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

nytimes.com

461–470 of 778 posts

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

#461

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…

[deleted]

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

#463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VW Group’s recent Audi e-tron has to 30-40% lower range than a Tesla 3 (~200 miles vs ~325 miles) and as such I would totally see them putting forward the money to buy Tesla in order to bridge this big technological gap.

If you think that's a $10 billion gap, you're delusional.

I may be delusional but I actually own a VW Group car, I know of people who make their living on mostly repairing VW's past mishaps (stuff like this [1]), I have no stake whatsoever in Tesla's future financial success, and as such I can tell you that VW (and the Germans generally speaking) are way, way behind in terms of EV technology compared to Tesla because stuff like this it's not in their engineering DNA.

$10 billions is a pittance, it gives you two thirds of Whatsapp or the entire Skype before it was acquired by MS (adjusted for inflation), so I don't think I'm delusional when I'm saying that it is not a great sum to pay when the future of your entire industry depends on you being best at building EVs (and Tesla now is the best).

I've had the same discussion on places like /r/cars, i.e. that Tesla doesn't sell cars, it sells batteries and the accompanying software (with some wheels attached to the whole thing), while companies like VW, MB or BMW have almost no clue on how to build the best batteries, never mind the best software, they're only good at building cars (and lately not so good even at that), which is an industry on its way out.

[1] https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/threads/tsi-engine-problems....

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

#464

Seasonal 4th to 1st quarter may have been a loss but these numbers stand out to me as being a bit more important. Cars sold: Q1 2019: 63,000 Q1 2018: 29,980 Q1 2017: 25,000 Q1 2016: 14,820 Q1 2015: 10,045 Q1 2014: 6,457 Q1 2013: 4,900 Q1 2012: 0 Revenue Q1 2019: $4.5 billion Q1 2018: $3.4 billion Q1 2017: $2.7 billion Q1 2016: $1.6 billion Q1 2015: $1.1 billion Q1 2014: $713 million Q1 2013: $562 million Q1 2012: $30…

Sounds like what you're doing is proving the NYTimes is part of the fake news problem. I wonder given your data above if the NYTimes could be sued for liable for reporting something easily provably false.

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

#465
post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Seems like Tesla may have misjudged the model 3 demand and should have increased the number of production lines more slowly. I think in Fremont factory has 6 lines. One for X, one for S, and 4 for the model 3. Seems like they should just move one or two of the lines from model 3 to the model Y, which shares 75% of the same parts instead of committing to building several new lines in Reno and China. While the…

>> While the model 3 may be luxury, it looks crazy cheap compared to the electric Audi, Volvo, BMW, and Porsche competitors... I tried Tesla test drive and one thing I don't like is how cheap it feels inside. Low quality materials. So you cannot compare just their prices without mentioning materials and build quality.

I rented a Tesla S (75d I believe) for 3 days. Felt pretty awesome, and stomping on the accelerator put a smile on my face every time. The nav system was a pleasure, actually better than Google Nav on a top of the line phone. The voice recognition for nav and music playing worked really well.

I've used similar nav systems from BMW, Subaru, and Toyota and they seemed like lame software running on a 5-10 year old phone. Poor touch screens, smaller screens, poor voice recognition, and poor nav. I'd rather they just have an aux port for music and let me hang my own tablet on the dash somewhere.

Overall fit/finish for the model S was not as nice as an Audi I've been in, but was plenty good for me.

The model 3 is of course substantially less luxurious. Single smaller display instead of two displays. Many less buttons/switches. I've only done a test drive in the 3. But I do have several friends that have switches from S to 3, or 3 to S, and they speak very highly of the 3. No doubt the 3 is built to a much lower price point, and you can tell. I think part of the Tesla plan is to have you touch nothing but the steering wheel or the display. I suspect the voice commands will get better over time, they already handle nav and music well.

But when it comes down to it, I'd pick performance, handling, and range over more expensive interior.

Not like Audi, Volvo, or BMW is selling anything close to the model 3 price and range. I drove a Chevy Volt (comparable on price, but not so much on range or performance) and it was nowhere close to the model 3.

Who is willing to buy a slower car and pay 50% more for 2/3rds the range just to get a nicer interior? Not me.

