Tesla Third Quarter 2018 Update [pdf]

Post by user9995 » Thu, Oct 25, 2018, 11:01 AM UTC

dpkonofa wrote: post #260

ryacko wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Realistically, people who could afford an electric car are more likely to take a plane and rent a car when traveling, unless they travel all the time as part of their job, then they’d be using ridesharing exclusively. But people tend to be dominated by edge cases instead of giving up a small amount of mobility.

>people who could afford an electric car are more likely to take a plane and rent a car when traveling, unless they travel all the time as part of their job, then they’d be using ridesharing exclusively. What is this based on? I know several people with electric cars and none of us take planes and rent cars on trips unless they're to another country. I drive to California and Austin all the time and the Tesla is the…

Post by soVeryTired » Thu, Oct 25, 2018, 11:08 AM UTC

sah2ed wrote: post #348

soVeryTired wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Modigliani-Miller 'theorem' is dangerous nonsense. It proves a fact about a model rather than a fact about the real world. From Wikipedia " The basic theorem states that in the absence of taxes, bankruptcy costs, agency costs, and asymmetric information, and in an efficient market, the value of a firm is unaffected by how that firm is financed ". See anything wrong with this picture?

I agree with you that the grandparent misinterpreted the theorem as the Wikipedia article includes something similar to your reply: "These results might seem irrelevant (after all, none of the conditions are met in the real world), but the theorem is still taught and studied because it tells something very important. That is, capital structure matters precisely because one or more of these assumptions is violated ."…

Post by user9995 » Thu, Oct 25, 2018, 11:14 AM UTC

andrewmunsell wrote: post #114

radiorental wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure every Nissan dealer that sells a leaf must operate a charging station. Granted they're not as easy to access at the supercharger network... but it exists.

They do, but no one wants to go to one of the few Nissan dealers in their area to charge their car in the event they need it. Not to mention, many dealers only have 1-2 chargers total, which is not sustainable for the number of cars that are (or will be) sold. Plus, what about the Bolt, Volt, i3, Soul EV, or any number of other EVs? They wouldn't be comfortable or possibly even welcome at a Nissan dealership to charg…

Post by user9995 » Thu, Oct 25, 2018, 11:17 AM UTC

dragontamer wrote: post #202

btilly wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually there are a lot of bonds outstanding Per http://ir.tesla.com/static-files/6db4f56e-1532-4cd6-b8dc-3ff... they have $230 million due in Nov 2018, $920 million due in March 2019, $560 million due in Nov 2019, $113 million due in Dec 2020, $1,380 million due March 2021, and $977.5 million due in March 2022. Plus coupons on all of these payable regularly between now and then. By my count this totals $4.1805 bill…

A lot of companies have a lot of bonds out. Its not necessarily unhealthy to keep some debt around, especially through the 2013 through 2017 timeframe when interest rates were abnormally low. Elon will have to roll over the debt somehow: either into stock offerings or maybe into new bonds. The meager profits reported this quarter aren't anywhere near the amount they need to pay off those debts... even if the profits…

Post by sokoloff » Thu, Oct 25, 2018, 11:23 AM UTC

flexie wrote: post #328

andrewmunsell wrote: post #32

One massive advantage that I'm not sure most people realize quite yet is the Supercharger network. No manufacturer (other than Porsche talking about it recently) has actually built out chargers for their cars. Every other electric car has to rely on a broken, sparse, expensive charger network. Blink chargers and some ChargePoint chargers are expensive in many places ($2 an hour!), and Blink is notorious for having br…

The supercharger network is indeed a massive advantage for Tesla. For now, it's obviously necessary, since the range of the cars on the road is generally limited to 200-300 miles. But even in 3-4 years, when new Teslas likely have a range of 400 miles, or in 7-8 years when the standard range is maybe 600 miles, it will grant drivers the certainty that even if they forget to charge at home or at work for several days,…