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

[Artful Dodger]

The CEO also continuously trout how he will under promise and over deliver

Lol, more like 'over-phishing'...

Cheers!

 

[Prunesquallor]

California politics were not always 100% aligned with Tesla, but the net-net comparison between CA and TX of all the good and the bad was, is, and will remain for the foreseeable future heavily in CA’s favor IMHO.

As far as I know, no Texas politician has cursed Elon on social media.

 

[Artful Dodger]

So when this is operational in 2025, Elon says it will produce enough lithium for ~1 million EVs annually.

So question hopefully others here can answer: why build just one of these now? Why not 3 or 5 given the amount of vehicles & energy storage Tesla plans on building in North America in 2025/2026?

Indeed, Elon continued "there is potential to expand":

"The capability we're aiming for is approximately a million vehicles worth of battery grade lithium. But the potential is there to expand beyond that number as needed."​

Modular Factories are the future of Tesla.

Cheers!

P.S. Stick around after the 15:00 min mark for comments from Turner Caldwell, Tesla Battery Recycling and Raw Materials leader. He talks about planned reductions in cost+energy use:

• 20% less energy consumed
• input reagents have 60% less cost
• all-in production cost is ~30% lower

Caldwell also addresses waste byproducts created during refining: Instead of a toxic sludge (which nobody wants) of sodium sulphate from conventional sulpheric acid refining, Tesla's new process will produce an inert byproduct, which is a mixture of sand and limestone. Turner says these byproducts will then be converted into useful construction materials (it's another Tesla virtuous cycle).

 

[2daMoon]

It seems to me as Tesla's TX presence continues to increase, the law that limits/prevents Tesla from delivering vehicles to the consumer gets more and more ironic.

Get the story straight. Obviously, Tesla can deliver vehicles to the Texas consumer.

The law prevents an auto manufacturer from direct sales, advertising, pricing, etc. of their products from a store that is owned by the manufacturer. It requires a third-party to own the "dealership" and join the cartel in order for a customer to be able to walk in, purchase, and leave with a car on the lot.

Texas customers can and do order Tesla cars online and then pick them up at Tesla Service centers.

I suspect that once the dealerships begin to fold at an exponential rate that this law will lose favor and be voted out.

 

[Prunesquallor]

There are certainly pros and cons to each location - I do not pretend one is absolutely better than the other in all regards. My statement was merely a net-net comparison. Also, this is not to question whether Texas was the correct choice for building that GigaFactory; merely a comment on the beliefs posted here by some that Texas would somehow instantly become a Tesla-friendly place, with a special session called right after the announcement, etc. Texans-the-people are different than Texas-the-politicians.

That said, if you had said “same time”, I might have agreed with you - perhaps yes perhaps no. But “double the time” is fairly generous. I do have a recollection of a certain “sprung structure” (affectionately referred to as a “tent” by some) being stood up in CA and put to good productive used *very* quickly…

Building GigaTexas is one thing. Moving corporate headquarters to Austin was a clear statement by Elon/Tesla that they saw little future in Cali.

 

[2daMoon]

Tesla was playing the Yeehaw Texas angle hard at this event. For the non-Americans who may not know, all of these flags everywhere were Texan flags, which are almost as common in the Lone Star State as American flags.

View attachment 935885

I take issue with this statement. Clearly, you miscounted on your way through Texas recently.

There are considerably more Texas flags than there are US flags. Yee-ha!

 

[InTheMiddle]

Building GigaTexas is one thing. Moving corporate headquarters to Austin was a clear statement by Elon/Tesla that they saw little future in Cali.

Perhaps. Although, it does occur to me that the move of Tesla corporate headquarters was effective December 1, 2021 per SEC filings...and a little over a year later on February 22, 2023, Mr. Musk was in California as part of launching Tesla's new Global Engineering and AI HQ back in CA. Certainly things that each state has to offer. Note that the governor of each state, from opposite sides of the political spectrum (neither is near the 'end' of their respective side, but certainly opposite sides) were at recent Tesla groundbreaking / opening events. It does occur to me that while at both there was significant mutual praise shared between Mr. Musk and the governor in attendance, at only one of those events did the governor seemingly not know the name of Tesla's next major vehicle.

 

[2daMoon]

And another thing, ALL people tell me that the tonneau cover will not slide forward above the passengers' heads when not over the bed. I saw too much crap at the top of the windshield in the last big Cyber(nota)truck true walkaround video that was not explained.)

As I recall from watching it being stowed (during the reveal?) the cover goes down past the back glass and stows under the front of the bed.

Edit: Here's a video...

 

[2daMoon]

Something to tide y'all over until the opening bell on Tuesday.

Ellie In Space got some good walk-around shots of our favorite pickup at the ground-breaking in Robstown. During one pass there's a good look at that windshield wiper everybody loves so much.

