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Tesla cuts prices as Model 3 deliveries narrowly miss estimates

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Re: Tesla cuts prices as Model 3 deliveries narrowly miss estimates

#121
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That... isn’t how economies of scale or elasticity of demand work.

I think you might need to brush up on your understanding of demand elasticity curves. Tesla is dropping the sticker price of their vehicles because they think that demand for their cars is at least somewhat elastic with respect to sticker price, and they're in a better position than you or me to have the data and analysis on this. (Tesla has also announced that this is why they're dropping the price so I'm not sure w…

Or: they’re dropping the sticker price to keep the overall cost of the vehicle stable or lower to meet demand.

Economies of scale allow them to do this.

Re: Tesla cuts prices as Model 3 deliveries narrowly miss estimates

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a nice part of LA and I see as many iPace's as Teslas, and the iPace has only been available for about 3 months locally. And the iPace owners are absolutely glowing in their reviews of the car in a way I've never heard Tesla owners get. Indeed--while most Tesla owners I know talk their heads off about the charging network[1], they tend to be defensive about the actual quality of the car itself in ways that…

We must be living on a different planet then if you never heard a Tesla owner go on and on about how much they love their cars. Before buying one 4 days ago I had plenty of that kind of experience.

I know quite a few Tesla owners, and they all love the idea of the car far more than the actual cars themselves. After about a week, reality sets in and the misaligned panels, haphazardly responsive touchscreen, and relatively pedestrian interior furnishings start becoming noticeable. After about 2 weeks, the Tesla owners who don't live in homes (i.e., condo/apartment dwellers) even start to get annoyed at the charging cycle, since the Superchargers in the LA area are not very convenient to get to and it's roughly $10k-$20k (per charger) to get a charger installed in their parking structure. One Tesla owner, who evangelized the car before buying it, eventually sold his Model 3 (one of the first sold to the general public) and, in his words, "upgraded" to the iPace.

Also, I've ridden in all of the Teslas (including the Roadsters, thanks to a former boss who collected cars) and the Model 3, while comfortable enough, is only roughly as comfortable as my Camry and certainly isn't as comfortable as the $65k+ cars other friends drive. IMO, this is Tesla's big problem. Their cars are expensive, but you're paying a lot of money for the brand and while that can get you started, in the auto market you eventually have to start competing based on features like comfort, etc.

Re: Tesla cuts prices as Model 3 deliveries narrowly miss estimates

#124
post #4

The production and delivery numbers they came out with were very good and higher than most had expected. These numbers will allow them another profitable Q4 likely higher than their Q3 numbers. The price cuts are likely to impact margins, but is in line with what Tesla had done with the Model S and X as production efficiencies allow them to reduce manufacturing costs. The reaction looks like a big overreaction as the…

There is a lot more room for margin erosion when your margins are high to begin with. So even if the S and X models had reductions in manufacturing costs there was a lot of room to play with in the first place. The model 3 has much less room.

Re: Tesla cuts prices as Model 3 deliveries narrowly miss estimates

#126
post #106

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The Joe Rogan podcast is on national TV now? I thought the whole point of it was that it wasn’t a network show.

I thought he did it on some evening comedy show. I'm probably wrong about that.

He did it on the Joe Rogan podcast.

Re: Tesla cuts prices as Model 3 deliveries narrowly miss estimates

#127
post #72

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I don’t really see the problem with the pot smoking honestly, why is anyone wound up about that? Do you care if he drinks or smokes cigarettes? What about his workout routine? Twitter insults aren’t impressive.

I don't have a problem with drinking and am sure most CEOs drink at networking events considered part of their job, but I'd think a CEO showing off by downing a couple of shots on a comedian's podcast was a bit of a liability, even if it wasn't his idea. More so if their leadership was already under scrutiny and one of their businesses was entirely reliant on the patronage of an abstinence-obsessed government that wo…

>I'd think a CEO showing off by downing a couple of shots on a comedian's podcast was a bit of a liability.

You need to lighten up. Musk doesn't owe anything to anyone, if anything he garnered interest for selling more cars to the 18 million people that watched that podcast. If the CEO of was on the same podcast, do you think it would have been anywhere close to as entertaining?

Re: Tesla cuts prices as Model 3 deliveries narrowly miss estimates

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If bluster results in the first truly desirable EV cars and the first autonomous reusable rocket then more bluster please. The rage machine against Elon here is preposterous. At the end of the day , is he making the world a better place ?. No amount of contrived answers involving Twitter can change the vehement "Yes" to that question.

> At the end of the day, is he making the world a better place? With rare exception, I don't subscribe to the idea of "key men" in general, and especially not in this case. Even if I did, I don't think that Musk is acting in a way that makes him an asset. I agree that Tesla, for instance, is doing good and important work. However, I think attributing Tesla's success, and net impact on the world to Musk alone is unsup…

Of course, the success of Tesla isn't based on Musk alone. There are thousands of Tesla employees contributing to it. Be it in engineering or production. However, Musk is the glue which ties all of this together. He set the direction, contributed quite a lot of his personal money in the beginning and is at the steering wheel.

Re: Tesla cuts prices as Model 3 deliveries narrowly miss estimates

#129
post #119
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The production and delivery numbers they came out with were very good and higher than most had expected." Every Model 3 they are producing is relatively expensive and already has a buyer. What happens when they get to the end of the list of relatively well off buyers? Certainly there will still be demand, but it will be less profitable.

What are you comparing it to when you say "relatively expensive"? I've read reviews comparing it favorably to a BMW 3 Series, which is in the same price range.

Compared to what most people can afford. My sister would love a Model 3 if she could get one for $20k

Re: Tesla cuts prices as Model 3 deliveries narrowly miss estimates

#130
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At $50B Market Cap, Tesla should be delivering at least $2B Annual profits. It's clear Tesla has run through higher margin demand. There aren't many people in the world who can afford a $50,000 car. Tesla is a niche market car, but priced as a mass market (like iPhones) product. Expect Tesla's sustainable profit to be around $500 Mil per year and it's share price must be cut in half to justify that

Once Jaguar, Porsche and Audi are able to produce electric cars in quantity, things are going to get interesting. For instance, I was recently looking at the Jaguar I-Pace, and was stunned by how long the wait and how high the markups are. Clearly there's a demand for a $100,000 electric car, but things are going to get difficult for Tesla once the competition arrives.

There were big markups on the reintroduced Ford Thunderbird, too.[0] Sales tanked after the first year and it was out of production 4 years later.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Thunderbird_(eleventh_gen...

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