What started you investing in Tesla (@Jackl1956 thread)

[Cobos]

I was interested in electric cars out of university for green reasons and because they seemed like the technical solution to many of ICE's woes. Norwegian Think was relaunching their cars at the time but it seemed stupid that they couldn't make a more peppy version, especially considering Norwegian taxes on any cars with more than 50hp.
The brother of a collegue of mine worked at Bellona (a Norwegian enviromental/green NGO) and through him his boss Fredric Hauge and me contacting Tesla saying I'm interested I got invited to a Bellona viewing/test drive of the Roadster twice. First time it was one of the engineering test cars so like the 3 or 4th Roadster built, and considering the price I chickened out on driving it. So I was a passenger with Diarmuid O Connell driving us on 5 mile loop around in Oslo.

Did some digging and it turns out I took some pictures from this ride along. The first picture is Diarmuid standing by the car in front of Stortinget (the Norwegian Parliament), the next two ones the car was moved down the hill to Karl Johan, our main street. They show the trunk and interior. I've tried to remove people that are not part of the picture, but I'm no graphical artist. These pictures are dated 7th of June 2008.

The last picture is the brother of my collegue using one of the Bellona Roadsters (I think they had 2). That is dated 16th of September 2009.

Hope you guys like them.

 

[clmason]

Would be fun to have an opposite version of this thread. “Where Are They Now” for the decade of Tesla haters, starting with Jon Peterson who was the long time voice of TSLA FUD plus the multitude of Short Fund Managers who’ve been wrong for so long. And while we’re at it, somebody please compile all the insane flip flopping that Adam Jonas has published over the years.

 

[Featsbeyond50]

A guy at my work was a car guy and he was into Tesla. That's how I became aware of the company and I added TSLA to my watch list and started casually following. The stock at that time traded in a range of about 30-50 dollars. One day the price spiked up hard on heavy volume.

I'm a lazy investor so I rely heavily on technical analysis. Rather than spending hours researching, I just look at a chart to get picture of what's going on with the company. I looked at the chart on that day; big move up on heavy volume = buy signal so I bought 100 shares at 88 bucks. Fifty in a retirement account and fifty in a brokerage account.

Then I started actually researching the company and blown away by the potential. Better product in every way, the mote, no gas stations, all that stuff. I remember talking to someone about Tesla at about this time, and he said to me "Well, you know how they achieved profitability don't you?" Not sure, I probably just stared at him. "By selling ZEV credits". He explained to me what the ZEV credits were and I exclaimed "That is so f$%#!#& awesome!". That really stood out to me because, where he saw the ZEV credits as reason to doubt Tesla's ability to be a sustainable business into the future, I saw the ZEV credits as pure gold - mostly for how they stick it to the ICE car manufacturers.

I haven't gotten rich off TSLA but it has been an amazing investment for me and my family. Honestly, I probably would have gone all in on Tesla, and become wealthy, if Elon wasn't such a loose canon.

 

[DaveT]

Congrats @EinSV and @Papafox. Thanks for sharing your stories. Also, thanks for your contributions over the years to the community!

 

[SPadival]

Would be fun to have an opposite version of this thread. “Where Are They Now” for the decade of Tesla haters, starting with Jon Peterson who was the long time voice of TSLA FUD plus the multitude of Short Fund Managers who’ve been wrong for so long. And while we’re at it, somebody please compile all the insane flip flopping that Adam Jonas has published over the years.

Just forget about the haters.. we have them under control. Most of the haters are confined to Twitter in their own bubble and where we control the narrative (with a lil help from Elon). Martin Tripp recently went bat sugar crazy, fired his lawyers and released all his case files ..

 

[heltok]

Tesla came on my radar in 2013. At that time I was studying mechanical engineering, one of my teachers who had been leading the drive train program at an automaker said hybrids were the future, not EVs. His reasons didn’t make sense to me, for me it was mostly just extrapolating what I was seeing and it seemed wrong. I started posting in the TSLA thread on another investing forum mostly just news articles, being very open to both sides. It quickly became clear that the bear side was very irrational, emotional and narrow minded. Their unwillingness to even test drive something they were shorting or considered an obvious short was pretty telling. Imo if you are gonna have a strong opinion on something that you can test for a low cost, you should test it. Even more so if there is money to be made being right or wrong.

