who did it first" would be nearly impossible.

Point is - no one, not the US, not the EU, win in trade wars. Obama was spot on back in 2013 when he was pressing hard for a free-trade treaty with the EU. See the article I linked previously, would work some nice wonders on inflation right about now too.

Sad that you’re not a global trade czar. Trade barriers end out harming the imposers more than they do the imposee. They’re an easy sell to jingoists and populists.

 

[Boomer19]

Can you cite some examples of other standard cases where other public megacap CEOs privately buy an entirely different company then borrows dozens of the top engineers from his public company to come work at the private one for a while to help them out?

If it's standard you should have a long list to share.

is it a big deal if employees/resources are shared across companies for special projects.
elon has mentioned a bit of this in the past and nobody seemed surprised, in fact they lauded the ability to do so.

but now since it’s twitter it’s a surprise? or even a problem? i don’t get it.

 

[unk45]

Just a reminder to make sure you have signed the Congressional petition to make the Tesla charging standard the new North American charge standard so the IRA doesn't waste millions of dollars on a bulky but inferior and more expensive standard only used by 25% of EV's in N. America. Aptera started the petition and I'm hoping this petition takes off like wildfire! Here's a link so you can sign and/or donate to get the word out faster:

This campaign needs you now

Congress: Tesla Superchargers and Plugs should be the Uâ.âS. standard for EVs

chng.it

It's absolute madness to continue propagating the CCS charging standard in N. America when 75% of EV's use a superior, less costly standard and those numbers are continuing to expand in favor of the Tesla charging standard. Please sign the petition and send links to non-TMC members!

An almost global standard has high value. Tesla already uses EU standard and Chinese ones. No matter how much US preference for Tesla plugs may be it will NOT happen. As an owner if vehicles with both there’s nomquestion that I prefer the Tesla plug. It will NOT happen.

 

[Singuy]

Must be some kind of fake pump premarket because some of these companies missed wall street expectations by 100%

Deliveries From NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto Were Dreadful. The Stocks Rise Anyway.

Delivery results for October are in from Chinese EV makers NIO, XPeng and Li Auto. They all missed Wall Street expectations, but the stocks trade higher.

www.barrons.com

 

[unk45]

You had to taunt me . . . didn't you? You get what you deserve; here's another boring chart from me:

In Q2, 2022 it was the first time that both the Energy and Services segments had positive gross margins with 11.2% and 3.8%, respectively.
Positive gross margins were repeated in Q3. Prior to this, one or both of these segments generated negative margins.
This bodes well for 2023. I'm interested in what we will see for Q4.

View attachment 869699

If this be boring I love boredom!

 

[Buckminster]

Guessing .1% of people understand that list.

That's 7 million folk in the world that Elon should probably be hiring...

 

[Discoducky]

Toyota cuts output target amid chip crunch as profit tumbles 25%

Toyota Motor Corp on Tuesday posted a worse-than-expected 25% drop in quarterly profit and cut its annual output target, as the Japanese firm battles surging material costs and a persistent semiconductor shortage.

www.reuters.com

Anyone here surprised? We’re going to see more and more of these misses from Tesla’s ‘competitors.’

Nope, but all the pomp and circumstance cited is a distraction from the real issue...this quote below is very telling as it is eluding Toyota does NOT have the engineering ability/agility to move to 'newer-type' chips (i.e. less than 10 years old). Yet another area where Tesla has the upper hand.

"He also said the supply of older-type semiconductors, that attract little capital investment currently, would remain tight."

 

[ZachF]

Back in the early '50's when the first VW shipments got to the UK, 90% of the cars were vandalised before they got to the dealership, such was the anti German feeling because of what the Nazi's had done a few years earlier.

I'm sincerely hoping people don't start taking it out on Tesla's. I've already had one leary comment at a charging point a few days ago about how can you live with yourself driving that, knowing who owns the company! Never had anyone even mention Elon before to me locally, but he's getting reported on our news channels now, generally described as a "controversial figure" or similar.

I’ll just say this as a person in the center; the extremely online woke left continuously overestimates the popularity of much of their stances. Loud =/= popular. Outside of coastal enclaves (which are now hemorrhaging population because of it btw) it is extremely unpopular. Movies and shows that push these views tend to fail miserably. People tend not to argue with them because they are by far the most intolerant to disagreement, adding to the bubble effect. In fact it’s probably the biggest risk to the left in the future.

