Live data from Hacker News

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

nytimes.com

211–220 of 778 posts

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

#211
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's quite possible something similar to the Fisker bankruptcy might happen - Fisker's assets were bought out by Wanxiang Group who then launched Karma Automotive, resuming manufacture of their 'Revero' plug-in hybrid car, which is an improved version of the old Fisker Karma.

didnt fisker just announce partnership with rimac and pinifirina

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

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My take: Panasonic is moving its chips from Tesla to Toyota/Mazda and betting the incumbent Japanese makers will be better positioned to capitalize on EV sales over the long term. It’s not strange for a 100+ year old company playing the long game. I also think Tesla’s function for many of its suppliers was to prove that Americans will buy EVs, and their expectations are fairly low about how much more Tesla will accom…

Personally; ding ding ding. This is why american MBAs are utter useless garbage.. The asian incumbents in heavy industry are going to own, simply because they are capable and willing to play the long-game. China is pretty much buying all of Africa. They havea 100 year plan. And anyone who isnt aware of that fact, is simply behind the game and already losing. We had a post about KPCB earlier, and good riddance - the a…

This reminds me of the late 1980s when America was on the decline and the Japanese were buying everything and the end was in sight.

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

#213
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla has about $9B in debt. They are not an attractive takeover candidate. They've never turned an annual profit.

Neither did Amazon for many years. They are scaling up.

you’re confusing a company with no growth to a company that reinvested to become an industry titan

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

#214
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apply bankruptcy and sell the assets for cheap... Id imagine many would want to pick up the remains...

Specifically what remains? They are basically the only OEM pushing self driving without lidar. Their manufacturing facilities are childish compared to other large automakers. Solar City, powerwall, and the solar roof are huge money losers and barely make a dent in the P&L statement. Maybe just the brand name? But will the brand have the cache once it suffers bankruptcy? Maybe it will.

Did you mean cachet?

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

#215

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've never been super convinced by Tesla even after test driving, and was fairly happy with my German made car. But I had to make a change recently for a family-friendlier car and wanted electric now so got a Model 3. Now, I'm fully convinced by Tesla in every way and am never ever going back to dealerships. The car, the service, the people, all of it is on a whole higher plane of satisfaction. It feels like the tran…

> It feels like the transition from a flip phone to an iPhone in 2008.

It seems like the analogy is very apt.

Lots of people pointing out flaws with Tesla's cars and saying that when the incumbents make it into the market they will squash them. Same thing happened with the iPhone - it didn't have multitasking, copy/paste, mms (all things that even standard dumbphones had). Nokia, Blackberry are huge Apple has no chance.

A product can simultaneously be inferior in some (or many) aspects, but still feel somehow be on another plane of feeling like the future.

[product talk aside, Tesla's real problem seems to be execution - can they actually build the damn cars, and can they make a profit on them?]

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

#216
post #207
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...

Well, they could get full self driving going and sales would go through the roof.

Not so much after the local guy died on Highway 101. The sentiment in my circle is that the self driving can't be trusted.

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

#217

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…

I was close to buying a used Tesla from Tesla, but this is making me pause. Am I being unreasonable? I live in the Bay Area where I feel like the only person without a Tesla or two.

I would only lease a Tesla. Why be stuck holding the bag if the proverbial shit hits the fan?

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

#218
post #207
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...

Well, they could get full self driving going and sales would go through the roof.

They could put a fusion power-plant in every car and sales would explode!

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

#219
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars-as-software demand software-centric co's hiring ML people. Legacy won't catch up, startups will.

There is a lot of software in cars, but cars are not software. Making cars is a lot harder from a business perspective than doing AI. In the end software is just a file that gets loaded into a module - one step in a very long chain.

Manufacturing is well-understood, self-driving is research. Dumb cars = flip phones shortly.

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

#220
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars-as-software demand software-centric co's hiring ML people. Legacy won't catch up, startups will.

Dream on. Cars aren’t software.

Nope. Car differentiators are going to be tablet screen + special-purpose AI. Dumb cars = vinyl.
Post reply on HN