Tesla Steps Up Production

[goadam1]

Re: and now comes . . . the lawyers

With paper gold and bit coin along with it. Everything that can be leveraged or bubbled will fall.

[photon555]

Re: and now comes . . . the lawyers

One thing about the replaceable battery pack design of the Tesla is that as tech improves the battery pack can be replaced with a better one.

[swgprop]

The Tesla battery swap is the hoax of the year

The Tesla battery swap is the hoax of the year

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The bottom line is that ZEV credits are a key source of “revenue” for Tesla. Pure profit, in fact. And they will remain so for the foreseeable future.
And this has serious implications for entire ZEV program. Tesla “produced” about 45,000 ZEV credits in the state from October 12 to September 13. (For calendar 2013, the figure would be higher). Of this amount, about 18,000 (40%) were fraudulent. The only other electric car selling in decent amounts is the Nissan Leaf, but it only gets three credits per car and sells less than the Tesla. Everybody else is a rounding error, and the system as a whole probably produced less than 60,000 credits.

So if 40% of the credits Tesla gets are fraudulent, that’s 30% of the entire California market. In fact, it’s probably more than 20% of the entire US market. And that’s assuming the rest of the system is clean.


In short, the ZEV mandate is a joke.

So here we are, fifteen months after Tesla started getting carbon credits for the battery swap. The company has already cashed out, probably for more than $60 million. Without building a single swap station, or demonstrating the feature in consumer cars, or bothering to provide any sort of explanation.

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[jr429]

Re: Tesla vs Statistics

Wouldn't the correct questions be: what percentage of teslas on the road have caught fire -vs- what percentage of gasoline-powered passenger vehicles have caught fire? And comparing battery -vs- gasoline vehicles, how many miles were they driven, on average, before catching fire?

A more fair comparison would be how many Teslas have caught fire versus how many late model luxury sedans. I would guess that the % of Tesla fires is much higher. A bigger problem here as mentioned by others is type of impact. When you hit a manhole hard in a lower profile car you might rupture your oil pan, or worst case crack your short block. With the Tesla you catch on fire and burn. That's a problem because of how easy it is to hit debris on the road versus getting into a major collision resulting in fire.

[santafe2]

Re: The Tesla battery swap is the hoax of the year

The Tesla battery swap is the hoax of the year

I don't want to defend Tesla or Musk's business practices but this article is fairly typical of "Watt" passes for journalism on this site. Tesla and all other Musk enterprises will take complete advantage of regulatory design. It's very unlikely the battery swap is a fraud. Musk isn't a criminal, he's just slimy. Is this fair? No, but it's probably legal. Is it shady and possibly underhanded? Yes, but it's also probably legal. His legal team are masters when it comes to deconstructing regulations and then gaming these regulations better than anyone else. It's maddening and offensive, but I doubt it's fraud.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: The Tesla battery swap is the hoax of the year

.. His ..team are masters..deconstructing regulations and...gaming ..regulations...

Musk is not an innovator by using regulations to drive sales; it is a pretty common practice.

Years ago I worked for a global chemical manufacturing company as a project manager for their big industrial construction projects.
Building codes require structural steel to have sprayed-on cement fireproofing so that if the building catches fire, the steel structure will stand a few more hours before the heat weakens it and the building collapses. W.R. Grace is the market leader for this type of fireproofing, their product is called MonoKote.

Our corporate safety manager sat on some NFPA committees that control these building codes around the country, and so did people from W.R. Grace.
The Grace people argued endlessly to double and then double again the amount of fireproofing written into the building codes, slowing down the important work of the committees just to drive up their sales. Grace infuriated our guy to the point that he disallowed the purchase W.R.Grace Monokote fireproofing on all our structural steel projects world wide.

[don]

Re: The Tesla battery swap is the hoax of the year

There's a rumor Apple is interested in acquiring Tesla. Are they losing their mojo?

[Fiat Currency]

Re: The Tesla battery swap is the hoax of the year

There's a rumor Apple is interested in acquiring Tesla. Are they losing their mojo?

Yes. Apple died with Jobs. Apple the company, however, could still do well for quite a while. They throw off a lot of depreciating cash. However, I did say on here that I sold at $639.

Innovation is key in their industry. I don't think they have as much of it as they used to, and companies that don't breed innovation via culture - eventually realize that they'd better do something with their depreciating cash. I also understand that Apple is in talks with Time Warner - both about Apple TV and "other" things.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that they are also looking at medical devices (mobile heart monitoring etc) and talking to the FDA. Apple seems poised to go on a shopping spree.