 

[oldTAVguy]

I wondered the same thing, then I realized GM is better at marketing and advertising than they are at making cars. The best part is they are raising EV awareness and that helps all of us.

The best part is no part. Thus GM marketing efforts.

 

[ggies07]

I might have to take a break from this thread. Not nearly as informative and entertaining as it was before TWTR and politics took over.

Yeah, well, I didn't think back in 2017/2018 the CEO and co-founder of Tesla would be buying a social media platform. I would have thought that even by today he would still be focused on expanding Tesla's growth and making an even bigger name for himself in the renewable transition. Looks like he made his name in something else now...

 

[CLK350]

With this new “Context” feature, Elon is setting up Twitter as a tool to fight FUD on all topics globally. Huge benefit to Tesla is implied.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1587266665485856768

I've noticed also already some posts I tried to write which used to be flagged as disinformation and not allowed -with a warning re suspension are no longer flagged at all anymore!

I would like to venture here some thoughts/ opinions which some TMC'ers might understand better than Joe Public: Tesla's software engineers poring over Twitter code is a stupendous boon for Tesla's AI / AGI. Twitter posts processed by Dojo will not only add to Twitter improvements, it will add to Tesla AGI and timely info.

Twitter derived algos will translate soon into tangible advances in FSD and later Optimus.

Tesla FSD being able to read/ assimilate local news (local construction updates, weather info, traffic advisories, police accident reports) would add a huge information advantage to the vision-only current system.

Same later for Optimus being able to interpret better its environment/ interactive command dialogue.

Elon's current attention to Twitter isn't misplaced at all !

 

[Unpilot]

Premarket head fake?
Lucy, going to pull the football again?

 

[thx1139]

I’ll just say this as a person in the center; the extremely online woke left continuously overestimates the popularity of much of their stances. Loud =/= popular. Outside of coastal enclaves (which are now hemorrhaging population because of it btw) it is extremely unpopular. Movies and shows that push these views tend to fail miserably. People tend not to argue with them because they are by far the most intolerant to disagreement, adding to the bubble effect. In fact it’s probably the biggest risk to the left in the future.

The extremely online woke left is a tiny portion of the populace. My wife is no where near that and this morning after I got back from a trip to Texas she said no more investing in Tesla. After the tweeting of a conspiracy theory website and no apology she thinks Elon is unstable and isnt comfortable with putting more $ in until she sees stability and sanity.

 

[jerry33]

maliNgerer6753969*glimPsers

is it a big deal if employees/resources are shared across companies for special projects.
elon has mentioned a bit of this in the past and nobody seemed surprised, in fact they lauded the ability to do so.

but now since it’s twitter it’s a surprise? or even a problem? i don’t get it.

It's only a problem due to the FUD makers.

 

[jerry33]

An almost global standard has high value.

If only it was a global standard, but each region has its own take on CCS to protect the local manufacturers.

 

[Nocturnal]

Reuters reporting that the CT is delayed until late 23 according to "two people with info on the matter". This is definitely one I hope is false.

Exclusive: Tesla's Cybertruck to start mass production at end of 2023

Tesla aims to start mass production of its Cybertruck at the end of 2023, two years after the initial target for the long-awaited pickup truck Chief Executive Elon Musk unveiled in 2019, two people with knowledge of the plans told Reuters.

t.co

 

[mongo]

Reuters reporting that the CT is delayed until late 23 according to "two people with info on the matter". This is definitely one I hope is false.

Exclusive: Tesla's Cybertruck to start mass production at end of 2023

Tesla aims to start mass production of its Cybertruck at the end of 2023, two years after the initial target for the long-awaited pickup truck Chief Executive Elon Musk unveiled in 2019, two people with knowledge of the plans told Reuters.

t.co

"mass production"
Timeline is unchanged. Starting mid 2023.

 

[2daMoon]

If only it was a global standard, but each region has its own take on CCS to protect the local manufacturers.

What if Tesla increased their volume of Tesla connectors (for the car) and sold them for so much less than the CCS manufacturers that Legacy OEM's could not pass up significant savings when designing the interface for their cars?

Better yet, what if one or more stand-alone OEM suppliers were licensed by Tesla to make the connector, so the OEM doesn't have to purchase it from Tesla directly?