Elon Musk's epic bacon adventures

sun_tzu said:
I presume the margin is in the add-ons?
https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/25/technology/tesla-model-3-pricing/index.html

The spike in Model 3 orders clearly has hit waiting times - though in fairness I have to wait 6 months for my new electric 5 series so its hardly a problem unique to tesla
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla,_Inc.

As for the future - Musk owns less than 20% - if the board decides their future is better served making batteries for other producers then that will be that (i certainly wouldn't be surprised to see that happen at some point in the next decade as traditional car manufacturers reach bottlenecks in switching to and increasing hybrid / electric rollouts)
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Recent reports don't look good:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/19/tes...am-downgrades-to-sell-citing-possible-in.html
https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/19/technology/business/tesla-downgrade/index.html

There're also some rumors on twitter that people found thousands of model 3s in auto storage nearby Tesla factories.



Those cars are marked as "Factory Gated", I don't know what does it even mean. Musk says they have "Insane demands for Model 3s", so why those cars are there and no one getting their orders? QC issue? Or those demands are actually for the base model 3, not the expensive 3s like he said. Which could make sense because Tesla lose money making base $35000 model, they can't be mass producing it right now and we only see expensive 3s.

As for Musk, he takes loan using his Tesla shares as collateral and unable to capital raise as fast as he burns the money. May be that's why he spends more times on twatter to do PR than he should.
 
fallengt said:
Those cars are marked as "Factory Gated", I don't know what does it even mean. Musk says they have "Insane demands for Model 3s", so why those cars are there and no one getting their orders? QC issue? Or those demands are actually for the base model 3, not the expensive 3s like he said. Which could make sense because Tesla lose money making base $35000 model, they can't be mass producing it right now and we only see expensive 3s.
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That's really a tiny number of cars for a normal car manufacturer to have parked up, whether to await shipment, a marketing campaign or a price move. It's only noticeable because Tesla don't ship in high volume. If you're feeling generous to the company, you could believe that they really have finally hit that 5000/week target but the distribution side is only just ramping up to deal with it.

If you're crueller then you assume they still haven't hit that 5k target, and they're sending out incomplete builds through the factory gates to feed the investor audit, and they're then taking them back in as parts come arrive or line problems/bottlenecks clear, to finish them off. Worst case, which is very much worse, is that they might be lying about the order book and the profit margin on the models they are producing and it's actually better for the paper accounts to have them appear as valuable inventory on the way to buyers rather than as actual invoiced sales.

The dangerous thing for the Tesla company about Musk's twitter games is that if he sounds like a liar or a pure spin merchant then it makes the people he needs as investors, or supplying loans more suspicious. Certainly more suspicion than a few pictures of cars parked up would normally attract.
 
fallengt said:
Recent reports don't look good:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/19/tes...am-downgrades-to-sell-citing-possible-in.html
https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/19/technology/business/tesla-downgrade/index.html

There're also some rumors on twitter that people found thousands of model 3s in auto storage nearby Tesla factories.



Those cars are marked as "Factory Gated", I don't know what does it even mean. Musk says they have "Insane demands for Model 3s", so why those cars are there and no one getting their orders? QC issue? Or those demands are actually for the base model 3, not the expensive 3s like he said. Which could make sense because Tesla lose money making base $35000 model, they can't be mass producing it right now and we only see expensive 3s.

As for Musk, he takes loan using his Tesla shares as collateral and unable to capital raise as fast as he burns the money. May be that's why he spends more times on twatter to do PR than he should.
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Factory gated is a term they have used for a while...
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/what-does-factory-gated-mean-on-a-car.108526/
Presumably ready to ship though I guess they wait till they have a batch to ship to the same area rather than shipping individual cars
 
Eboue said:
its unhealthy not to hate a fraud whose family got rich on apartheid diamond mines and has since become a billionaire twenty times over and still treats employees like shit
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I don't hate the guy but I'm genuinely confused how he's managed to raise so much money from otherwise smart people and seems to have got this Tony Stark reputation - every time I hear the guy speak, he just sounds like an idiot. Albeit one with a lot money.
 