Even though I was a student at the time I booked a test drive of a Model S. To be honest I was not mind blown, it was a great car, but I was not a car person and it was big for European roads and quality of the interior have improved since then. But it was enough to verify that Electric Vehicles were the future and right now Tesla was in the lead. Then some more debating on the internet and then suddenly the realization hit me. It was not so much that Tesla was ahead... It was that Tesla had done something totally remarkable, they had started from far behind in a high inertia race and suddenly was in the lead. Only explanation I could see is that they had some secret sauce. So I listen and read everything I could. And it became very clear, Tesla was indeed running faster than the competition. Musk’s physics first principle, willingness to take risks, silicon valley agile software development, 60h work weeks, no meetings culture, high achiever environment, Elon’s correct predictions about EV vs PHEV/FCEV/ICE, OTA, ML etc, and that the competition would hire me, but Tesla wouldn’t hire me. Heck, the competition would even hire some of my classmates...

I was well rewarded from the crypto boom and had some money to invest. Got in around $170, then over time I got more convinced and got in a lot more at around $300, very lucky that I had such a long time to accumulate shares before this rally. I have a cashout strategy where reduce my number of share by ~5% every time the price goes up 10%, if the price falls I buy back those shares. Funny side note, when I signed for a bank their KYC asked about my trading strategy, I answered “buy low, sell high”, as if that isn’t what everyone is trying to do...

Since then I have just been more and more convinced. Every week we read about the latest bear thesis, the latest thing that Tesla was struggling with, but every weakness is turned into a learning lesson and later a strength for the company. They are antifragile in that sense. If they struggle with automation, which is totally reasonable given their CAGR, they outright buy the experts, do more inhouse and later we see the results in Gigafactory Shanghai ramp etc. We see so many 10%+ improvements relevant for customers such as number of superchargers, supercharging rates, range improvements due to superbottle/octovalve, single frame casting, HW3, HW4, Deepscale, Dojo, 4D and soon Maxwell etc. If Teslas were a bit more expensive(purchase price, time, risk of dying etc) than ICE for use case X a few years ago, about parity now, soon they will be cheaper and they still keep improving. The number of usecases where it makes sense to buy a Tesla will just explode and once a new technology is cheaper the replacement will go much faster than what we humans intuitively think, it has done so in the past and things move even faster today.

I used some of my profit to pay cash for a new Model X, partly because I don’t want to die in car accident and partly to do market research. Tesla is my largest position, like 30% of my net worth. Cybertruck reservation, even a Model Y reservation I am not sure if I will use or if I will keep the X.

 

[TSLAX]

First of all, I want to thank all of you who have contributed so much valuable information here on TMC. I read TMC everyday and it has been instrumental in keeping me in this stock since Jan. 2013 along with my devoted brother who is an owner of an Model S, Model X, and Model 3 plus Tesla solar panels on his home and office building.

My story:
My brother followed Tesla back in 2011. He saw the Model S and said "I am going to put a deposit on that car" and "it could be a big mistake" but "I think this guy Elon Musk will build a great car" If Elon Musk can build rockets, then he can manufacture a car.
My husband and I arrived in Southern Ca. in Dec of 2012 for Christmas with my brother and his family. Tesla asked my brother if he wanted to get his car in 2012 instead of early 2013. He said yes! And so on Christmas Eve we all headed over to Tesla Santa Ana. Not many people were there .....only the early adopters and perhaps borderline crazy people getting the first 2500 production Model S vehicles. We all jumped in the car and rode away from the service center and said to ourselves "OMG this car is AWESOME" and "this company is going to make it!"

We all studied the car for a week and saw that it was the real deal! When that dark blue Model S P85+ proved itself to my brother, he immediately bought stock. When we arrived back to the East Coast, we bought TSLA stock too. My husband said "throw some money at this one". THAT was a LIFE changing moment. As some of you have said here on TMC you were "in the right place at the right time" and I FEEL exactly that same way. My brother, his family and my family have been the biggest advocates of TESLA. We have sold so many cars through word of mouth/test drives/educating folks it is not even funny. Between all of us we own 5 Teslas and have 2 Cybertrucks on order.