[GRG55]

Re: The Tesla battery swap is the hoax of the year

Yes. Apple died with Jobs. Apple the company, however, could still do well for quite a while. They throw off a lot of depreciating cash. However, I did say on here that I sold at $639.

Innovation is key in their industry. I don't think they have as much of it as they used to, and companies that don't breed innovation via culture - eventually realize that they'd better do something with their depreciating cash. I also understand that Apple is in talks with Time Warner - both about Apple TV and "other" things.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that they are also looking at medical devices (mobile heart monitoring etc) and talking to the FDA. Apple seems poised to go on a shopping spree.

I am not so sure it's Apple going on a shopping spree, or Tesla (Musk) going on a search for deep pockets.

"Free coast-to-coast superchargers", new foreign market entries (China), the development of the next new model, R&D into battery technology (even the testing of new battery technologies for suitability in a Tesla product is expensive), and that "buy back" guarantee don't come cheap. All that must be putting quite a stress on even the fat wallet that Elon Musk started with I bet. As I posted on another thread some time ago, I can't really make sense of Tesla's "business plan"...the funding requirements are daunting to say the least.

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: The Tesla battery swap is the hoax of the year

The Grace people argued endlessly to double and then double again the amount of fireproofing written into the building codes, slowing down the important work of the committees just to drive up their sales. Grace infuriated our guy to the point that he disallowed the purchase W.R.Grace Monokote fireproofing on all our structural steel projects world wide.

Is this why W.R. Grace went into distress? http://www.forbes.com/sites/splevera...nkruptcy-exit/

I know a few funds that hold distressed W.R. Grace positions. Probably been holding those positions for 10 years plus as the bankruptcy was 12 years ago.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: The Tesla battery swap is the hoax of the year

Is this why W.R. Grace went into distress? http://www.forbes.com/sites/splevera...nkruptcy-exit/

I know a few funds that hold distressed W.R. Grace positions. Probably been holding those positions for 10 years plus as the bankruptcy was 12 years ago.

I doubt their lost sales on one product to one company mattered at all to their balance sheet.
It may, however, indicate a corporate culture that hurts them.

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: The Tesla battery swap is the hoax of the year

I doubt their lost sales on one product to one company mattered at all to their balance sheet.
It may, however, indicate a corporate culture that hurts them.

Naturally it wouldn't lead to a bankruptcy but it is a process. As you state it probably was endemic company wide.

[Rajiv]

Re: The Tesla battery swap is the hoax of the year

You might find this article interesting - Tesla’s most disruptive product may not be its cars

“We believe the days when Tesla was known as purely an auto company are numbered,” declared Morgan Stanley analysts in a note this week, after the electric car maker reported another set of stellar results.

[GRG55]

Re: The Tesla battery swap is the hoax of the year

You might find this article interesting - Tesla’s most disruptive product may not be its cars

It never fails to amuse just how ridiculously effusive the so called "analysts" can be once they get an idea into their heads. The caption below reminded me of some of the stuff emitted by Mary Meeker (who is now a "venture capitalist" at Kleiner Perkins) and her peers during those heady days in the very late 1990s. "It's not just cars..." sounds a lot like "The internet changes everything...".

On another thread about Tesla I made an offhand comment a while back about the stock going to $500 before reality finally sets in.

Analysts are hired by the companies, like Tesla, to write stuff that justifies their "strategic" moves, and generate "the numbers" to support the latest strategy. Once a company has the full weight and backing of the most influential analysts on Wall Street the whole affair takes on the tone of a religious revival meeting. Tesla, a marginal car manufacturer, is now "in position to disrupt industries well beyond the realm of traditional auto manufacturing" (pause here for Hallelujah, we are saved chorus). Some day Tesla might be a widows and orphans short. Before that it might be the long of the decade though. $500 is well within the range of the achievable...

"...Morgan Stanley, which also is bullish on the stock, is even more ebullient. “We are witnessing the most disruptive intersection of manufacturing, innovation and capital experienced by the auto industry in more than a century,” gushed analyst Adam Jonas in a note. “Tesla may be in position to disrupt industries well beyond the realm of traditional auto manufacturing. It’s not just cars.”..."

[charliebrown]

Re: The Tesla battery swap is the hoax of the year

Before 2008, I got a good information that GGP was not viable. I bought puts and saw my money get chipped away a little each month waiting for it to go BK. It did blow up but nearly a year after i bought the puts. Going short takes excellent timing and nerves of steel. Instead of collecting a dividend, or interest you pay to hold that position. Even if the price just hovers you lose. I don't really short after this experience.