TSLA corporate outlook

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Via IEVS:
The Woz No Longer Believes “Anything Elon Musk Or Tesla Says”
https://insideevs.com/the-woz-no-longer-believes-anything-elon-musk-or-tesla-says/

  • “Now, I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says. But I still love the car.”

Why the lack of belief? Well, it seems to boil down to promised Autopilot capabilities that still don’t exist today. Woz stated:

  • “Then they came up with some sensors that Elon Musk said would drive itself across itself the country by the end of 2016.”

    “Oh, I had to have that.”

    “And then … they got rid of their sensor company and put in new sensors — instead of one camera, eight cameras.”

With these new sensors the promise to “drive itself across the country by the end of 2017” was announced. That still hasn’t happened and Wozniak now seems to believe this self-driving capability will never come. He’s put off by the fact that other automakers have leapfrogged Tesla in regards to autonomous capabilities. One study places Tesla dead last in autonomous-drive.

Musk’s latest statements on self-driving and this cross-country trip indicate it may happen in early 2018. But as recently as December, Musk admitted it probably wouldn’t, so another delay was basically announced.

Quoting Wozniak:

  • What he says, can you really believe in him? Is he just a good salesman, like Jobs…”

As for the state of Tesla’s Autopilot capabilities, Wozniak remarked:

  • “When a Tesla runs into any condition on a highway that is a little unusual — a cone in the middle of a lane — you have to move over. A dumb human or a smart human can easily do it, but the Tesla can’t.”

    “Man, you’ve got to be on your toes all the time with it.”

    “All Tesla says is, ‘It’s beta, so we’re not responsible — you have to be in control. So that’s kind of a cheap way out of it. Everything I’ve read told me that every other car manufacturer in the world — Audi and BMW — are actually ahead of Tesla for self-driving cars.”

Though he still owns a Tesla, Woz says he Chevy Bolt is his daily driver:

  • “…we always drive the Chevy Bolt EV instead of the Tesla, every day.”
Ouch. That's what continually over-promising and under-delivering will do to your credibility. Elon/Tesla really need to shut up and get the Model 3 squared away, before the occasional rumbles of discontent as above become legion.
 
or one can ignore such a has-been, shutting up all the Tesla nay-sayers. good grief it's sad that people want Tesla to fail. get over yourselves and move on to all those EV companies doing things better.
 
finman100 said:
or one can ignore such a has-been, shutting up all the Tesla nay-sayers. good grief it's sad that people want Tesla to fail. get over yourselves and move on to all those EV companies doing things better.

A Tesla failure wouldn't be good for EVs in general. Which is why legitimate criticism and scrutiny is actually important for Tesla.

After the last couple of years in general I hope most folks are learning to distinguish legitimate criticism from agitprop, trolls, profiteers or axe-grinders.
 
ah, there it is. legitimate. key word. thanks for the heads up.

And Nissan's degrading battery packs and complete loss of value is NOT bad for EVs? Not too much time spent delving into those failures. sure, sure. move on.
 
finman100 said:
ah, there it is. legitimate. key word. thanks for the heads up.

And Nissan's degrading battery packs and complete loss of value is NOT bad for EVs? Not too much time spent delving into those failures. sure, sure. move on.
You've got to be kidding :roll: The LEAF has fanbois who can see no problems just as Tesla does, but they hardly make up the majority of posters here. Most of us fervently want PEVs to succeed, but aren't willing to turn a blind eye to continuing problems when they need to be addressed in order to raise the odds of PEV success. BTW, are you suggesting I'm one of the people who want Tesla to fail?
 
finman100 said:
...And Nissan's degrading battery packs and complete loss of value is NOT bad for EVs?

I haven't argued otherwise. I hope you're not putting my name on that straw man.
 
GRA said:
finman100 said:
ah, there it is. legitimate. key word. thanks for the heads up.

And Nissan's degrading battery packs and complete loss of value is NOT bad for EVs? Not too much time spent delving into those failures. sure, sure. move on.
You've got to be kidding :roll: The LEAF has fanbois who can see no problems just as Tesla does, but they hardly make up the majority of posters here. Most of us fervently want PEVs to succeed, but aren't willing to turn a blind eye to continuing problems when they need to be addressed in order to raise the odds of PEV success. BTW, are you suggesting I'm one of the people who want Tesla to fail?
Regarding the part I bolded in GRA's post, among those who are at least semi-active on MNL, I'd say the numbers of those fanbois are in the single digits, possibly as low as 1.
 
cwerdna said:
GRA said:
finman100 said:
ah, there it is. legitimate. key word. thanks for the heads up.