I first bought at 38. After a bad earnings call in Feb 2013, bought more at 34. AND more at 42, 48, 52. I remember in May of 2013....Elon announced he was going in big at 91. I bought more. And more at 134. Then there was a big rally that summer WOW!!! I have accumulated on dips....and never bought over 295. I have never sold a share. And neither has my brother. We are all in it for the long term and try to do our part in keeping tesla stable.

Thanks again to you all! Some of those early dips were tough to take along with the Solar City days! My converted SCTY shares have gone well into the green now and It has been an exciting run! I believe in this company more than ever..............And boy did we take a lot of SH.........from people who did not believe in tesla throughout the years. WE have been vindicated! Feels good............

 

[ggr]

Mod: I unstuck this thread, but it can be found easily enough.

 

[jkirkwood001]

Thanks @Jackl1956 . Your devotion to Tesla as a proxy for your grandkids touched me deeply years ago. I have twin granddaughters too.

My story starts fairly late in the game. Background: I'm a tech consultant who has tended to be ahead of the curve over the last 30 years. But until a couple of years ago, I was convinced that developments in cars were barely incremental. Until recently, I owned a Suzuki SX4 for practicality (cheapest 4WD to reach the family cottage in winter) and a 2007 Miata for summertime fun. I'd never spent more than CA$18,000 on any of ~8 cars I've bought in my lifetime. I believe a car is the worst "investment" you can make as a big, depreciating asset, so mostly I'd bought used cars at the sweet-spot of 2 years old and ~40% post-depreciation. I'd heard of Tesla, but knew almost nothing about them, or about Elon. Lastly, by choice, I rent, so I have almost no material assets, but I have 7 figures invested. I had followed a strict and profitable ETF / index fund model which balanced Cdn / US / Global / bonds. I kept it simple with no "bets" on specific companies.

Fast forward to 2017. A friend of mine is in an accident, her car is totalled, and she needs to buy a new car. I said "Ooo! Can I help do some research for you? I like doing car research!". She says yes. After a bit of work, I ask her, among other requirements, does she care for a hybrid? She says, "sure, I guess that would be good". So I start looking at Prius' and the Mitsubishi PHEV, the upcoming Hyundai / KIA models, etc. - but so many compromises. Then I see the rarer reviews of BEVs like the BOLT and the LEAF. Oh, yeah, there're expensive Teslas too. What are those all about..?

The more I learn about Tesla and Elon, the more blown away I am by how much (and how many!) paradigm shifts are involved - powertrain, design, autonomy, manufacturing, distribution, advertising, solar, SpaceX, Boring, etc. I was a big believer in Windows 95 when the business establishment was dismissively saying "a mouse and fancy graphics just slows things down - nobody wants that!". I digress.

So the more I learn, the more I'm convinced how inevitable the shift to electric will be. As a strong environmentalist, I'm amazed at how ignorant I've been at this company and the viability of this option. Despite having two cars already, in January 2018 I excitedly put down a deposit on an AWD Model 3! I figure if I truly care about the world my granddaughters will inherit - put your money where your mouth is! Show them!! The 3 will cost me 5 times more than any car I've ever bought before - yikes! My friend ends up buying a hugely-inefficient Subaru Crosstrek to drive just herself around. Pfft.

As I'm waiting for Model 3 production to ramp up and Canadian deliveries to start, I read Elon's biography during a 2-month trip through South America (see day-hiking supplies below) - despite trekking in beautiful Patagonia, I'm obsessed by Musk-on-the-brain!! My contracting work is going really, really well, so I buy my first shares in March 2018 @$256, vowing this individual stock will never exceed 10% of my portfolio.

Over the next year, I buy more shares, with "unfortunately" having the most free cash available when Elon tweets about going private. I'm bummed for months for buying "high" at $363, but of course those shares have quadrupled in a year. I sold 5% once to buy a fantastic electric-inspired artwork, but I've kept 95% of my shares and am glad to have broken my 10% rule - TSLA is now worth 33% of my portfolio and I could easily retire today.

