Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag • Hacker News Board

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

#111

Post by pooya13 » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 1:27 AM UTC

mwfunk wrote: post #75

toomuchtodo wrote: post #25

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…

Generally when people are down on Tesla or Elon Musk, it's because they want them to succeed at displacing internal combustion engines. They're not rooting for internal combustion engines, they're rooting for electric cars and annoyed when the company (or Musk) flounders from self-inflicted damage. At least, that seems like most of the criticism here. No one is going to respond well to an advocate of a technology the…

> Generally when people are down on Tesla or Elon Musk, it's because they want them to succeed at displacing internal combustion engines.

That is the exception. The general reason is big oil negative campaign.

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

#112

Post by agumonkey » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 1:27 AM UTC

bduerst wrote: post #82

mwfunk wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally when people are down on Tesla or Elon Musk, it's because they want them to succeed at displacing internal combustion engines. They're not rooting for internal combustion engines, they're rooting for electric cars and annoyed when the company (or Musk) flounders from self-inflicted damage. At least, that seems like most of the criticism here. No one is going to respond well to an advocate of a technology the…

Exactly. Making Tesla criticism about criticizing alternative energy is a false equivocation. There are strong arguments that Tesla is being ran very poorly by Musk (solar city acq, VW cash denied, SEC fines, etc.) despite the company being one of the champions for electric vehicles.

I fail to see what Tesla can do to be a more solid company, care to give hints ?

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

#113

Post by Reedx » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 1:28 AM UTC

stonogo wrote: post #51

itslennysfault wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More importantly, who cares if he did get stoned?

The people who issued him a United States Department of Defense security clearance, to start with. At least they should. I guess Musk plays by different rules than us plebians.

Why should they? It's much less problematic than alcohol.

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

#114

Post by philwelch » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 1:28 AM UTC

moduspol wrote: post #55

TylerE wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Model 3 owner here: Tesla already feels at least three years ahead of other manufacturers, and the cars other manufacturers are promising in the next few years are aiming to possibly compete with what Tesla's been selling for at least a year. The Model S is being sold today with 370 miles of range, Autopilot, and the Supercharger network. Where will Tesla be in a few years if/when other manufacturers catch up with th…

Bankrupt?

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

#115

Post by sorenjan » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 1:28 AM UTC

redindian75 wrote: post #65

cmer wrote: 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.

Had 2 BMWs before my Model3 LR. Never going back. Briefly thought of BMW i3, but once I tested Model3 & played with its Autopilot on stop/go commute - Teslas are years ahead of the game. Best part is, they can only get better. - The very thought of dealership, auto repair shops feels very old now. I had a problem with my left indicator stalk, booked an appointment in the same Tesla app, a mobile mech pulled up, took…

The problem with software updates in cars is that they change the car's behavior, and you end up with a car that did one thing yesterday, and a different thing today. Like steering into a barrier. https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/8a0jfh/autopil...

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

#116

Post by sandworm101 » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 1:29 AM UTC

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #81

Tesla's 1.5B reduction of cash on hand was largely due to the 920M convertible bond payment — but that only happened because TSLA didn't perform to the level necessary for conversion (~$360 IIRC). I wonder what changes in terms this'll warrant for future capital raises. Then they mention that they missed a lot of revenue due to missing half their shipments overseas, and onto Q2 (But also expecting a loss in Q2). Sale…

A few more years of this amd they may be bought out by the likes of BMW. The tesla brand is worth something, even if on the hood of a german car.

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

#117

Post by jedberg » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 1:29 AM UTC

a13n wrote: post #50

jedberg wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Fully refundable at any time.

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

#118

Post by moduspol » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 1:30 AM UTC

sheeshkebab wrote: post #88

moduspol wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Same here. This is how I describe it to other people.

I’m using cars to move me and family from point a to b, the less of service and Tesla people I ever see, the better - and if I ever need to get those things, the faster they get the parts and fix it, the happier I am, as most other car owners I’m sure. In other words, I don’t get the whole Tesla club thing for basically a glorified metal bucket. Although for some odd reason I do want Tesla to be my next car.

I get what you're saying, but there is a measurable quality of life increase over an A to B gas-powered car.

* No oil changes

* Charge at home, wake up every morning to a "full tank" for a lot less than it'd cost to fill up with gas

* No gas station fill-ups

* Autopilot is huge for quality of life on highways and in bumper-to-bumper traffic

* I keep the valet key card in my wallet, but there's no physical key that you need to keep with you. My car key was the last one I really needed, so I no longer carry physical keys

* The car has an API, so you can use it to automate various actions (like to start the HVAC system if the car is at work and it's 4:30pm on a weekday). With my normal schedule, the car is already pre-warmed/cooled any time I get in it

* Built-in dashcam includes side cameras, and sentry mode

* Summon, and (soon) enhanced summon

None of that helps if you're driving a loaner while you're waiting for parts, but it's tough to quantitatively measure the impact of just having things like this. And I've got more faith in Tesla to improve logistics in parts sourcing than traditional automakers becoming more like Tesla.

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

#119

Post by Reedx » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 1:30 AM UTC

S_A_P wrote: 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...

Yeah, but people have been saying they won't make it for over a decade now. It's tiresome and unproductive.

Meanwhile they've done amazing things that most considered impossible. They went for it despite the difficulty and actually changed an industry. Electric cars were thought of as golf carts! Not so anymore. The idea of covering the country with chargers was a pipe dream. Now it's reality.

Here's hoping Telsa continues doing big things.

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

#120

Post by sjwright » Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 1:30 AM UTC

tertius wrote: post #101

How much would their cars cost if they actually made a profit? And if they were sold at those prices would anyone but them? My point: their customer service, tech and everything else people love about them is being subsidized by debt. They're not the U.S. government, they can't print money forever...

Tesla is in debt largely because of their rapid ramp-up with costly investments in design, development, manufacturing and supply chain.

My layperson understanding is Tesla have been in a structurally profitable state for quite some time—but for their investments geared towards scaling up ever further.

The question you need to ask is "if you build a factory, across how many units should the cost of that factory be spread?"