And Nissan's degrading battery packs and complete loss of value is NOT bad for EVs? Not too much time spent delving into those failures. sure, sure. move on.
You've got to be kidding :roll: The LEAF has fanbois who can see no problems just as Tesla does, but they hardly make up the majority of posters here. Most of us fervently want PEVs to succeed, but aren't willing to turn a blind eye to continuing problems when they need to be addressed in order to raise the odds of PEV success. BTW, are you suggesting I'm one of the people who want Tesla to fail?
Regarding the part I bolded in GRA's post, among those who are at least semi-active on MNL, I'd say the numbers of those fanbois are in the single digits, possibly as low as 1.
I'd probably put it at 3, but I imagine we'd come up with the same names. OTOH, IMO #1 isn't a fanboi, they're a shill.
 
^^^
Hmmm, that’s probably a better way to put it. I think I know who you might be thinking of as the Leaf shill. :)

And, to be clear, I’m not counting anyone who is a Nissan corporate employee (or at least anyone who has self-identified themselves as one). Fortunately, IIRC, the Nissan corporate employees posting here have not exhibited fanboyish behavior.
 
cwerdna said:
^^^
Hmmm, that’s probably a better way to put it. I think I know who you might be thinking of as the Leaf shill. :)
I imagine anyone who's been here from the Phoenix test and later reports of LEAF battery problems mentally pictures the same poster. ;)
 
Nubo said:
After the last couple of years in general I hope most folks are learning to distinguish legitimate criticism from agitprop, trolls, profiteers or axe-grinders.

I don't get the impression that this is true. It seems like anytime something negative is stated about the cars, company, or CEO, the poster gets immediately accused of one of the above.
 
What it has done is greatly increased the volume of useless posts. Granted, we are all guilty of that at one time or another be it "+1's" (Why can't we just add a "like" button??) or tongue in cheek responses, but there are way too many dozen entry back and forth nonsense going on here.

I tune those out and end up missing something only to discover it days or weeks later in a quote by someone else.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The above is another example of what I am saying :?
 
GetOffYourGas said:
Nubo said:
After the last couple of years in general I hope most folks are learning to distinguish legitimate criticism from agitprop, trolls, profiteers or axe-grinders.

I don't get the impression that this is true. It seems like anytime something negative is stated about the cars, company, or CEO, the poster gets immediately accused of one of the above.

I didn't say the noise has ceased. Just my hope that people are learning to separate the noise from the signal.
 
Nubo said:
GetOffYourGas said:
Nubo said:
After the last couple of years in general I hope most folks are learning to distinguish legitimate criticism from agitprop, trolls, profiteers or axe-grinders.

I don't get the impression that this is true. It seems like anytime something negative is stated about the cars, company, or CEO, the poster gets immediately accused of one of the above.

I didn't say the noise has ceased. Just my hope that people are learning to separate the noise from the signal.

I'm still learning, but I've never been great at reading people. Especially over the internet.
 
GetOffYourGas said:
Nubo said:
GetOffYourGas said:
I don't get the impression that this is true. It seems like anytime something negative is stated about the cars, company, or CEO, the poster gets immediately accused of one of the above.

I didn't say the noise has ceased. Just my hope that people are learning to separate the noise from the signal.

I'm still learning, but I've never been great at reading people. Especially over the internet.


Same here. Not everyone takes the time to realistically express themselves online. I get it. I do the same thing all the time responding with short one liners that means something to me but means nothing to someone else or even worse; they take it to mean something entirely different. Emoticons work but are only effective for certain types of comments and I notice that the presence of them is lost on some here.

Remember the words is a small part of Human Communication
 
TSLA earnings imminent.

Read the article, below, or just my answers...

Musk’s Big Questions: Can Tesla Make Model 3s and Burn Less Cash?

Progress toward boosting production looms large.


Elon Musk is a man with quite a few balls in the air. On Tuesday afternoon, he watched the private rocket company that he runs, SpaceX, successfully launch its first Falcon Heavy. On Wednesday afternoon, Wall Street will watch as the public automaker that he runs, Tesla Inc., reports fourth quarter earnings.

Information-starved investors will be on high alert, as will thousands of would-be drivers waiting for Tesla to produce and deliver new electric cars. Here are five key questions to ask as a way to gauge Tesla's prospects going into a decisive year.