Postscript: I picked up my red Model 3 in September 2018 and have completely loved it like no other possession I've ever owned. I did a 7,500 mile trip from Ottawa, through Texas, to Mexico, up to California and back in 3 weeks.

Be well.

 

[adiggs]

I’d love to hear your stories. What led you to invest in tsla?

I'd begun following Tesla in '11 or '12, just passively. Then I watched the Model S delivery event where the first few cars were delivered, and that got me emotionally (people waiting years, putting down big deposits, on the hope that a dream wouldn't just die, and that the resulting car would be 1/2 as good as Tesla said it would be; turned out it was better).

Then, somewhat randomly, the regular "check on your progress towards retirement" thing came around at work, and I went and did that. First time in my life that it didn't end with that evaluation laughing at me . For some whimsical reason, I ran it again and took out $100k for a Model S (you know - just playing around). And it still wasn't laughing at me.

That led to the notion I'd never had before - it appeared that I could afford a $100k car. AND, if the people that could afford to drive something like a Model S chose not to, then how were we ever going to get an EV industry that could produce quality EV's at every price point? There's a lot that I couldn't (and can't) do personally about a lot of problems, but at least on the environment, I could lower my own personal carbon footprint; that was something I COULD do. And we could get solar panels to offset more of our carbon footprint. I could do that.


Which meant that I had to do that. Then I test drove the Model S in early fall of '12. Might have been the first Model S test drive car the Portland store had, and it was difficult to get a test drive back then. Turns out a Signature Model X reservation smoothed right over those difficulties. And zowie - what a car. I'd never driven anything vaguely like that. The regen braking, the acceleration, the smoothness and response. It was life altering (for me anyway).

I think that was my iPhone moment (I never had an actual iPhone moment). The product matters, and WOW what a product. My wife and I invested soon after that and we have (with great ease) held those shares through ups and downs ever since.


It's why I tell anybody that wants to take a position (bull or bear) in TSLA, step 1 is test drive the car. And if you're going to invest for the long haul, I consider ownership to be a necessity (at least if you can swing it). Because you'll be driving the #1 reason for owning a piece of the company every day, reminding you just why you've invested in the first place.

 

[Christine69420]

So many different and similar stories! Mine should be familiar to many of you.


I always loved the idea of Tesla. But thanks to work trouble I could not afford one for many years. But things picked up - and a couple of years back I bought a nice used TMX. At that point I had tried friends cars so I knew the cars were great!

Six months later while driving it dawned for me that this car is in a league of it's own. If I should invest in a single share this is it! When I came home I logged on and bought TSLA for most of my cash savings.

Eventually I converted almost all of my index funds into TSLA. And continued to buy shares with my paycheck until the share price ran away from me. If we get a stock split I will resume this monthly buying.

 

[Papafox]

I'd begun following Tesla in '11 or '12, just passively. Then I watched the Model S delivery event where the first few cars were delivered, and that got me emotionally (people waiting years, putting down big deposits, on the hope that a dream wouldn't just die, and that the resulting car would be 1/2 as good as Tesla said it would be; turned out it was better).

Then, somewhat randomly, the regular "check on your progress towards retirement" thing came around at work, and I went and did that. First time in my life that it didn't end with that evaluation laughing at me . For some whimsical reason, I ran it again and took out $100k for a Model S (you know - just playing around). And it still wasn't laughing at me.

That led to the notion I'd never had before - it appeared that I could afford a $100k car. AND, if the people that could afford to drive something like a Model S chose not to, then how were we ever going to get an EV industry that could produce quality EV's at every price point? There's a lot that I couldn't (and can't) do personally about a lot of problems, but at least on the environment, I could lower my own personal carbon footprint; that was something I COULD do. And we could get solar panels to offset more of our carbon footprint. I could do that.


Which meant that I had to do that. Then I test drove the Model S in early fall of '12. Might have been the first Model S test drive car the Portland store had, and it was difficult to get a test drive back then. Turns out a Signature Model X reservation smoothed right over those difficulties. And zowie - what a car. I'd never driven anything vaguely like that. The regen braking, the acceleration, the smoothness and response. It was life altering (for me anyway).

