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Tesla races past $100B in market valuation

reuters.com

131–140 of 360 posts

Re: Tesla races past $100B in market valuation

#131
post #91
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the "charging network" a thing that shouldn't be vendor locked? Imagine if every petrol pump was tied to specific makes of cars? Any current vendor lock-in of charging is surely at risk at being legislated away, by insisting that EV charging is done through a standard port like refueling petrol/diesel vehicles. If governments were serious about electric vehicles as a way of improving air quality they would legi…

Tesla has consistently said the Supercharger Network is open for any manufacturer to adapt. " "Tesla is aware of these problems. CEO Elon Musk first floated the idea of sharing its Supercharger network in 2015, but with only a few hundred Superchargers operating at the time, the proposals did not gain any momentum." "Tesla’s chief technology officer JB Straubel has strongly suggested that plans are now underway. He s…

"The difficulty of submitting payment for fuel" isn't something that customers have been too concerned about in the century-long history of gas stations.

Re: Tesla races past $100B in market valuation

#132
post #101
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla payed a lot of money (billions) to build the super charger network. Money no government or other company seems to want to spend. Legislating away vendor lock-in would just cause companies to be even more averse to capital investment in recharging infrastructure.

I'm pretty sure gas station networks weren't built with public money. And other companies are investing in charger networks: https://ionity.eu/ or https://www.electrifyamerica.com/index At least in the EU I'm 99% sure that the EU will mandate (if it hasn't already) a standard charging interface. Don't know about the US, it's a bit like the Wild West in this regard...

The EU has a standard charging interface, Type 2 (AC) and CCS (DC). The Model 3 has both and most superchargers in Europe got retrofitted with CCS-Plugs. Cars of other manufacturers currently still cannot use it however.

Re: Tesla races past $100B in market valuation

#134
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla is the Apple of the auto industry. They are getting stellar customer satisfaction ratings, which is translating into brand loyalty[1]. They've built an ecosystem between their above-average EV hardware, industry-leading software (with frequent improvements), and a top-notch charging network. I can see some automakers matching them on hardware, but they have a huge lead in software. Traditional car manufacturers…

One thing Tesla doesn’t have is the lock in that Apple has. If you are using iPhoto, iWatch and iMessage, switching to another manufacturer is hugely disruptive. I totally agree that Tesla’s software chops are light years ahead.

SuperCharging seems to be the play to build up some lock in. Not sure how successful it will be, but I can definitely see it encouraging repeat purchases

Re: Tesla races past $100B in market valuation

#135
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla is the Apple of the auto industry. They are getting stellar customer satisfaction ratings, which is translating into brand loyalty[1]. They've built an ecosystem between their above-average EV hardware, industry-leading software (with frequent improvements), and a top-notch charging network. I can see some automakers matching them on hardware, but they have a huge lead in software. Traditional car manufacturers…

> Also, Musk is right: no one else has even come close to matching the 2012 Model S. Tesla's lead is starting to look unassailable (in the medium term). This is kinda sorta true, if you ignore non-performance factors, but also no one actually needs what Model S provides. In the classic setup for disruption Tesla isn't the disruptor, it's the established "high quality use" getting disrupted. It is not very unreasonabl…

This still sounds like the iPhone to me.

A lot of other competitors will make android devices that are similar and eventually get a large market share, but the iPhone still dominates the higher end with better margins.

Re: Tesla races past $100B in market valuation

#136

I for the life of me cannot figure out what could possibly justify this valuation for Tesla. Sure, their cars are pretty great, they have a ravid fanbase, and they have a pretty entertaining CEO who excels at driving interest in the company. They would need to execute perfectly and deliver more cars to customers than Volkswagen in a few years to justify such a valuation right now, and I just don't see that happening…

Earlier this year about 8 months ago, Tesla shares were down 38% on the year. At that time, I took a trip to Inner Mongolia. I was about 150 miles from anywhere anyone in the western world would call a city. I saw a Tesla there in the middle of the desert of Inner Mongolia [0]. That's pretty impressive penetration. [0] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bjordan1_tesla-shares-are-dow...

Re: Tesla races past $100B in market valuation

#137
post #53

I for the life of me cannot figure out what could possibly justify this valuation for Tesla. Sure, their cars are pretty great, they have a ravid fanbase, and they have a pretty entertaining CEO who excels at driving interest in the company. They would need to execute perfectly and deliver more cars to customers than Volkswagen in a few years to justify such a valuation right now, and I just don't see that happening…

Tesla is the Apple of the auto industry. They are getting stellar customer satisfaction ratings, which is translating into brand loyalty[1]. They've built an ecosystem between their above-average EV hardware, industry-leading software (with frequent improvements), and a top-notch charging network. I can see some automakers matching them on hardware, but they have a huge lead in software. Traditional car manufacturers…

I've read somewhere that Cadillac's Super Cruise is vastly superior compared to Tesla's autopilot. I'm not sure the software gap is as wide as you think.

Re: Tesla races past $100B in market valuation

#138
post #95
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla payed a lot of money (billions) to build the super charger network. Money no government or other company seems to want to spend. Legislating away vendor lock-in would just cause companies to be even more averse to capital investment in recharging infrastructure.

Elon has received billions from the US government across his companies. It'd be a slap in the face to the entire US population for Tesla to have a 100% proprietary charging network when we helped get the company going.

You mean the $451.8M Department of Energy loan they used to buy the old NUMMI Toyata plant? Yeah.... They paid that off nine years early with interest. Try again.

https://www.tesla.com/blog/tesla-repays-department-energy-lo...

Meanwhile, why don't we talk about the GM bailout money?

If you can cite a source for the "billions" you mentioned, that would be great to read, since I must've missed that one.

Re: Tesla races past $100B in market valuation

#139
post #35

The biggest advantage they have is their supercharging network. Every manufacturer is focusing on ADAS and electric cars but no one is focusing on the network. That is their biggest advantage and the only reason to buy a Tesla, granted their cars are great but without the network it’s just an expensive commute car.

Something I've never understood is why you would want your auto manufacturer to own energy stations. Why wouldn't you just leave that up to the gas stations?

Re: Tesla races past $100B in market valuation

#140

I for the life of me cannot figure out what could possibly justify this valuation for Tesla. Sure, their cars are pretty great, they have a ravid fanbase, and they have a pretty entertaining CEO who excels at driving interest in the company. They would need to execute perfectly and deliver more cars to customers than Volkswagen in a few years to justify such a valuation right now, and I just don't see that happening…

> I for the life of me cannot figure out what could possibly justify this valuation for __INSERT_SKYROCKETING_SEC_LISTING__

FTFY.

Why?

It's what the stock market has become. It used to be a way for companies to raise cash to grow and pay dividends, and for investors to amass generational wealth at generational speeds. Now it is just a war of algorithms and differential equations to get rich as fast as possible.

Some reasons:

1. Option trading (really came into its own in the late 80's/90's)

2. Electronic trading (anyone with a brokerage account and $1,000 can play)

3. Algorithm trading (trades happening at the microsecond scale)

4. Insane speculation (Look at the historical graph of the DJIA and you will see in the last 40 years things have gone batshit insane)

5. Black-Scholes equation (the equation that governs the insanity)

For trading firms with servers in the NYSE building that are making trillions of trades a day at microsecond speeds, it is a statistical gambling model fought by algorithms (check out RadioLab's special on this) with no reason. For the rest of us, we're left with index funds that hope the average trends upwards.

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