Why $100 deposit for the truck and $2500 for the Y?

[MXWing]

How do you quantify how big their hands are, such that you can say they're full? The "hands" are employees. And there are plenty of people willing to be added to their payroll.

Have you hired people before?

"Output" doesn't *always* scale with additional headcount. Additional headcount doesn't even guarantee positive ROI.

9 women cannot make a baby in 1 month.

 

[EVNow]

It's not about Tesla earning interest, it's about them showing revenue to investors. They don't even have to actually deliver the truck, in a few years because this money can be used now for better projects, that make even more revenue. The idea of getting customers to invest in futures is brilliant. Even wineries are going it now.

$100 is not revenue. Looks like you are not much into finance, accounting or investing .... let’s leave it there.

 

[TT97]

Don't believe that Tesla can book deposits as income any more. Only book revenue when the vehicle is delivered, so probably no more reason to require a large deposit.

They have never been able to book deposits as revenue. Back in March 2016, Tesla only had $1.46B cash on hand so $400mm of extra cash (400,000 reservations x $1,000) made a huge difference. Now that they have over $5B in cash, they have a bigger interest in inflating the reservation count than they do funding operations.

 

[AquaMan]

Have you hired people before?
"Output" doesn't *always* scale with additional headcount. Additional headcount doesn't even guarantee positive ROI.
9 women cannot make a baby in 1 month.

Over the last 12 years at all times I've had 4 to 7 people employed by me. Every penny they're paid is money I'm not paid. My income is exactly "what's left" and sometimes that's less than my employees make.

You're not wrong. When non-business-owners suggest to me that I should "just hire more people and grow" it makes me bonkers, as if it's that easy. You can't hire people you can't pay for, and you can't pay without revenue. (Or sometimes the ability to convince a bank or investor you'll have revenue soon, or just a big wad of cash.) And new employees generally draw paychecks for quite a while before they boost productivity. And when you use existing staff to train new staff, they too become less productive.

Please bear in mind I was responding to "their hands are full", and my point was none of us on a web forum know how full Tesla's hands are, or how easily they can respond to demand. That includes me. But generally, when there's strong customer demand, these problems can be solved. I think it's unlikely, as the post suggested, that it's a good idea for Tesla to reduce their expenditure of resources working on a potentially-profitable product to focus on another.

 

[doghousePVD]

Interest on $20M is less than rounding error when you have $5.825B in the bank.

At least it pays for the broken windows.

 

[doghousePVD]

Over the last 12 years at all times I've had 4 to 7 people employed by me. Every penny they're paid is money I'm not paid. My income is exactly "what's left" and sometimes that's less than my employees make.

You're not wrong. When non-business-owners suggest to me that I should "just hire more people and grow" it makes me bonkers, as if it's that easy. You can't hire people you can't pay for, and you can't pay without revenue. (Or sometimes the ability to convince a bank or investor you'll have revenue soon, or just a big wad of cash.) And new employees generally draw paychecks for quite a while before they boost productivity. And when you use existing staff to train new staff, they too become less productive.

Please bear in mind I was responding to "their hands are full", and my point was none of us on a web forum know how full Tesla's hands are, or how easily they can respond to demand. That includes me. But generally, when there's strong customer demand, these problems can be solved. I think it's unlikely, as the post suggested, that it's a good idea for Tesla to reduce their expenditure of resources working on a potentially-profitable product to focus on another.

And most important it sometimes is nearly impossible to find the specific skills and knowledge needed. A short order cook is relatively easy. An expert who knows the idiosyncrasies of your product line and you customers is challenging at best.

 

[HankLloydRight]

I would be surprised if tesla delivers the truck in 2022. They have their hands full with the model y,semi and roadster. Oh and the necessary refresh on the model S.

I said the exact same thing in 2016 when people were saying a Model S refresh was going to happen. I said 'no way! Tesla has their hands full ramping up Model X production/deliveries, and getting the Model 3 production line built out!!!'... but sure enough, a month or two later, they announced the Model S refresh/facelift which wasn't a small undertaking. That was the last time I ever said 'can't happen, Tesla is too busy with other things'.

9 women cannot make a baby in 1 month.

Ah yes, the Mythical Woman Month.