Live data from Hacker News

Tesla Financial Results 2019 Q4

ir.tesla.com

181–190 of 346 posts

Re: Tesla Financial Results 2019 Q4

#181

The bull case for Tesla is clear. Aside from Nissan with the Leaf, who recently loss their galvanizing CEO and who's market cap has tanked since, what major automaker has anywhere near the success of Tesla with EV? No doubt execution has been an issue in the past, but recent sales trends, completion of gigafactory, and Chinese expansion show that they are on the right trend. Tesla's were confined to the luxury market…

GM? Bolt is a great car and GM has enormous production capability. Well aware of the difference in sales figures, but having driven both, I prefer it to the Model S. I think battery tech will end up deciding the market, though, and GM would have to pivot harder that I think they are able to in order to beat Tesla. I am very curious about their internal R&D pipeline for the Maxwell technology.

Why do you prefer the Bolt?

From my perspective the Bolt is: -Ugly -Less safe -Slower -Doesn't drive itself, or will be capable in the future

Worst of all the Bolt's infotainment system is horrible.

https://www.chevrolet.com/content/dam/chevrolet/na/us/englis...

Re: Tesla Financial Results 2019 Q4

#182
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno. My bullish view has more to do with Tesla using the vehicle market as an entry point to the broader energy market. If the Tesla cars start throwing off profit and make the company self-sustaining, their vertically-integrated energy thing opens the kind of insanely huge global energy market. They're not just going to eat Ford's lunch - but also Chevron, Saudi Aramco and your local energy company.

They’re energy business (SolarCity) has declined every year since they bought it. They’ve lost significant market share in the rooftop Solar market, and the market has started to move away from rooftop solar in favor of large Solar farms in general. There is nothing to indicate any advantage in the energy space

Except if I want to lower my power bills

Re: Tesla Financial Results 2019 Q4

#183

The bull case for Tesla is clear. Aside from Nissan with the Leaf, who recently loss their galvanizing CEO and who's market cap has tanked since, what major automaker has anywhere near the success of Tesla with EV? No doubt execution has been an issue in the past, but recent sales trends, completion of gigafactory, and Chinese expansion show that they are on the right trend. Tesla's were confined to the luxury market…

Other car manufacturers are missing what makes Tesla do so well. It's a lot of things, really. Range, performance, the hope of self-driving, the supercharging network (Which is much bigger than people think!), and of course, the fact that they look like normal cars. Most other EVs like the Leaf are either incredibly lacking in range and performance, or they're incredibly ugly like the BMW i3. Then you've got cars lik…

The logo for Mullen is incredibly similar to Tesla's.

Also, Supercharger v3 goes up to 250kW

Re: Tesla Financial Results 2019 Q4

#184
post #3

Congrats to the whole Tesla team + SpaceX. Crushing things. It's taken a long time, but it's all starting to pay off.

I think they should buy this company [0] and sell the vehicle at cost (temporarily) to capture the lowest end of the market, too. [Only half kidding, I was sad to see this happen and couldn't find anywhere else to post about it in my limited free time.]

[0] https://www.treehugger.com/bikes/want-buy-high-tech-low-carb...

Re: Tesla Financial Results 2019 Q4

#185
post #59
post #3

Congrats to the whole Tesla team + SpaceX. Crushing things. It's taken a long time, but it's all starting to pay off.

Is it? They still lost close to $800 million this last year. And the company is growing slower than it ever was.

If they have a full year of profitability will you agree?

Re: Tesla Financial Results 2019 Q4

#186
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why were they able to meet a run rate or 500k cars a year in Q4 of last year and not sustain it if their factory was maxed out? And why would they claim in projections that their factory was capable of producing that if they didn’t meet that? Companies are rarely production constrained. Many claim they are, but the fact that Tesla sales in their two largest markets declined doesn’t indicate to me that production is t…

At 500k per year they were still nowhere near meeting global demand, and they decided to move sales away from markets they were already well-established in, and into new ones. The nice thing about this disagreement we are having is it will be settled by what happens in the next year. I say Tesla's sales will go up strongly now that it has another factory. I take it you think they won't, and all that new capacity will…

You're spot on with everything. I think the biggest hitch this year will be China. That is such a huge market

Re: Tesla Financial Results 2019 Q4

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GM? Bolt is a great car and GM has enormous production capability. Well aware of the difference in sales figures, but having driven both, I prefer it to the Model S. I think battery tech will end up deciding the market, though, and GM would have to pivot harder that I think they are able to in order to beat Tesla. I am very curious about their internal R&D pipeline for the Maxwell technology.

Why do you prefer the Bolt? From my perspective the Bolt is: -Ugly -Less safe -Slower -Doesn't drive itself, or will be capable in the future Worst of all the Bolt's infotainment system is horrible. https://www.chevrolet.com/content/dam/chevrolet/na/us/englis...

I preferred the Bolt because it had similar and adequate range, adequate recharge capability, better drive, felt substantially roomier in the interior, and I preferred the higher seating.

I have no use for an infotainment system in any vehicle (give me a hotspot and I'll bring my own devices). I disliked the Tesla center mounted tablet console dashboard, though that's subjective.

I don't think the Tesla drives itself, does it? That was not a factor for me, and if anything would be a mild negative at the current level of self-driving tech maturity. At any rate, the Bolt had some useful driver assist packages for safety, though they are upgrades. I think they both have fairly similar safety ratings. And speed isn't a consideration for me, as long as it goes fast enough for highway. Nor is appearance, within reason.

I really am thrilled for Tesla's success and don't think there is a "right car" but a "right car for you". The Bolt is a good car, though.

Re: Tesla Financial Results 2019 Q4

#188
post #25

I have been a longtime bull, but their stock value is now up over 140% in the last 3 months and I can't say I fully understand why.

I think the cybertruck announcement caught the attention of a lot of "normal" people.

I remember years ago reading that although the "please don't squeeze the charmin" commercials were annoying, people remembered the name. Maybe a really weird truck announcement works the same.

Or it could be that "normal" people are starting to see model 3s showing up (outside of california for once)

Re: Tesla Financial Results 2019 Q4

#189
post #124
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was happy to see they'd increased range to 315 miles.

OTOH, they killed the RWD version. That likely would have had an even longer range, and certainly had a lower cost.

I used to think the same as you but it's not exactly what you think. The front motor is a bit smaller than rear so at cruising speeds on the highway, the rear motor disengages and the front can handle the speed while using less KW even with the added weight of the extra motor.

Re: Tesla Financial Results 2019 Q4

#190
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

simple back of the envelope calculation: in 3 years time, they will have 3 giga factories (+1 in upstate new york), each of which should be scale to 500k cars. at an average resale price of $50k (might be a little lower, but let's keep it simple), that's $75B in revenue. at a 10% profit margin, that's $7.5B profit. let's presume a 20x factor as a growth stock, you have an evaluation of $150B, which it's currently tre…

Why do you assume they can sell all those cars, when they can’t even sell all their current capacity of cars? They’ve been able to produce 500,000 cars for awhile, yet only delivering 367,000 this year.

They could sell a lot of semis and cybertrucks if they were ready.

And just think, they could put a dashboard on the model 3 and sales would probably double.

Post reply on HN