natnut

He makes a good point that no actual physical battery was unveiled on Battery Day.

natnut

EZZ

Hahaha. He really doesn't understand how to read a financial statement. If Tesla sold the cars at a loss, it would have a negative gross margin. In fact it has a healthy gross margin and profits are eaten by an aggressive expansion policy (build many many new factories) and an aggressive borrowing policy (because debt is cheaper than equity). In fact they make a positive operating profit last quarter without the credits but net income was negative due to their interest payments.

Sure the credits helped in the past but it's really just a means to help fuel it's ridiculous growth trajectory. Please just read their own financial statements to understand that they don't lose money selling cars

natnut

She makes a good point that Europeans( and maybe the global market) buy EVs out of frugality rather than for Green cred or love for cutting edge tech.

That means Tesla cars' superior acceleration evaporates as a major selling point or advantage over legacy automakers' EVs. They don't have to match Tesla cars' performance to compete or outsell Tesla. They just have to be fast enough for daily driver functions. After that, Tesla cars' high selling price start to work against them.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

tesla semi - where is it?
tesla new roadster - where is it?
tesla cybertruck - where is it? (completely absurd design) - video's part at 13:00 is epic
tesla roof tiles - know anyone who has them?
tesla s/x sales - pretty dead

tesla's operating off 3/y sales, which is great, but they are vulnerable. but the EV market is so new, there's tons of room for growth, even if new competition comes along, if anything that helps tesla by validating the market.
again compare to apple - iphone sales didn't diminish as other smartphones became available.

meanwhile, i'm sure new features like external fart sounds will increase sales though.

mmarshall

You misunderstand some of them....they are not proclamations in the sense (or kind of demise) of what Biblical prophets foretold.

Incorrect. Some of what was said earlier has indeed come to pass, although the Model 3 and its huge sales saved the company from worse trouble. The stock price is admittedly sky-high...but it doesn't reflect the true state of the company. The pandemic has also had an effect, just like it has with other auto manufacturers.


No one is "betting" anything LOL...unless you call buying stock a gamble.

Toys4RJill

Tesla has a tiny 1% profit margin as well...

RNM GS3

Tesla has a GPM of 16.5%.
It also has double digit growth in revenues YOY and EBITDA.

They are at least 10yrs ahead of any other automaker on EV tech and autopilot.

Institutional Investors are not stupid and there is ton of big $$$ going into Tesla.

LeX2K

Criticisms of Tesla almost always come from an emotional point of view not a technical one. Elon is a bad man, Tesla buyers are a cult.

EZZ

The ones that get me are the so called car experts that opine on things they obviously don't understand like financial statements

To say that Tesla loses money on every car they sell is completely asinine.

LeX2K

This extends to all aspects of the company. They don't understand what Tesla is doing with software and computing hardware, batteries, castings....
Even if true it would be easy to understand and even expected Tesla is building factories faster than any company I've ever seen. They go from dirt to production in 1 year. Notice when build out costs are brought up the critics never acknowledge it? Why is that?

EZZ

They actually make great money on every car they sell. Their gross margins are very good and their equipment isn't even fully depreciated. Again, if they had no more factory expansions with more moderate R&D like other auto manufacturers, they would easily have much higher margins but they spend everything they make to drive their growth.

All Americans should be extremely proud that an American company can drive such innovation and disruption to an entire industry in such a short time.

LeX2K

You must loath Toyota constantly talking about their solid state batteries.
Doesn't matter how many times you point this out, next Tesla thread or even in this one we'll hear about the "1% profit" or some version of.

natnut

natnut

This is as objective an assessment as I can make.

I think Tesla should be applauded for taking EVs somewhat mainstream and into the public conversation and forcing governments to alter actual public policy. That is true power and influence.

However I do think Tesla made a fatal mistake by not partnering with a mainstream automaker when the window of opportunity was open a few years ago. Now it is beyond evident that Tesla has a target on its back and every major legacy automaker wants to take it down and I'm not sure if Tesla has the reserves and buffer time to survive the onslaught.

When Tesla was the only game in town, Tesla could afford to command a premium as a technological showcase as that was how the public viewed Tesla cars. So any quirks or foibles in their product would be easily forgiven or overlooked.

Ironically now that Tesla has taken EVs mainstream, the public lens has shifted and the GP starts to assess EVs as daily drivers and workhorses. The legacy automakers have the advantage of literally half a century of making cars that are smooth trouble free appliances while Tesla is still stuck in tech showcase mode.

Can Tesla make the switch to making a common garden variety dependable workhorse that is affordable to the masses and is still profitable in the long run? That is key to Tesla's survival.