When Elon says "we are a growth company, not profit"

[JetFalcon]

What does Elon mean when he said this, I saw it in an article recently about "we are a growth company, not profit". Is he saying he wants Tesla to focus more on making money by volume with less profit margin over higher profit margins but potentially selling less? Seems with all these price cuts here and there, it feels like you just have to hope for the best and be willing to accept if there is another price cut you could have waited on. Elon won't say buy later because I plan on reducing prices, does he truly adjust prices just for whatever he has.

At Dave and Busters, I can regularly make 3x or 3.5x my money in retail value. Since I can only redeem prizes but thankfully they got good prizes like Nintendo Switch and iPads so I feel having electronics makes arcade ticket value stronger. But I realize most big companies don't have profit margins like doubling their money, Apple is like 30% profit margin so they aren't really doubling their money, but they have alot more money and can sell more because they got volume so they will end up making more money than me even though I have higher profit margins. I could resell that iPad Air I won from Dave and Busters for a bigger profit margin than Apple but Apple will make more money. I think most day jobs have a higher profit margin if the only cost is the car and gas / electricity, I don't think anyone would take a job if the cost of driving a car only equated to 30% profit margin like Apple.

I also feel this quote from Elon Musk is similar to a NYC pizza business. Because they said their costs of rent is super high, but they have tons of foot traffic, but they sell at like $1 slice, so they barely make anything off one slice of pizza. So slim profit margins, but high volume? Is that was Tesla is going for right now?

 

[afadeev]

What does Elon mean when he said this, I saw it in an article recently about "we are a growth company, not profit". Is he saying he wants Tesla to focus more on making money by volume with less profit margin over higher profit margins but potentially selling less?

Who knows, today is 4.20.
He sounded unprepared and was spit-balling throughout the investor conference call today.
I wouldn't put it past him being high from before the call started, onwards.

 

[strider]

In silicon valley, it is common for companies to "pay for growth." The idea is that if you are moving into a market you want to capture as much of the market as you can even if it means losing money. For example, Uber loses money on every ride. Amazon also loses money in its retail business but as a company is profitable due to AWS.

Tesla wants to continue to be treated by Wall Street as a Silicon Valley growth company and not a car company. Look at the P/E ratio of GM or Ford vs Tesla and you can see why he doesn't want to be rated like a car company.

TLR, Elon is preparing everyone that profit margins are going to drop as a result of the recent price cuts.

 

[Wilber]

What’s that going up in flames? Why, it’s Elon Musk’s reputation | Arwa Mahdawi

Just as SpaceX’s Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly this month, Musk is a mess, too, thanks to Twitter’s blue ticks, writes Arwa Mahdawi

www.theguardian.com

 

[zecar]

What does Elon mean when he said this, I saw it in an article recently about "we are a growth company, not profit". Is he saying he wants Tesla to focus more on making money by volume with less profit margin over higher profit margins but potentially selling less? Seems with all these price cuts here and there, it feels like you just have to hope for the best and be willing to accept if there is another price cut you could have waited on. Elon won't say buy later because I plan on reducing prices, does he truly adjust prices just for whatever he has.

At Dave and Busters, I can regularly make 3x or 3.5x my money in retail value. Since I can only redeem prizes but thankfully they got good prizes like Nintendo Switch and iPads so I feel having electronics makes arcade ticket value stronger. But I realize most big companies don't have profit margins like doubling their money, Apple is like 30% profit margin so they aren't really doubling their money, but they have alot more money and can sell more because they got volume so they will end up making more money than me even though I have higher profit margins. I could resell that iPad Air I won from Dave and Busters for a bigger profit margin than Apple but Apple will make more money. I think most day jobs have a higher profit margin if the only cost is the car and gas / electricity, I don't think anyone would take a job if the cost of driving a car only equated to 30% profit margin like Apple.

I also feel this quote from Elon Musk is similar to a NYC pizza business. Because they said their costs of rent is super high, but they have tons of foot traffic, but they sell at like $1 slice, so they barely make anything off one slice of pizza. So slim profit margins, but high volume? Is that was Tesla is going for right now?

Elon is rationalizing lower margins. If he was serious they wouldn't be building CT. They would be targeting the huge north american better SUV and pickup market. And then selling the medium size vehicles in that class to Europe and other more affluent countries.

Tesla would also recognize the coming ceiling of 3/Y demand. There is no "inifinite demand" for what Tesla makes.

The broad strategy of what vehicles Tesla makes is not optimal and that will squeeze margins and profitability. Old and weird designs on top of excellent tech is not optimal.