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Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

reuters.com

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Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#51

Post by bdcravens »

negamax wrote: post #20

Few thoughts 1. Is anyone still buying car? May be it's a huge necessessity in US but most of the cities are fairly packed and have good public transport and improving 2. Idea of self driving car will indeed be a big selling point. Still people will pool those and cost of transport in general will come down because of Uber's fleet. Self ownership will still not go up significantly unless idea is to buy for long dista…

> in US but most of the cities are fairly packed and have good public transport and improving

Cities like Houston are very much automobile cities. A large amount of the population lives in suburbs not well serviced (or serviced at all) by public transport, aside from park and rides to get into the city. I wouldn't call it good either - the commuter buses aren't bad, but the rail is scarce and feels very risky (https://abc13.com/travel/metro-promising-new-enforcement-too...), and the city buses feel even sketchier.

(I take the public transport into and out of Houston 3-5 times a week)

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#54

Post by chroem- »

jancsika wrote: post #43

Suppose you buy a Tesla and in 10 months they fold. Who then maintains the proprietary software that keeps the vehicle running?

I would be much more concerned about all the hardware that is pretty much unserviceable by anyone except Tesla.

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#55

Post by nitrogen »

bouncycastle wrote: post #50
jancsika wrote: post #43

Suppose you buy a Tesla and in 10 months they fold. Who then maintains the proprietary software that keeps the vehicle running?

Hopefully they can open source it and start and organisation like Mozilla. Others could use the software to make their own "Tesla" too.

Most likely some other company would buy anything valuable before it could be given away for free.

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#56

Post by cynusx »

jancsika wrote: post #43

Suppose you buy a Tesla and in 10 months they fold. Who then maintains the proprietary software that keeps the vehicle running?

If Tesla stock is at lower multiples it would become an interesting take-over target so I wouldn't worry about this

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#57

Post by rayiner »

asaph wrote: post #40
charlesdm wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With relatively low gas prices at the moment, decreasing federal subsidies for electric cars, and more players entering the market, it seems like Tesla is in a pretty tough spot. Nothing you couldn't see coming 5 years ago, however.

To be fair, the current competition is largely a reaction to Tesla's accomplishments.

I question that CW. If that were true, the competitors would be making sporty sedans like Tesla. But almost none are. The competitors—the Bolt, Kona, etc., are all totally different form factors.

The alternative, potentially better, theory is that everyone is reacting to the same incentives and market structures. Governments are pushing electric vehicles through subsidies and mandates. Meanwhile, exploding use of portable electronics has led to massive improvements lithium ion battery technology. Tesla has targeted a flashy niche market, expensive sports sedans, but has largely avoided trying to compete in the markets where the sales really are: crossovers and SUVs. (Every year, Toyota sells as many RAV4s as all the vehicles Tesla has ever sold.)

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#58

Post by Theodores »

threeseed wrote: post #17

Definitely less than 10 months. Demand is dropping off as (a) serious competitors come onto the market e.g. Mercedes EQC, (b) the time between a model refresh increases e.g. S and X models and (c) the concerns over customer service increase. And I still believe that the Model 3 was a mistake to release at this time. It is cannibalising their higher priced models and squeezing the company's overall gross margins at at…

Elon Musk wants to colonise Mars and make the world carbon neutral. He ain't no financial charlatan, due to the size of his ambition his companies are always going to be maxed out on their lines of credit. If this Tesla gig turns into a roaring success then you can be Elon Musk would be similarly looking at financial annihilation on some go-to-Mars project.

From this perspective the roll out of Model 3 was to be sooner rather than later. The 3 is an extremely good product that makes the S/X models appear dated, so it is a single model company really.

For the save the world vision to work that means selling as many Model 3's as possible and encouraging all other marques to be going carbon neutral too, with electric power being table stakes.

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#59

Post by stabbles »

jancsika wrote: post #43

Suppose you buy a Tesla and in 10 months they fold. Who then maintains the proprietary software that keeps the vehicle running?

Are there historical examples of this happening in other companies? It's scary to think the answer to ops question is not immediately obvious.

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#60

Post by djanogo »

threeseed wrote: post #17

Definitely less than 10 months. Demand is dropping off as (a) serious competitors come onto the market e.g. Mercedes EQC, (b) the time between a model refresh increases e.g. S and X models and (c) the concerns over customer service increase. And I still believe that the Model 3 was a mistake to release at this time. It is cannibalising their higher priced models and squeezing the company's overall gross margins at at…

I think Porsche Taycan is a bigger threat as it will target Tesla's high profit margin cars. I would assume people who spend 80-120k for cars would prefer Porsche dealerships and service, while Tesla sales and service centers are inundated with $40k buyers issues.

I checked EQC, it still felt like a compliance/test vehicle compared to Taycan, which Porsche has been testing in several continents under extreme weather conditions for over a year now.

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