I think that was my iPhone moment (I never had an actual iPhone moment). The product matters, and WOW what a product. My wife and I invested soon after that and we have (with great ease) held those shares through ups and downs ever since.


It's why I tell anybody that wants to take a position (bull or bear) in TSLA, step 1 is test drive the car. And if you're going to invest for the long haul, I consider ownership to be a necessity (at least if you can swing it). Because you'll be driving the #1 reason for owning a piece of the company every day, reminding you just why you've invested in the first place.

I also did my test drive in Portland, and it was right after the store opened. I spent quite a bit of time talking to a really nice and knowledgeable guy who turned out to be George Blankenship. Loved the car and ordered immediately after. It was a 2500 mile flight from Hawaii, but well worth it!

 

[TechnoMage]

We bought a few shares years ago based on it being an EV company worth watching. After autonomy day my interest ramped up, and we started buying in on a monthly dollar cost average basis. Continuing to move money from bonds to Tesla as the risk level of the company reduces. We plan to hold for a decade at least.

first time I drove one, was taking our Model Y home. Wish I had invested more earlier.

 

[Fossil Fool]

Greed

 

[ddrmr]

What led me to invest in tsla:

Early in 2012, I was working in Beverly Hills and Bel Air. I met, in the course of my work, three very wealthy men. Each of these men drove a Tesla Roadster. Being what I would describe as gear head, a car guy if you will, I asked each of them about their Roadsters. To the man, they advised me to buy stock in Tesla Motors.

That summer I was given the chance to drive a Model S. Instantly wowed, I spoke to my girlfriend about buying the stock. I wondered aloud, how many folks could afford a car in that price range. At that time she was working at Bloomingdale’s in Century City. She told me straight away that she sold $14,000 handbags, and that there were plenty of folks in Los Angeles alone that could afford a Tesla.

As I began to delve deeper and deeper into Tesla, I learned of their purchase of the NUMMI plant at Fremont. I had worked at the plant, when Toyota was there, as a construction electrician, building motor control centers. Having first hand knowledge of the Toyota plant, I was stunned at the technology difference when I toured the Tesla plant. Toyota was not a slouch at manufacturing — Tesla was a quantum leap forward.


For me it was direct exposure; a personal proof of concept. As I’ve told my friends and family, I was at the right place, at the right time, and met the right people. Smart luck.

I’d love to hear your stories. What led you to invest in tsla?

I am not a very smart investor! despite having an accounting background, I don't really check P&L, company valuation or any of the important things that go into making an informed purchase. I buy stocks in companies whose products I use. My first computer was an Apple IIe. I earned a living for 35 years as a handyman, so I bought Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, and John Deere! I bought a Tesla Model X 2 1/2 years ago, so I bought TSLA!
Like you, I might have a customer who actually does market research, so I would ask, "What are you buying these days?" Because of that I added some IBM, mutuals and sought some diversity. I was basically ignored by my Merrill-Lynch guy because I was so small beans. I would save up $5,000 and buy something. I got tired of either being totally ignored or "advised" to sell my Apple, etc. and buy some of their proprietary funds. After 15 years of that I bailed totally and opened an Ameriprise (Now TD Ameritrade) account.
Trump was elected and it all took off! I stayed invested during down turns and, sometimes, considered it a sale and bought more!

 

[Earthpower]

A friend who was an early investor (2011?) told me about Tesla. Not convinced yet, I read a Musk biography in 2015/16. Years ago I had driven a hybrid stick fleet vehicle for work trips and thought it was a much better car to drive than pure ICE. I had also seen the film "Who killed the electric car." Around 2017 I had a model S for a weekend. It felt like a car from the 22nd century! (Granted I had been driving a 12 year old BMW!). I was obsessed with the model S, my friend was still on board, so I invested in the company. My first hand experience with the product really did it. Then I bought a M3.

 

[jnhashmi]

Impressed, to say the least, after a Model 3 test drive, I thought "this company is going to change the world". I researched the stock and saw that it was about $100 below it's peak at the time. That's all I needed to know to feel it was a good buy. I bought stock within days after the test drive, even before I made the final decision to buy one. It turned out to be a great decision.

