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

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The issue with chrome, other than that it uses nickel, is that it often blinds other drivers.
The most significant challenge was likely environmental.

If @KarenRei was still here, she would likely publish a detailed post on the science of it, but lacking that here’s a link to begin reading up on it, and if interested research more.

 
True, but I don't think the chrome trim uses real chrome. It's just shiny plastic and probably doesn't have nickel in it, though I'm not sure how they achieve that look. Generally, real chrome adds mass without much other than cosmetic appeal (for some) so the cost/benefit doesn't add up, especially if nickel is needed for batteries. :)
I used to think the same as you, but was surprised to discover recently that chromed plastic parts are still actually real chrome as used on metal parts, prepared plastics are dipped and have the chrome surface applied in a similar way to metals. So they are still just as bad from an environmental standpoint.
 
As a professional artist I have to strongly disagree with you. I think the Model 3 is a beautiful, clean, uncluttered, timeless design and that beauty is not merely subjective. There's a science to it attached to an understanding of human psychology.

Human beauty is not merely subjective even with varying preferences, and often transportation design plays upon our preferences here. Those preferences are based on millions of years of evolution and sexual selection.

Example, the seductive curves of sports cars, the wide-stanced hulking 'muscles' of muscle cars, the air-slicing look of a supercar, the eyes of a car (headlights) and how that affects its 'face' or perceived attitude...all of it plays on human beauty standards and our intuitions about the world.

Why is a car 'cute' or imposing? Why are trucks made to look 'tough', appealing to males? A vehicle is your avatar on the road, and humans tend to connect to them deeply.

Why is a vehicle seen as a 'woman's car' or not? This is again related to form language as it plays on perception from a majority. The New Beetle is not the most masculine thing you could drive, nor is the Gucci trim FIAT 500. There are discrete reasons for this not lost on designers. In the U.K. the 500 might be known as a hairdresser's car but I loved my Abarth because it was cute and rorty. Trim level matters too, natch.

Why is the Pontiac Aztek so sad looking, and why was it the perfectly cast vehicle for Walter White of the amazing "Breaking Bad" series? It all comes down to how humans over large sample sizes interpret form language, bold design vs. safe and boring, color (e.g., bold primaries vs. pastels or muted Earth tones), color balance, symmetry, presence and gravitas, etc. This is why you won't see Batman driving a smart car.

To me, the Model 3 is the best looking sedan, ever. It's hard to do much when form has to follow function but Tesla has done it. However, it's very easy to ruin a design. Just look at the back end of a Hyundai Ioniq and that saggy mess when the front end is so clean and modern. Or, look at any vehicle with fake vents or cluttered form language, fussy sculpted lines, or goofy proportions like the aforementioned Aztek.

What does it even mean to say a design is 'fussy' or 'clean'? It comes down to purity of vision, form cohesion, inspired confidence, flow, rhythm, etc. In design, all of these terms apply and separate great artists from the noobs, hacks, or those lacking confidence. Worse is the art designed by committee, a blight of some OEM design centers, I'm sure.

Opinions vary, but there's a science to what humans find beautiful and it's not merely subjective. Otherwise, vehicle design wouldn't be such a painstaking process and there wouldn't be celebrated designers, right? Why with subjective design could there ever be 'bad' design? It's because humans are particular about beauty, and nobody cares about hurting a car's feelings.

The good thing is, we understand human beauty standards well enough to design vehicles that generate a predictable emotional response for most people, namely the car's target market demographic.
And the CT? What’s the aesthetic science behind that one? Human target practice? That’s how it makes me feel.
 
Maybe? Depends if there is a special meaning of "contributing" margins.
If talking percentage operating margin (OM), additional sales with gross margin (GM) higher than the OM raise the OM.
Whereas, one needs additional product GM to be higher than the baseline GM to raise that needle.
In other words, additional sales at the same GM yeilds the same GM, but shifts OM toward GM. S/X have higher GM, so those sales would shift both GM and OM upward. Conversely, reduction in those sales lower GM and OM.
Not as much as 3/Y (price-cost) changes do, but at 7k-10k units, it can have a perceivable impact.
"contributing" also raises another often ignored point: In any capital intensive industry there can be, and usually are, products that absorb capex and have the effect of reducing allocated costs per product whether the specific product appears highly profitable or not. Examples abound in the auto industry. The basic model of any brand absorbs costs that would otherwise be allocated only to higher end models. The same applies to components, with high end not having enough volume to make, say, BMS, cheaply enough, so Model 3, Y,X and S share a common BMS.

A typical example is the Volkswagen Golf. Type R and GTI would not be possible without the volumes brought by models like the 1.4 Trendline and it's cheap price. With Tesla all those principles remain, and we know the models in question.

Somehow it seems many of us have no real notion of cost accounting or fixed cost absorption, even though those are essential commonest of scale economies. Many 'analysts' and many of us bemoan Tesla price reductions without understanding the consequences of:
"Tesla Gigafactory Berlin has finally reached its goal to produce 5,000 electric cars in a single week" or: "Tesla's Giga Texas Builds 4,000 Model Ys Per Week" both quotations from 'inside EVs. That, in case we're missing the basics, means the marginal cost of Model Y is becoming cheaper every day as factories volume increase.

There are countless other contributors to Tesla increasing profitability, and we can list them ad nauseum, as we are prone to do here. Somehow despite all the evidence we still obsess over inventory levels of Models S and X even though they are consequences of the increasing diversity of Tesla product choices and, anyway, largely reflect shipping concentrations and other distribution limitations for high price, low volume models. Of course we all remember when they were the only models available, and even when Model S was the only one. Even there we miss that building costs for both have dropped with redesign, and marginal cost has further reduced with parts sharing, notably BMS plus using cells from a fully amortized factory and so much more.