 

[ZeApelido]

Its now clear Tesla had to design the Cybertruck with a unibody exoskeleton rugged frame solely to support the massive windshield wiper paper weight.

 

[MartinAustin]

No stalks on that Cybertruck steering wheel. (I'm not yoking)

I think I saw Elon touch the screen to put it in park.

 

[insaneoctane]

Many reasons. First, you have a world wide mining and refining industry that is also building refineries so Tesla doesn’t want to build out too much capacity. I’m sure Tesla has analyzed the market and figured out that this is the correct size for now.

Second Elon doesn’t actually throw caution to the wind and go full bore all the time. Tesla does step changes and then assesses where the market is after each step change. I suspect they are waiting to see how Cybertruck, Semi and maybe gen 3 are selling before committing more money. Also by then they’ll have seen where the mining industry is.

I agree. How many times have you heard Elon and Tesla plea for others to please refine more lithium? The quantity they've chosen is likely a drop in the bucket for long-term worldwide lithium needs, but closes the gap on Tesla's short/mid term needs. I can see them expanding capacity if things don't change on the lithium refining front in a couple more years. Tesla doesn't want to do this, but they decided that they must. Soon they'll have the hard data for what it costs to procure lithium at $XX/lb and will be able to intelligently decide to secure future lithium quantities via long-term contract or building /expanding their refining operations. Many books will be written about this company!

 

[CorneliusXX]

I'm wondering who carries the debt on a new vehicle that's for sale on a Dealer lot, Banks? Same banks that are tightening Dealership money? I wonder if the rush to stuff the lots was in order to beat the banks at money tightening while OEM production got back on it's feet.

I'm seeing large inventory (from a several youtubers) of crazy high priced new trucks like Ford. Toyota included with mostly higher end inventory in the USA. So if these are priced at $80-110K a pop, and then the dealer has to eventually drop the price in order to move them, who's loss on paper is that before a sale is made? In other words, if they go upside down and still don't move off the lot, how much more could this stress those already stressed banks? Any reason for added concern, or small potatoes compared to commercial real estate dilema?

From what I have seen historically, floorplan finance is full recourse to the dealer - and dealers are, generally speaking, loaded. Probably even moreso at the moment after a couple of years charging $30k market adjustments. There are apparently loss sharing agreements between dealers and OEMs if the vehicles need to be sold below wholesale cost. Banks are unlikely to be in trouble just yet.

 

[MC3OZ]

Its now clear Tesla had to design the Cybertruck with a unibody exoskeleton rugged frame solely to support the massive windshield wiper paper weight.

No the design was based on the need to look good when carrying the flag of Texas.

 

[Artful Dodger]

Now we know where the angled design idea came from...

Wait... Tim Apple?

The gigatruck is as quiet as a mouse! - NorSea Group

yeah... that 'gigatruck' looks more like a forklift to me:

 

[Cult Member]

I think I saw Elon touch the screen to put it in park.

Why would he have to do that? Opening the door is the signal for 'go in park'

 

[JusRelax]

I didn't realize just how bad it's been for automakers not named Tesla the past week. Solving the Money Problem sums it up pretty well:

- Toyota CHEATED safety tests (on 4 vehicles)
- Ford -102% EV margins (RIP)
- BYD gave up on FSD
- VW = fooked (can’t figure out software)
- China ICE market IMPLODING
- Lucid = fooked (money furnace & can’t sell vehicles)
- Rivian bleeding $

https://twitter.com/x/status/1655851551972540416

 

[SO16]

Perhaps. Although, it does occur to me that the move of Tesla corporate headquarters was effective December 1, 2021 per SEC filings...and a little over a year later on February 22, 2023, Mr. Musk was in California as part of launching Tesla's new Global Engineering and AI HQ back in CA. Certainly things that each state has to offer. Note that the governor of each state, from opposite sides of the political spectrum (neither is near the 'end' of their respective side, but certainly opposite sides) were at recent Tesla groundbreaking / opening events. It does occur to me that while at both there was significant mutual praise shared between Mr. Musk and the governor in attendance, at only one of those events did the governor seemingly not know the name of Tesla's next major vehicle.

The way to get more people on board is to have them be financially motivated to do so. Through jobs, investments, company contracts via suppliers, etc. Tesla is doing these things in Texas just like how they are in China and therefore gains support locally. Texas is difficult due to O&G and dealership lobby, so this is a tough slog but it will happen and Tesla is doing it the *only* way, step by step.

 

[Buckminster]

Recent Tesla event was literally groundbreaking....

Shareholder meeting is a week today! Expectations amongst us bulls has never been lower for a meeting like this.

 

[Mengy]

Recent Tesla event was literally groundbreaking....

Shareholder meeting is a week today! Expectations amongst us bulls has never been lower for a meeting like this.

Yep. Despite the stock price being disappointing as it is, the company has never been stronger nor more promising than it is today.