 

[Spence]

What led me to invest in tsla:

Early in 2012, I was working in Beverly Hills and Bel Air. I met, in the course of my work, three very wealthy men. Each of these men drove a Tesla Roadster. Being what I would describe as gear head, a car guy if you will, I asked each of them about their Roadsters. To the man, they advised me to buy stock in Tesla Motors.

That summer I was given the chance to drive a Model S. Instantly wowed, I spoke to my girlfriend about buying the stock. I wondered aloud, how many folks could afford a car in that price range. At that time she was working at Bloomingdale’s in Century City. She told me straight away that she sold $14,000 handbags, and that there were plenty of folks in Los Angeles alone that could afford a Tesla.

As I began to delve deeper and deeper into Tesla, I learned of their purchase of the NUMMI plant at Fremont. I had worked at the plant, when Toyota was there, as a construction electrician, building motor control centers. Having first hand knowledge of the Toyota plant, I was stunned at the technology difference when I toured the Tesla plant. Toyota was not a slouch at manufacturing — Tesla was a quantum leap forward.


For me it was direct exposure; a personal proof of concept. As I’ve told my friends and family, I was at the right place, at the right time, and met the right people. Smart luck.

I’d love to hear your stories. What led you to invest in tsla?

I’ve always been interested in cars and kept up with technological developments. I was aware of Tesla when the roadster came out, then in maybe 2013 I was on vacation in Manhattan and, looking for something to do, suggested to my then wife that we stroll over to the nearby Tesla dealer to test drive the new model S.

We didn’t even actually get to drive the car, but were given a ride around for a few minutes- impressive enough, but then I saw the bare chassis on display, and was blown away by the engineering- seeing the simplicity, I ‘got it’. My then wife, who was by no means a “car person“, but is a credentialed interior designer, fell in love with the elegance of the design both visually and mechanically.

I can’t imagine ever spending that much money for a car, so we didn’t buy a model S but I started following the company after that… and when there was a fire in one of the cars and the stock took a hit we bought what we considered to be a prudent amount of Tesla shares at $140. I’ve made way more than enough on those shares to afford a brand new model S but can’t get myself to sell any shares
... it sat there flat for so long, and now I see nothing but upside for the stock.

I’m still driving my 1996 Tacoma.

 

[ecospider5]

What led me to invest in tsla:

Early in 2012, I was working in Beverly Hills and Bel Air. I met, in the course of my work, three very wealthy men. Each of these men drove a Tesla Roadster. Being what I would describe as gear head, a car guy if you will, I asked each of them about their Roadsters. To the man, they advised me to buy stock in Tesla Motors.

That summer I was given the chance to drive a Model S. Instantly wowed, I spoke to my girlfriend about buying the stock. I wondered aloud, how many folks could afford a car in that price range. At that time she was working at Bloomingdale’s in Century City. She told me straight away that she sold $14,000 handbags, and that there were plenty of folks in Los Angeles alone that could afford a Tesla.

As I began to delve deeper and deeper into Tesla, I learned of their purchase of the NUMMI plant at Fremont. I had worked at the plant, when Toyota was there, as a construction electrician, building motor control centers. Having first hand knowledge of the Toyota plant, I was stunned at the technology difference when I toured the Tesla plant. Toyota was not a slouch at manufacturing — Tesla was a quantum leap forward.


For me it was direct exposure; a personal proof of concept. As I’ve told my friends and family, I was at the right place, at the right time, and met the right people. Smart luck.

I’d love to hear your stories. What led you to invest in tsla?

I had a reservation on a model 3 and had $7000 for my down payment. When tsla went below $180 in 2016 I figured if they were able to produce the model 3 the stock would go up. If they didn’t produce the model 3 I wouldn’t need the down payment. So I purchased $7000 in tsla.

 

[TSLAX]

A few corrections to my earlier post:
My brother first saw the Model S at a 2009 Space X Event called "amped up".
His first Model S was a P85, VIN 26..... and he did take it early in 2012. A woman rear ended him! P85 was totaled. And he got another tesla, a 2017 P100D Model S.
Service/Delivery Center was in Costa Mesa......

LOL! I think did pretty well based on my memory from 7.5 years ago.