Interesting observation (Tesla content)

Thought some of you guys and gals might find this interesting...

As we were leaving the mall tonight, walking towards the van,​ a sharp looking red Tesla Model S pulls into a parking space driven by an equally sharply attired gent.

Obviously I noticed​ it and took a closer look at the rear of the car trying to find out if it was a P90D. It was. I then proceeded​ to wax eloquent about how it was electric an car and how quick it was and...

My wife interrupted me and asked me how much it cost. I guessed​ about $100K. She burst out laughing. I asked her why. Her response: The "T" it looks like an IUD. I eyed her incredulously and she grabbed my phone, googled it and showed it to me...And sure enough... So, now you know...

O the things that woman sees

In reply to hotchocolate:

You know, now that you mention it...

I noticed there stock went up 7% yesterday and there market cap is higher than ford

In reply to icaneat50eggs:

Amazing that Tesla could be worth more than Ford!

icaneat50eggs wrote: I noticed there stock went up 7% yesterday and there market cap is higher than ford

According to NPR this morning, they are only second to GM in market cap.

Which is amazing for a company that hasn't made a dollar.

Ohhh man. Now I can never took at one of those with a strait face again.

icaneat50eggs wrote: I noticed there stock went up 7% yesterday and there market cap is higher than ford

They mentioned that on our local news last night as well.

And also that last years sales figures for both: Tesla 76,000 Ford 6.7 million.

I thought that was interesting too.

Coincidentally, I cancelled my Model 3 reservation today.

bastomatic wrote: Coincidentally, I cancelled my Model 3 reservation today.

Interesting - why?

Some of the value difference between Ford and Tesla is the level of debt each company has. Much of it has to do with Elon Musk and his uncanny ability to make the market ignore business economics. I've read more bear-ish advisors shorting Telsa a few times and constantly getting burned. Now they just watch and occasionally shake their heads. I can imagine them shaking their heads now.

In reply to bastomatic:

I hope that moves me up one place in line. 3500#, about 300 hp, RWD, 5 seats. Now if I could talk them into making a manual rack an option...

Ian F wrote:

bastomatic wrote: Coincidentally, I cancelled my Model 3 reservation today.

Interesting - why? Some of the value difference between Ford and Tesla is the level of debt each company has. Much of it has to do with Elon Musk and his uncanny ability to make the market ignore business economics. I've read more bear-ish advisors shorting Telsa a few times and constantly getting burned. Now they just watch and occasionally shake their heads. I can imagine them shaking their heads now.

It has a lot more due to "potential" of Tesla making money. Ford is actually in the black my a few billion right now, but the issue is that Ford, as well as the rest of the industry, doesn't grow much. Or has little potential to grow much faster than the population rate.

Some think that Tesla can grow a lot more. Which is why people are speculating that they are "worth" more than everyone but GM.

There's also a lot of assumption that Tesla is leading the tech market in various places- electric, self driving, etc. They may be in a very good place, but I'm not convinced that they are actually ahead.

The problem with that is Tesla has still not figured out how to make money selling cars. They may do that, but the rest of the industry knows how to do that. They also know when to let Tesla spend money and mooch off of their developments.

IMHO, the core problem with Tesla's growth- batteries are already close to full mass production. I had thought that they knew that, and that's why the S was placed so high in the market. But even $100k cars could not make money.

Tesla delivered less than 80k cars last year, and it's now blowing investors minds that they are on track to break the 100k mark this year. Apparently that's all you need to do to be worth more than Ford, who delivered 6.7M cars last year...Yeah, I'm shaking my head right along with those 'bear-ish' investors.

But back to the subject at hand. Electric cars are essentially contraception on wheels...It makes sense that Tesla would be the IUD of BEV's.

To a significant extent, the health of the US economy is at the whim of a bunch of guys and gals who often place earnings potential way ahead of actual profit. Ultimately the success of their investments depend not on the company's actual earnings, but on the pyramid scheme of market valuation. It's kind of scary, having lived through one tech boom and now sitting in the middle of another. When will it no longer make sense to throw money at these companies?

I'm not trashing Tesla. We were an early vendor of theirs, and frankly I had almost zero expectation that they'd make it this far. Kudos for what they've accomplished, but more valuable than Ford? Snort, thortle.

Makes sense since there models are Models S-3-X

There's no connection between stock prices and reality - and I don't mean to pooh-pooh Tesla at all by saying that.

My brother (who works for tesla) just sent me a news article. There price spiked 7% yesterday and they are now "more valuable" than GM

What if Musk's game is to simply get them into everyone's hands (like an IPhone) and then once you've bought into the game, he sells you the "latest and greatest iPhone ever!" Also, Musk doesn't seem to be a $ shark. And I for one applaud that. He's a visionary, though I'm not sure for good or bad yet... heck, could be an alien.

Ian F wrote:

bastomatic wrote: Coincidentally, I cancelled my Model 3 reservation today.

Interesting - why?

Big conventional and personal reasons.

1- there is no service network at all in Michigan. The closest service center to me is in Cleveland.

2- Tesla has a well-earned reputation of producing exceptionally failure-prone vehicles, especially early in the production run of a vehicle.

3- repairs have taken an extremely long time for owners in the past - sometimes many months. Especially body work. (Also no Tesla certified body shops in Michigan!)

4- I'm buying a new home and I doubt I'll have the cash for a new Tesla in the next year or two.

I want them to succeed beyond my wildest dreams, but my spidey sense tells me the Model 3 won't be an ideal daily driver for a middle income Michigan family.

I don't know much about Tesla, but it feels like Amazon - took 'em 20 - 30 years to make a profit, but their revenue grew year over year even if they lost money.

I thought Musk was the same guy who owns Solar City, which is just brilliant marketing, upon which they generate earnings from a cost differential/lease on the system.

If he is the same guy, Tesla is just brilliant marketing that generates revenue (and from what I'm reading here, looks like Tesla is doing just that).

Tesla and Solar City are now the same company.

A guy I work for got one recently, he calls it worlds most expensive golf cart.I figured he would miss his S63AMG pretty quick, Didnt take him long the first time he ran out of juice on the road, I think he gets less than 150 miles on a charge. Pretty weak for a car that cost 168K

I see an awful lot of Teslas around here in Minneapolis, particularly in the area around my office (which is in one of the more affluent suburbs.) They're mostly the sedans but I have seen a couple of the SUVs. I don't know anything about them outside of I really like the looks of the sedan, and if I had the money to spend it would be a pretty good car for me since on average I only drive around 25 miles per day.

Found it.

Musk also owns Space X. He wants humans on Mars. Perhaps Teslas are practice for future Mars rovers! :D

Really, I don't know how they are to live with, but someone I know really likes the SUV they drive. The nose is a little strange with no grill but those rear gull wing doors are kinda cool!