Live data from Hacker News

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

nytimes.com

141–150 of 778 posts

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

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Fair. But it's hard for me to imagine a future in which Tesla grows at a better rate than SpaceX.

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

#142

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…

Do you have any first hand experience with a Tesla? I have a theory that people who say things like this don’t.

I used to drive a more expensive BMW than the Model 3 I have now. To say that the Model 3 is the toy, it’s absurd at best. It is so much better in terms of technology, handling, efficiency, maintenance, cost of ownership, performance, etc. that it makes comments like yours really sound completely uninformed.

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

#143
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.

There is a parallel with Apple. When owning the first iPhone, you knew you were holding the future and there was no coming back.

The competition was a joke for years, but eventually things normalised. Going Android is not at all the same feeling than going back to an nokia or blackberry of old.

So, who knows what current owner are going to do when every car manufacturer has a full line up of electric cars ?

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

#144
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...

I think the smartest thing Musk ever did for Tesla was to start sending rockets into space and landing them over and over. It really makes you think, "Hey, if they can do all that rocket science, they can probably make a sedan." (This is mostly a joke... but it's also not entirely a joke)

He also stated making rockets way before he started making cars.

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

#145
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…

EVs are a false peak. So long as everyone is driving around in their own personal automobile, we're doing nothing to address autocentic development, with all it's accompanying sprawl, concrete, ashphalt, steel, and general hi-consumption culture that goes with it.

We need an entrepreneur to do with the city what Elon did with the car. How on earth you would fund something of that scale, I’m not sure. And many country’s attempts at “cities of the future” have ended up as ghost towns. I’d love to see someone develop a new walkable, eco-friendly city from scratch somewhere in the U.S., but all odds are against that kind of thing.

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

#146
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

BMW doesn't need to pay top dollar for a prestigious brand, they already have one. Tesla will be bought out by the likes of Geely or Tata who don't have strong brands of their own, but have already been going around and scooping up smaller car brands like Volvo and Jaguar.

They have history of doing so though: They own both Mini and Rolls-Royce now.

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

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most surprising thing about your post to me is the price of a new Model S. That's $150k. Is the price so high because it includes VAT?

You can option up a Tesla Model S in the US to $150k.

Not anymore. It’s $131k fully loaded.

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

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>370 miles of range, Autopilot, and the Supercharger network >Where will Tesla be in a few years if/when other manufacturers catch up with that? wouldnt that be highly dependent on teslas cash burn and desperate cash grabs to survive the next quarter? in a few years you should hope to still retain some form of autopilot, maybe the supercharger network is shared/sold off, 370 miles of range? battery tech isnt improvin…

> usually battery life drops

Tests have shown that is not really that big of a factor.

E.g. https://cleantechnica.com/2019/01/28/350000-miles-in-a-tesla...

https://electrek.co/2017/09/04/how-tesla-model-s-holds-up-ti...

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

#150
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> economy vehicles produced by Ford/Chevy/Honda/Toyota since they have established production lines and can out-produce and out-price Tesla. Who do not pay for the lifetime externalities of each of their vehicles burning petroleum for hundreds of thousands of miles. If you accept climate change is man made, and that combustion vehicles contribute to it, it is insane we don’t make internal combustion vehicles pay for…

I'm not necessarily against that approach, but the penalties should be for externalities beyond just the tailpipe. Anything else is just short sighted. This means counting counting environmental impacts for manufacturing, including batteries

Let's not forget building the massive amount of roads we built for any type of car.
Post reply on HN