Don't be surprised when the Tesla P&L arrives in a few weeks showing steady margins, greatly increased Free Cash Flow and, as we know, minimal debt.

I shall HODL but have also increased my portfolio concentration of TSLA. That had little to do with the bargain basement prices of past months, welcome though they were at the time, and everything to do with how well Tesla is positioned for recessions and other disruptions. A further risk mitigation is the diversification of sourcing and production in multiple countries insulating investors for excessively single country risk.

Note: Nothing in the foregoing is investment advice as referred to in US SIC code 6282, the UK FCA article 4(1)(4) of MiFID or other regulations since I am not in any way employed as an investment advisor nor certified as such in any jurisdiction.
 
"contributing" also raises another often ignored point: In any capital intensive industry there can be, and usually are, products that absorb capex and have the effect of reducing allocated costs per product whether the specific product appears highly profitable or not. Examples abound in the auto industry. The basic model of any brand absorbs costs that would otherwise be allocated only to higher end models. The same applies to components, with high end not having enough volume to make, say, BMS, cheaply enough, so Model 3, Y,X and S share a common BMS.

A typical example is the Volkswagen Golf. Type R and GTI would not be possible without the volumes brought by models like the 1.4 Trendline and it's cheap price. With Tesla all those principles remain, and we know the models in question.

Somehow it seems many of us have no real notion of cost accounting or fixed cost absorption, even though those are essential commonest of scale economies. Many 'analysts' and many of us bemoan Tesla price reductions without understanding the consequences of:
"Tesla Gigafactory Berlin has finally reached its goal to produce 5,000 electric cars in a single week" or: "Tesla's Giga Texas Builds 4,000 Model Ys Per Week" both quotations from 'inside EVs. That, in case we're missing the basics, means the marginal cost of Model Y is becoming cheaper every day as factories volume increase.

There are countless other contributors to Tesla increasing profitability, and we can list them ad nauseum, as we are prone to do here. Somehow despite all the evidence we still obsess over inventory levels of Models S and X even though they are consequences of the increasing diversity of Tesla product choices and, anyway, largely reflect shipping concentrations and other distribution limitations for high price, low volume models. Of course we all remember when they were the only models available, and even when Model S was the only one. Even there we miss that building costs for both have dropped with redesign, and marginal cost has further reduced with parts sharing, notably BMS plus using cells from a fully amortized factory and so much more.

Don't be surprised when the Tesla P&L arrives in a few weeks showing steady margins, greatly increased Free Cash Flow and, as we know, minimal debt.

I shall HODL but have also increased my portfolio concentration of TSLA. That had little to do with the bargain basement prices of past months, welcome though they were at the time, and everything to do with how well Tesla is positioned for recessions and other disruptions. A further risk mitigation is the diversification of sourcing and production in multiple countries insulating investors for excessively single country risk.

Note: Nothing in the foregoing is investment advice as referred to in US SIC code 6282, the UK FCA article 4(1)(4) of MiFID or other regulations since I am not in any way employed as an investment advisor nor certified as such in any jurisdiction.

As Tesla gets through the tunnel of climate change (with the entire ecosystem building up of cars + batteries + solar) and worldwide emissions go down, I expect there to likely be more positivity in the markets as the years progress. Utility-based solar+battery is going to reduce emissions by 30%+ in short order.

Just my thinking.
 
Seems like we’re seeing a classic case of buy rumor, sell news
Some of that, but not quite. This was a planned attack as usual. Reuters admitted their error (moving the goalpost with a higher expectation than Wallstreet's original), but the damage was done (orchestrated).

I'm convinced the current US Administration is OK with this as the Fed Chair tries to control inflation, and the MSM knows it. Another TSLA stock run could fuel the economy even more by having all it's employees becoming Teslanaires, as just one example. For a fact, I contributed to inflation a few years back, but have since tightened up my spends. A lot of people own TSLA. To the degree it juices inflation is all that is debatable here.
 
RIVN beat and the stock is actually down.

Sequentially less deliveries in Q1 than Q4. This will be true for most of the industry, so the increase for Tesla is quite good. I think we are going to see some pretty good market share gains once we have the full industry picture.

 
In for 50 more at $195.10 because the market is the market :)
Dude... See what you started!!!
Meanwhile, TSLA was upgraded. :D

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Damn. Etrade is now TSLAQ. TSLA is a zero. :(

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As Tesla gets through the tunnel of climate change (with the entire ecosystem building up of cars + batteries + solar) and worldwide emissions go down, I expect there to likely be more positivity in the markets as the years progress. Utility-based solar+battery is going to reduce emissions by 30%+ in short order.

Just my thinking.
I hope you are right but it really seems like the vast majority of people place their politics above the climate.
 
I hope you are right but it really seems like the vast majority of people place their politics above the climate.

I share your concerns - also if climate change disaster events continue even after the emissions drop significantly...I'm not sure how the general public is going to react. Everything else going on seems like a distraction...
 
JP Moron reiterate sell with $120PT, let's look at Ryan's illustrious history of TSLA ratings

So according to him, it was also a sell when it was $100. Smarter than me, obviously

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For those that don't know, here's a great primer on why JP Morgan Chase might not be all that Tesla-friendly:

 
The issue with chrome, other than that it uses nickel, is that it often blinds other drivers.
Even parked! My neighbor has a car they haven't driven for ages that has a chrome strip around the window that reflects the sunlight and causes me to close my blinds every sunny day.

Guess I could say something...