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Tesla’s Engineering Chief Takes Leave of Absence at Pivotal Moment

wsj.com

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Re: Tesla’s Engineering Chief Takes Leave of Absence at Pivotal Moment

#41

Post by [deleted] »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #28
ClassyJacket wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, with what information the general public has, this could just as easily be spun as 'Engineering chief takes well deserved break after months of crunch successfully implementing Model 3 mass production.' Even if output production isn't as high as was initially planned, doesn't mean it's a failure.

I'm getting the impression that there's some kind of axe-grinding going on in the general region of WSJ when it comes to Elon. Not sure why. But this article definitely feels like someone just trying hard to find an angle to cast a deprecating light on Tesla. Like a "vested interests" type of feeling.

[deleted]

Re: Tesla’s Engineering Chief Takes Leave of Absence at Pivotal Moment

#42

Post by ajross »

rajacombinator wrote: post #8
ggregoire wrote: post #3

Is it normal in America to be in the news when you take some vacations?

If people have multi-billion bets against your employer and they want to pay for an ominous sounding article, then yes.

No one has multi-billion bets against TSLA. It's only like 25% off its all time high and has a market cap bigger than GM.

Re: Tesla’s Engineering Chief Takes Leave of Absence at Pivotal Moment

#43

Post by throwaway5752 »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #28
ClassyJacket wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, with what information the general public has, this could just as easily be spun as 'Engineering chief takes well deserved break after months of crunch successfully implementing Model 3 mass production.' Even if output production isn't as high as was initially planned, doesn't mean it's a failure.

I'm getting the impression that there's some kind of axe-grinding going on in the general region of WSJ when it comes to Elon. Not sure why. But this article definitely feels like someone just trying hard to find an angle to cast a deprecating light on Tesla. Like a "vested interests" type of feeling.

If you don't follow US politics, most conservatives hate Tesla and the WSJ (part of News Corp) is probably the preeminent conservative paper in the country.

Re: Tesla’s Engineering Chief Takes Leave of Absence at Pivotal Moment

#45

Post by meritt »

heurist wrote: post #33
meritt wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> successfully implementing Model 3 mass production For comparison on mass production : "more than 15 million Model Ts were manufactured in all, reaching a rate of 9,000 to 10,000 cars a day in 1925, or 2 million annually" [1]. Toyota was producing 13,400 units per day in 2014. Model3 is currently somewhere around 300 to 500 per day. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Model_T

Poor examples - Ford produced only the Model T for two decades. Toyota has been around for 80 years.

Why is it a poor example? I'm comparing a car company that, over 100 years ago in 1914, was producing 714 vehicles a day by hand with 13,000 workers [1] to a company in 2018 with 37,000 employees utilizing robots yet manages to only produce half that amount?

[1] https://www.wiley.com/legacy/products/subject/business/forbe...

Re: Tesla’s Engineering Chief Takes Leave of Absence at Pivotal Moment

#46

Post by kyrra »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #28
ClassyJacket wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, with what information the general public has, this could just as easily be spun as 'Engineering chief takes well deserved break after months of crunch successfully implementing Model 3 mass production.' Even if output production isn't as high as was initially planned, doesn't mean it's a failure.

I'm getting the impression that there's some kind of axe-grinding going on in the general region of WSJ when it comes to Elon. Not sure why. But this article definitely feels like someone just trying hard to find an angle to cast a deprecating light on Tesla. Like a "vested interests" type of feeling.

WSJ doesn't have great love for most silicon valley companies. In Tesla's case, I think it's their continued over promising and under delivery. Currently the high cash burn plus low production volume on the model 3.

Wsj also has some nice pieces about Tesla, such as their recent tour of the production factory. https://www.wsj.com/articles/teslas-factory-in-a-fishbowl-15...

Re: Tesla’s Engineering Chief Takes Leave of Absence at Pivotal Moment

#47

Post by rootusrootus »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #23
twostorytower wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% this is the case.

Shorts are desperate. Current highest Model 3 VIN puts production at 4K/week. They’ll easily hit 5k/week target by end of June. Usual disclaimer: TSLA shareholder

I feel like it's the other way around. With the market cap so completely out of sync with reality, shorting seems like the safer choice.

Re: Tesla’s Engineering Chief Takes Leave of Absence at Pivotal Moment

#48

Post by throwaway5752 »

ajross wrote: post #42
rajacombinator wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people have multi-billion bets against your employer and they want to pay for an ominous sounding article, then yes.

No one has multi-billion bets against TSLA. It's only like 25% off its all time high and has a market cap bigger than GM.

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TSLA/key-statistics?p=TSLA

A bit down the page on the right, you'll see "Shares Short", "Short Ratio", "Short % of Float", and "Shares Short (prior month)".

What that is telling you is that almost $10B of Tesla stock has been borrowed and sold (with the profit coming from buying in the future at lower prices, ie, betting against TSLA). That is increased about 7% from the prior month, and would take almost 5 entire days of average trading volume to close out all the short positions.

This is a high level of betting against a stock by any standard.

Re: Tesla’s Engineering Chief Takes Leave of Absence at Pivotal Moment

#49

Post by et2o »

ajross wrote: post #42
rajacombinator wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people have multi-billion bets against your employer and they want to pay for an ominous sounding article, then yes.

No one has multi-billion bets against TSLA. It's only like 25% off its all time high and has a market cap bigger than GM.

25% of all Tesla stock is out on loan according to the first Google result for "Tesla short" [1] Assuming most stocks on loan are due to shorting, 0.25*50 Billion (Tesla Market Cap)= approximately 10 Billion being shorted.

1. https://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/01/tesla-short-interest-hits-re...

Re: Tesla’s Engineering Chief Takes Leave of Absence at Pivotal Moment

#50

Post by throwaway5752 »

meritt wrote: post #45
heurist wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poor examples - Ford produced only the Model T for two decades. Toyota has been around for 80 years.

Why is it a poor example? I'm comparing a car company that, over 100 years ago in 1914, was producing 714 vehicles a day by hand with 13,000 workers [1] to a company in 2018 with 37,000 employees utilizing robots yet manages to only produce half that amount? [1] https://www.wiley.com/legacy/products/subject/business/forbe...

How many total employees did Ford have, total? How many of Tesla's total employees are in line work/production? How difficult is the relative assembly of a Model T vs a Model 3 (ie, how many parts, welds, fasteners, etc)? I honestly have no idea how to compare them fairly, but I am not impressed by your analysis so far.
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