Surely there's a huge PR scheme going on behind all his shenanigans? These types are surrounded by media consultants all the time.
 
VorZakone said:
Surely there's a huge PR scheme going on behind all his shenanigans? These types are surrounded by media consultants all the time.
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Have a read up on Elon Musk, he's the exact opposite of the type to have "media consultants all the time"

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...eships-sells-rockets-and-deals-with-elon-musk

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/elon-musk-the-architect-of-tomorrow-120850/

Elon Musk is an engineer. He's a software engineer (from Paypal, Zip2 and when he was working on video games), he's an automotive engineer (Tesla and his Stanford University days) and he's a aerospace engineer (self taught lead designer of Falcon 1). He has a BSc in physics and economics, but he's an engineer.

And he has an engineer's approach to problems.

Not building enough cars? Work 120 hour weeks working out what the problems are with the manufacturing process and change it (including scrapping tools they spent millions on).

Tesla being manipulated on the stock market? Find a group of like minded investors to take Tesla private.

Kids stuck in a cave? Build a mini submarine to get them out.

He is not Steve Jobs, nor Richard Branson, nor Jeff Bezos.
 
rcoobc said:
Have a read up on Elon Musk, he's the exact opposite of the type to have "media consultants all the time"

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...eships-sells-rockets-and-deals-with-elon-musk

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/elon-musk-the-architect-of-tomorrow-120850/

Elon Musk is an engineer. He's a software engineer (from Paypal, Zip2 and when he was working on video games), he's an automotive engineer (Tesla and his Stanford University days) and he's a aerospace engineer (self taught lead designer of Falcon 1). He has a BSc in physics and economics, but he's an engineer.

And he has an engineer's approach to problems.

Not building enough cars? Work 120 hour weeks working out what the problems are with the manufacturing process and change it (including scrapping tools they spent millions on).

Tesla being manipulated on the stock market? Find a group of like minded investors to take Tesla private.

Kids stuck in a cave? Build a mini submarine to get them out.

He is not Steve Jobs, nor Richard Branson, nor Jeff Bezos.
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One thing missing from all of those solutions based, on his actions and behavior.

...and act like a knob while you do it
 
what is wrong with him doubling down on this? He's pretty much asking to be sued now :lol:
 
You can't hate the guy. For all his flaws he's an absolute genius and is single handedly driving us towards innovation.
 
During a tour this spring at Tesla Inc.’s electric-car factory in Fremont, Calif., Elon Musk asked why the assembly line had stopped. Managers said automatic safety sensors halted the line whenever people got in the way.
Mr. Musk became angry, according to people familiar with what happened. His high-profile gamble on mass-producing electric carshad lagged behind since production began, and here was one more frustration. The billionaire entrepreneur began head-butting the front end of a car on the assembly line.

“I don’t see how this could hurt me,” he said of vehicles on the slow-speed line. “I want the cars to just keep moving.”
When a senior engineering manager involved with the system explained that it was a safety measure, Mr. Musk told him, “Get out!” Tesla said the manager was fired for other reasons.
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http://archive.is/ntTCo#selection-449.0-473.180
 
I hope he goes bankrupt and has to go work in an amazon warehouse
 
I sure wish I could say that sort of stupid shit and still have people think I'm a genius.
 
He seems to be losing the plot sadly. Should focus on Space X and maybe step down at Tesla.
 
Kill 'em all said:
You can't hate the guy. For all his flaws he's an absolute genius and is single handedly driving us towards innovation.
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What has he done for you to believe so?
SpaceX is probably his least fecked up company. Even in that case everything Musk has promised, you should add 5 more years to it.

He's selling us flamethrowers to fight those alien from outter space though. I'll give him that.
 
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