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

#466

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…

What downer? That's all great news.

Tesla has overpromised and underdelivered, doesn't make any profit (that is, it's useless to anyone who owns their shares) and has plundered millions through state and federal subsidies. To hell with those parasites.

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

#467
post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla as a part of Apple (whose cash stuck between mattress cushions far exceeds the market cap of Tesla) would be unstoppable. Also, a Tesla car is an iPhone in a world of flip phones. The Tesla design ethos fits Apple pretty nicely.

Would you bet your life on a company that can't make a reliable keyboard... in it's 3rd generation attempt?

Well aren't we happy then there's no single key/button in the Tesla 3...

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

#468

Seasonal 4th to 1st quarter may have been a loss but these numbers stand out to me as being a bit more important. Cars sold: Q1 2019: 63,000 Q1 2018: 29,980 Q1 2017: 25,000 Q1 2016: 14,820 Q1 2015: 10,045 Q1 2014: 6,457 Q1 2013: 4,900 Q1 2012: 0 Revenue Q1 2019: $4.5 billion Q1 2018: $3.4 billion Q1 2017: $2.7 billion Q1 2016: $1.6 billion Q1 2015: $1.1 billion Q1 2014: $713 million Q1 2013: $562 million Q1 2012: $30…

Yep, the numbers that matter continue to trend up. More importantly, at this point those numbers are becoming a huge problem for essentially all their competitors. Most of these are at this point bleeding market share to Tesla that they are trying to recover from by launching products that clearly are a lot less competitive and are probably being sold at a loss right now. They are going to be bleeding cash while they…

>More importantly, at this point those numbers are becoming a huge problem for essentially all their competitors.

BMW sold 2.5 million cars in 2018, the eighth year of increased sales.

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

#469
post #338
post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EV are still too expensive and Tesla ridiculously so. That’s not a problem if you can’t keep up with demand, but competition creeps up. Why would you buy a Tesla when you can buy a Hyundai Kona for a lot less? We need better leadership though. I live in Denmark where EVs aren’t very widespread because of taxes. In Norway more than half of new vehicles sold are EV. Norway has more money than us, but they didn’t really…

First of all, you basically cannot buy a Hyundai. The production is far below Model 3 levels. Here in Germany, you are looking at 12 months wait time due to demand far exceeding supply. Also, the Model 3 is a very attractive offering. It is the faster car, aims at the typical BMW audience, and most of all, has the supercharger network available.

As another German I can definitely tell you that no one here sees a Model 3 at anywhere near a BMW in production quality.

If Tesla intends to market the Model 3 at the "BMW audience" - whatever differentiates them from, say, the "Audi audience" - they are horribly miscalculating at what German people expect from a car. It is not limited to EV range.

Also, Volkswagen is ramping up production on their Modular Electric Drive Matrix (MEB) [1] and within 2-3 years cars with this technology will hit the market.

I wonder if Tesla can keep up when Volkswagen, Toyota or other car heavy weights begin serious EV production once they belief the market is ready. Diesel sales are better then ever in the last years, so they simply could afford to wait and continue to make money until infrastructure ramps up and technology improves. Tesla cannot do that.

[1] https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com/en/modular-electric-driv...

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

#470
post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> While the model 3 may be luxury, it looks crazy cheap compared to the electric Audi, Volvo, BMW, and Porsche competitors... I tried Tesla test drive and one thing I don't like is how cheap it feels inside. Low quality materials. So you cannot compare just their prices without mentioning materials and build quality.

I rented a Tesla S (75d I believe) for 3 days. Felt pretty awesome, and stomping on the accelerator put a smile on my face every time. The nav system was a pleasure, actually better than Google Nav on a top of the line phone. The voice recognition for nav and music playing worked really well. I've used similar nav systems from BMW, Subaru, and Toyota and they seemed like lame software running on a 5-10 year old phone…

> I've used similar nav systems from BMW, Subaru, and Toyota and they seemed like lame software running on a 5-10 year old phone. Poor touch screens, smaller screens, poor voice recognition, and poor nav. I'd rather they just have an aux port for music and let me hang my own tablet on the dash somewhere.

Thought the same, but the newest Volkswagen generation has improved a lot. Their touch screens and software feel much much more usable than even 2 years ago.

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