TSLA Market Action: 2018 Investor Roundtable

[Cosmacelf]

8Q: Manufacturing efficiencies: Tesla versus others.

Answer: Hard to compare.

JB: most of the areas we struggled with, were areas we outsourced.So we've had to take them on and make them better.

Very rapid iteration between design and production is very helpful. Made a design change in battery models, will hit Q1, lighter, better, cheaper. [This is what they do in SpaceX, surprised it took them so long to do at Tesla].

 

[YasB]

lulz ... @BagHolderQuotes on Twitter went from mocking the longs to mocking the shorts during the conference call. That's actually pretty funny.

Bag Holder on Twitter

 

[JRP3]

See, that was easy. Another short theory down the drain.

It never should have come up out of the sewer.

 

[RationalOptimist]

JB is killing it on this call. Good to have Elon bringing him in more....

 

[Cosmacelf]

9Q: Baird: After July, how close to cash flow positive.

Deepak: It doesn't matter exactly. Over the quarter, we will be significantly cash flow positive.

Elon: We aren't running low on money.

Elon: highly confident being cash flow positive in Q3, and GAAP profitable in Q3 too.

 

[RobStark]

Elon 2020 " 750k-1M units."

Analyst "Where is extra capacity?"

Elon "Shanghai"

 

[omarsultan]

"This place called Shanghai" -- LOL

 

[gaswalla]

that guy from WSJ is a deushbag

 

[Cosmacelf]

10Q: WSJ: Do you still plan on making 1M vehicles in 2020

Elon: Yea, 1M or pretty close. Maybe 750K. Somewhere from 500K to 1M. From Shanghai factory is the boosted capacity.

600K vehicles in GF1 and Fremont by then.

Q: What about Model Y?

Elon: Laughs. No info yet. Might announce something this year ... looking to identify GF location in Europe this year, but not for sure.

 

[MarcusMaximus]

Hoping to identify GF4 location this year

 

[JBRR]

ASK ABOUT THE CHIPS!

 

[anon]

They seem unclear on Shanghai. It said 3 years in the letter, now seemingly only 2 after all from what Musk just said. I hope they issue a clarification on this later - makes a big difference!

 

[MarcusMaximus]

Hmm taking a Q from CleanTechnica

 

[graphix25]

One Million vehicles in 2020? Elon "I think so, maybe aim for 1m but somewhere between 500 to 1million, 750m maybe" Where are you going to get the capacity to do so? "Have you hear about a place called Shanghai, dohh". Where is model y going to be build? "Sorry not ready to discuss that." Is it going to be this year to announce the plan? "Maybe". "We expect to have the location selected by end of the year."

Model Y is still in the air where it will go. Sounds like Shanghai will focus on Model 3 to start as they reference a couple of times taking learning from GA4 and taking it to Shanghai.

 

[Big Earl]

10Q: WSJ: Do you still plan on making 1M vehicles in 2020

Elon: Yea, 1M or pretty close. Maybe 750K. Somewhere from 500K to 1M. From Shanghai factory is the boosted capacity.

600K vehicles in GF1 and Fremont by then.

Q: What about Model Y?

Elon: Laughs. No info yet. Might announce something this year ... looking to identify GF location in Europe this year, but not for sure.

I found it interesting that Elon included Gigafactory in these car production estimates.

 

[tinm]

Mutual admiration society between Elon and Cleantechnica...

 

[graphix25]

"Cell starved for powerwall"
Solar roof ramp coming..
Truck..
Semi..
The pipeline we all know about. Long validation program for the roof. Ramp in 2019 in Giga2. We got supper awesome stuff coming.

Model Y reservation program like Model3? "No decision have been made on that."

More complements to the analysis. Elon is being careful in what he says. Body production is the current bottleneck and his focus. 800 bodies in 24 hour period for the first time. Must be sustainable. Paint is great, GA is great.

 

[aubreymcfato]

700 solar roofs! More than I thought - did I hear well?

 

[ruralectric]

Mutual admiration society between Elon and Cleantechnica...

Our own ZachShahan!

 

[Cosmacelf]

11Q: Cleantechnica: Conquest sales. Camry sales down 23% YoY, Prius down 20% YoY.

Elon: We don't track that very well. Long term will do Model Y, pickup truck, semi, etc. Biggest limiter is how fast can we grow cell production and battery production. [Reading between the lines, they can't build everything they want without faster ramping battery supply]. Cell starved for Powerwall right now. Several hundred homes with Solarroof right now. Still working through validation issues for 30 year life.

Right now biggest constraint on Model 3 production (will be solved in a matter of weeks) is body production. First 24 hour period that we made 800 Model 3 bodies just recently.