1. How many Model 3s can Tesla actually produce?

Not enough to turn a profit this year, and probably not next year, either.

2. How far off are the long-awaited updates to Tesla’s autonomous features?

Your joking?

3. Have customer deposits become a major revenue stream?

TSLA has figure that deposits don't require expensive service calls.

4. Is Tesla making any progress on getting into China?

Your joking...again?

5. How fast is all that cash burning?

Faster every quarter.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-07/musk-s-big-questions-can-tesla-make-model-3s-and-burn-less-cash

live blog here:

Tesla Inc. is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results after the bell Wednesday, with an analyst call set for 5:30 p.m. Eastern.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet expect Tesla TSLA, +0.29% to report an adjusted loss of $3.11 a share on sales of $3.3 billion, which would compare with an adjusted loss of 69 cents a share on sales of $2.3 billion in the year-ago period.

As it has been the case in recent months, the quarterly numbers will matter less than what Tesla says about Model 3 production. The Silicon Valley car maker in January postponed for a second time a key production goal for the mass-market sedan, and most of Wall Street today is either bracing for another production delay or hoping to hear that Tesla has found its groove...
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/tesla-fourth-quarter-resultsits-all-about-model-3-production-live-blog-2018-02-07
 
Here is Tesla's Fourth Quarter & Full Year 2017 Update Letter:
TSLA said:
Tesla Fourth Quarter & Full Year 2017 Update

- Record Model S and Model X deliveries in Q4 2017
- Cash balance of $3.4B entering Q1 2018
- 2017 revenue of $11.8B, up 55% y-o-y from organic growth
- 2018 revenue growth expected to significantly exceed 2017 growth
-Continuing to target Model 3 production rate of 5,000/wk by Q2 end
 
RegGuheert said:
Here is Tesla's Fourth Quarter & Full Year 2017 Update Letter:
TSLA said:
Tesla Fourth Quarter & Full Year 2017 Update

- Record Model S and Model X deliveries in Q4 2017
- Cash balance of $3.4B entering Q1 2018
- 2017 revenue of $11.8B, up 55% y-o-y from organic growth
- 2018 revenue growth expected to significantly exceed 2017 growth
-Continuing to target Model 3 production rate of 5,000/wk by Q2 end

You forgot one of the the most important data metrics, i.e. GAAP loss per share of $11.83 (total loss ~ $2B).
That amounts to about a $20K per vehicle delivered in 2017 of shareholder wealth “given away”.
That compares to:

2016 - $7836
2015 - $17,400
2014 - $9200
2013 - $3353

Have to love it, though, Tesla’s benevolence to BEV customers at the expense of the Tesla shareholders.
2017 results got Tesla back on track to continue to subsidize Tesla buyers at the expense of shareholders.
Keep it up, Elon!
 
lorenfb said:
You forgot one of the the most important data metrics, i.e. GAAP loss per share of $11.83 (total loss ~ $2B).
Yep. From page 7 of that letter from the SEC filing at http://ir.tesla.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1564590-18-1521&CIK=1318605, for the year ending 2017, their net loss attributable to common stockholders was about $1.961 billion.

I have a spreadsheet where I've been adding up their net profits and losses. Since they've begun reporting, their cumulative net loss is now past $4.5 billion.
 
lorenfb said:
You forgot one of the the most important data metrics, i.e. GAAP loss per share of $11.83 (total loss ~ $2B).
That amounts to about a $20K per vehicle delivered in 2017 of shareholder wealth “given away”.

That sounds like some funny accounting. No, not the GAPP, but the added cost per car. Tesla makes money on producing Model S cars. Tesla is spending a lot of money on expanding the business, not on production of current cars.

To produce the first car costs a lot of money. The second copy of that car is cheaper, but still no where close to profitable. Tooling, engineering, training, programming... Don't get this money back unless you make enough copies of the car.

This is why most car startups have failed, and smaller car companies have gone out of business or merged with larger companies over US history. Huge capital costs, and many risks. Tesla might fail as well. They are at the third "Bet The Company on Growth" or BTOG point. There likely are more of these on the path of Tesla becoming a major car company.

Tesla might also realize that the next BTOG will not be possible, due to market factors, falling stock price, rising interest rates, or other reason(s), and convert to a slower or no growth company. As such, Tesla would become a boring and much cheaper stock, and a takeover target.
 
Back
Top