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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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LA Times review of I Pace a week or so ago said it was every bit as good as the Model X, plus the doors work.
Trust me, Merc, Audi, and Jag will make money on their cars.
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tooth
Trad climber
B.C.
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If you compare bottom line numbers between companies you will find that the profitability of the 3 is close to 30% when compared to the Bolt which is under 0%. However, if you add in the charging network to both, you add 0 to the Bolt and this is what you are usually spoon fed by media. Which means you are fooled into comparing apples to oranges. Easy to tell the frothy-at-the-mouth haters/lovers from the thinkers on that point alone.
I trust you Reilly. They will make money. I don’t trust anyone telling me how good a car is until I own/drive it though. How about you?
What car reviewer knows my needs of living in northern BC hundreds of miles from a supercharger and would have told me that he X tows better than my truck? I just looked at numbers and found out that they don’t lie and surprisingly it was better than advertised, keeps getting even better and has none of the scary things that the FUD-mongers like to print for click bait.
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Numbers count. Show me anyone making money on electric cars.
Well if making electric cars is going to be a long term losing game before finally turning profitable (like Amazon was), then I would bet on the deep pocket books of the German firms before I would on the whims of the Saudi crown prince.
On the other hand, I actually would be happy for Musk to prove me wrong.
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climbski2
Mountain climber
The Ocean
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Will be on Joe Rogan podcast at 9:30 pm pacific..tonight
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MikeL
Social climber
Southern Arizona
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RRad,
Thanks. You’re better than I.
Tooth,
It’s not an argument nor a character attack. I loved my students, and they were as smart as I have ever taught anywhere. Thirty-five percent of them went to big-league consulting or to investment banking making more money out of the graduate program than I was as a professor. With that said, Canadians in those days seemed to be more interested in protecting certain industries and jobs. It was their government’s choice, and that attitude had a tendency to seep into my students’ way of thinking (which I opposed). I remember, for example, that rock and roll radio stations had to play a certain percentage of Canadian artists by law (which meant we heard a lot of Brian Adams and Joni Mitchell in those days). Other than comedians, I do not remember any industry that was considered best of class internationally in Canada. My Canadian colleagues teaching at UWO would laugh about it.
If you have a business degree, then you might have heard to M. Porter, who’s argued that the best companies are those that don’t shy away from competition, and often seek out the most competitive markets they can. If they succeed there, they’ll generally succeed anywhere. It’s sort of like climbing.
If you like numbers (as you say), then the question next is what kind of numbers do you like? Units sold? Percentage of market share? Gross margins? Profitability (at what level of the P&L)? Not any statistic will do.
To be competitive in the long run, one must (imo) pay close attention to investors and profitability. Aggressive sales goals are oriented to the need for scale in Tesla’s case: he must get fixed unit costs down, and he will do so only through volume. That means that the volume objective for the Model 3 serves the scale objective. Through higher levels of volume and a resulting lower unit costs, one hopes that Tesla may learn what Toyota knows about making automobiles. In the old days, when all auto manufacturers believed that scale needed to be about 250,000 units to reach breakeven and profitability, Toyota figured out how to do it at 90,000 units. That’s the kind of production capabilities Tesla needs to compete.
Musk says he wants Tesla to be a world class player in the industry. He’ll need to compete with Ford, GM, Toyota, Nissan, and VW at their level to do that. Short term objectives (model sales goals) are important because they signal to investors that he knows what he’s doing. Make no doubt about it, he needs investors. His short-term model objectives are battles he needs to win, but they are not the long game (the war).
I appreciate your passion for the idea of an electric car. Great. Musk on the other hand, has his hands full leading three companies whose missions are particularly grand. Many of the comments here in this thread are not disputing the value of an electric automobile for buyers but rather what might be the hubris of a leader. Everyone wants Musk to succeed, but there is plenty of room for criticism. It’s an open debate.
Be well.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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We will have to watch tomorrow and see.
I doubt TSLA’s 7% drop today is due to seatbelts. Their CAO’s departure after only a month on the job is far more ominous, n’est ce pas?
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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The critics of Musk are just as much part of the cult of Musk's personality as are his fans, of course. We're all just humans being human.
Sure, to some extent. Although I try to keep in mind that Musk and Tesla are not identical things. Even if Musk might think that.
Musk is also CEO of Space X. It is apparently profitable, and it sounds like Musk is pretty hands-off as far as typical CEOs go (and how would he have time to be hands on, anyway?). He did a good job of hiring people that know what they are doing and letting them do it.
Maybe he should try that with Tesla.
If your CEO is spending 12 hours a day on the factory floor dealing with specific production line issues in order to reach some production target, calling that a red flag would be a mild understatement.
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fear
Ice climber
hartford, ct
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Watch that whole interview with Rogan... Very interesting guy. He reminds me of another 200+ IQ friend I grew up with through high school. Very similar odd speech patterns. I'm not sure if Musk is as bright as that but he clearly is an intelligent person.
Seems honest and likeable enough, not the nutcase some articles make him out to be. I hope he finds peace for himself. My friend ended up as a skiing instructor after making a small fortune creating some esoteric mathematic engines used by those automated trading computers in the Wall Street casino. I would wager there are a lot of homeless geniuses.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Mercurial as usual.
The toke was probably as ill advised as the tweet.
But I like the guy.
However, weed mixed with tobacco is a waste of good weed.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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fear, there used to be a homeless guy well known to the San Diego popo. He didn’t cause any trouble they just had to roust him out from his various lairs every 3 months. His bank would call the popo and ask if they could remind him he had to come in and sign his software royalty checks. He would withdraw a modest sum and treat his homies and the millions just kept growing! You can’t make that shiz up! I haven’t heard about him in years, maybe he bought a place in La Jolla.
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Aeriq
Social climber
Location: It's a MisterE
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RonO no likey da spliffs, Mon!
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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Must be trying to cool off his overheated stock and expectations.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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He has succeeded in lowering launch cost to low earth orbit, and the Falcon Heavy was a powerful technology demonstrator.
I watched a Falcon 9 launch in March while I was flying in Florida. It was mind bending, but the only launch I have witnessed. It was a cargo haul to the ISS. The booster did not return to land, for reasons not known to me.
A rocket launch is loud!
Bezos has Blue Origin which makes rocket motors and is thinking about playing in the suborbital space tourism industry.
Boing has taken notice, and has built a human capsule for the ULA Delta rockets.
I wish that I could buy stock in SpaceX. They have huge goals, and so far have been reaching them.
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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must be trying to cool off his overheated stock and expectations.
I figured it out. Musk read this thread, saw my previous post, and said:
"Duh, if I tank the company stock, we can save billions when we buy the company out and take it private."
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Adolph Hitler could be quite charming too, if he judged you susceptible to charm.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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The reason I understand Musk is because I too enjoy ‘noblesse oblige’. Yer welcome.
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