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Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag

nytimes.com

41–50 of 778 posts

Re: Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag

#41
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a shame people condemn Tesla’s for its troubles when internal combustion gets a ridiculous amount of subsided despite it causing irreparable harm to the planet. Musk plays on Boss Mode (along with others) while everyone enjoys bread and circus and laughs at people trying to accelerate progress with regards to climate change. I hope those quarterly profits, trucks, and SUVs are worth it when climate change hits i…

We are definitely living in different universes. ICEs do not get any subsidies, quite the opposite: in many countries, e.g. the whole EU gas is so heavily taxed that more than half of the retail price is tax. Also, Tesla is an easy target to make fun of, because of its narcistic, arrogant CEO that seems to think that he can outsmart everyone, when in fact his business is a total mess.

Gas is about $3/gallon in the US. Ford is moving towards only making SUVs, pickup trucks, and the Mustang. Different countries, not different universes.

I like that Musk is narcissistic and arrogant in public. He doesn’t hide it like the execs at every automaker who was part of Dieselgate. Be an asshole, by all means, just deliver faster. (Credit to BYD and their electric bus fleet efforts, and China’s renewables push in general; I would be remiss if I made it sound like Musk alone was working towards these goals).

Re: Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag

#42

I see this trend continuing for Tesla. Aside from Musk's leadership, which is very polarizing, I don't see their cars as being very compelling compared to the upcoming offerings of Audi and Porsche. Tesla isn't really competing against Ford/Chevy/Honda/Toyota. Instead they are competing against BMW/Mercedes/Porsche/Audi. By comparison Teslas seems like a toy compared to those other brands so I will gladly wait and gi…

I've never been super convinced by Tesla even after test driving, and was fairly happy with my German made car. But I had to make a change recently for a family-friendlier car and wanted electric now so got a Model 3.

Now, I'm fully convinced by Tesla in every way and am never ever going back to dealerships. The car, the service, the people, all of it is on a whole higher plane of satisfaction. It feels like the transition from a flip phone to an iPhone in 2008.

So I guess I'm one of those insane Tesla fans now :-/

Re: Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag

#43
post #28
post #7

It was fairly obvious that this was going to happen when they announced their "Investor Autonomy Day" a couple of days before earnings. Get people thinking about the long term rather than this quarter.

In the long term robotaxis will be a commodity service with razor thin margins: just like existing taxis, airlines, and shipping.

[deleted]

Re: Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag

#44
post #14

As someone who does not have any stake in Tesla, I dont see a path forward for them without a company with the bank account on the scale of Apple/Google/Amazon funding them. Bootstrapping software is hard, hardware is harder, cars are 10x harder than those squared...

The irony is that Tesla was supposed to bankroll SpaceX, but SpaceX is killing it on profits and Tesla is floundering. If anything it looks like SpaceX will end up bankrolling Tesla. Musk should forget about trying to save this planet and focus on getting to the red one.

> SpaceX is killing it on profits

SpaceX isn't open about their financials, but all indications are that they are losing money.

Re: Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag

#45
post #28
post #7

It was fairly obvious that this was going to happen when they announced their "Investor Autonomy Day" a couple of days before earnings. Get people thinking about the long term rather than this quarter.

In the long term robotaxis will be a commodity service with razor thin margins: just like existing taxis, airlines, and shipping.

[deleted]

Re: Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag

#46
post #26

This explains why his head of AI and head of hardware looked so nervous during their presentations the other day. They've likely been pushed to embellish parts of their presentations, too, such as e.g. the forward looking statements that "you only need cameras" to solve FSD, or that it can be sufficiently solved with what they're doing in the first place. They did present some top notch work, but I'm really having my…

Or they're not really used to doing publicity presentations. What you say might be true, but your source of evidence doesn't stack up.

Re: Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag

#47
post #39
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think pretty much every single person who owns a Model S/X would tell you that they're never going back to the old German crew. Tesla enjoys the strongest brand loyalty of any car manufacturer. Apple-like loyalty. Tesla doesn't feel like a toy, it feels like the future. They're years ahead of everybody else in terms of tech that is usable today.

They're saying that NOW. What will they be saying in a year or three?

Were iPhone 2 and 4 users less loyal than iPhone 1 users?

Re: Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag

#48
post #39
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think pretty much every single person who owns a Model S/X would tell you that they're never going back to the old German crew. Tesla enjoys the strongest brand loyalty of any car manufacturer. Apple-like loyalty. Tesla doesn't feel like a toy, it feels like the future. They're years ahead of everybody else in terms of tech that is usable today.

They're saying that NOW. What will they be saying in a year or three?

That's the implication. Apple/iPhone customers were happy a decade ago, and are still happy today.

Re: Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag

#49
post #31

I see this trend continuing for Tesla. Aside from Musk's leadership, which is very polarizing, I don't see their cars as being very compelling compared to the upcoming offerings of Audi and Porsche. Tesla isn't really competing against Ford/Chevy/Honda/Toyota. Instead they are competing against BMW/Mercedes/Porsche/Audi. By comparison Teslas seems like a toy compared to those other brands so I will gladly wait and gi…

I think pretty much every single person who owns a Model S/X would tell you that they're never going back to the old German crew. Tesla enjoys the strongest brand loyalty of any car manufacturer. Apple-like loyalty. Tesla doesn't feel like a toy, it feels like the future. They're years ahead of everybody else in terms of tech that is usable today.

True but that's only a fraction of a small segment of the market, and brand loyalists aren't enough for Tesla to sustain growth.

Re: Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag

#50
post #12
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird, they gave me back mine faster than I thought ACH would normally hit (this was maybe a month ago).

I've been waiting four years and counting... Model X reservation. Every time I call, I get a new person (Because the last person I talked to doesn't work there anymore) and they swear that they will certainly solve this for me! And then I never hear from them again.

What does the legal agreement you signed when you put your reservation money down say? Does their policy say they'll give it back?
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