Why doesn't TESLA (TSLA) just buy Honda, Ford or GM?

Bear wrote:

How far does the commuting proletariat have to drive each day? Tesla’s have 270- 360 miles of Usable daily range depending on the model (300-400 total range if charged to 100%). When you get home you plug it in. As for stopping “hours at a time” on road trips, it’s more like 30-40 minutes. Just long enough to hit the head and grab a soda.

The prime Tesla demographic typically flies anywhere further than 100 miles away, often in a private jet. "Road trips are for the poor."

Tesla at the closing bell:

419.62 +46.90 (+12.58%)

If it does that every day, I'm retiring at the end of the year.

webby wrote:

They are scaling up reasonably well at a rate faster than any car company ever has. But they may be buying some of those internal combustion car companies with dwindling sales if/when they enter bankruptcy.

someone has never read a book about WW2 and manufacturing

elon's musk wrote:

didn't read other comments

short answer: because Tesla is a battery company

^this guy gets it

Fat hurts wrote:

Worldwide demand for EV's is exploding and Tesla's technology is 10 years ahead. Plus, they are the only auto maker who can build them at a profit.

They have never turned a profit.

No, a lot of people have that gut feeling, but you'll be hard-pressed to find an expert who doesn't consider hybrids to be virtually obsolete already. 300-miles of range is common now and will be a low standard within a year or two for electric cars. And charging takes much less time than you think. I spend a small fraction of the time charging my car (usually at home or in parking lots) than I used to spend getting to gas stations and pumping gas.

fisky wrote:

Musk is a visionary genius. He's not that good at building cars. JD Powers ranks Tesla worst in problems of all car manufacturers at 250 problems per 100 vehicles. In fairness though, Mercedes, Audi, and Volvo weren't much better. But still... last?!

In the 1980s, a term was coined that fits Tesla... vaporware. It's a product or software that's announced but not produced and sometimes will never be produced. Tesla is flying high based primarily on the incredible vision and charisma of Elon Musk and the vision of what the company might do in the future. It wouldn't serve Tesla or Musk to dilute that genius by building more cars.

This is the key problem. Is Musk were to die tomorrow, the stock would drop to $10 because people are betting on Musk, not the company, which is stupid.

I had a thread deleted because it wasn't running related.

bojack wrote:

Fat hurts wrote:

Worldwide demand for EV's is exploding and Tesla's technology is 10 years ahead. Plus, they are the only auto maker who can build them at a profit.

They have never turned a profit.

Tesla has reported a profit for the last four quarters.

Fat hurts wrote:

bojack wrote:

They have never turned a profit.

Tesla has reported a profit for the last four quarters.

It's so easy to google things FFS

The market is forward looking. VERY forward looking at the moment. To buy the Tesla valuation story (which I do..) you have to believe 2 core things:

(1) That at traditional auto OEMs market valuation reflects the market belief that the combustion engine business will basically shrink to zero over the next decade or two and their stocks are priced as such. And Tesla will continue to grow at 30-50% annually as EV market penetration sky-rockets and they are well ahead of everybody else on the cost / tech curves. This doesn't even factor in autonomy, which I see as option value a few years out at the earliest.

(2) Traditional energy stocks (looking at you XON) are also priced for death. Energy companies used to be the largest in the world! Who will replace them? Alternatives. Solar and wind are great, but not the bottleneck. Batteries are the bottleneck. We already know Tesla's battery mgmt tech (not the cells..which are made by Panasonic) is the best in the biz from their cars. If they nail the cell tech and chemistry and start making in house, which we will learn more about on Sep 22, then its checkmate for their energy and autos businesses.

People talk about the rest of the industry catching up. Seriously? Musk & Co have the best talent density of any companies on the planet at the moment. A year ago you could have made the argument that they were capital constrained. After last week's ATM raise, they probably have the best balance sheet of any automaker. If anything the gap will only accelerate from here.

In my opinion this will be the largest company in the world in a decade. Potentially the first to $5T if Musk can stay out of trouble and execute. Sounds crazy, but if you told someone from 2004 that Apple would one ay hit $2.3T, they would have croaked on the spot.

bojack wrote:

Fat hurts wrote:

Tesla has reported a profit for the last four quarters.

It's so easy to google things FFS

https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/29/21113987/tesla-q4-2019-earnings-results-profit-revenue-model-3

Yes, it is easy to google things. And it's also easy to look at dates. Try posting a recent article next time.

he's so dumb wrote:

the mere fact he didn't know about the stock split should nullify him and his opinion wholly.

I had to laugh when Robert said it's gone from 140 to 380. I was thinking "didn't it just split 4 or 5 to 1?"

It is unbelievable what TSLA has done. I remember when the 420 price target (pre split) was the crazy goal.

wejo wrote:

I had to laugh when Robert said it's gone from 140 to 380. I was thinking "didn't it just split 4 or 5 to 1?"

It is unbelievable what TSLA has done. I remember when the 420 price target (pre split) was the crazy goal.

Yep. Up 500% in the past 6 months and more than tenfold in the past 15 months. It's a wonder there are any shorts left to get squeezed.

I think the big misunderstanding that naysayers have had all along is that other car companies have vast untold competitive advantages that they have just been slow to act on. The truth is that other car companies were already fighting for survival on razor thin margins because they have a terribly inefficient dealership network, relatively expensive production, commitment to inferior technology (gas/gears), and now no way to raise the capital that would be needed to compete in the electric vehicle space.

Tesla, meanwhile has shown that it can raise $5 billion in a day, interest free, with a stock offering. And they build new state-of-the-art factories quickly, and produce the best cars ever built in every category they compete in -- notwithstanding rumors about home depot hacks, exploding batteries, panel gaps, and other nonsense.

That said, I suspect $450-$500 represents a short-term high for the stock. And really watch out if the stock market comes back to earth as the reality of the broader economy settles in.

fisky wrote:

Musk is a visionary genius. He's not that good at building cars. JD Powers ranks Tesla worst in problems of all car manufacturers at 250 problems per 100 vehicles. In fairness though, Mercedes, Audi, and Volvo weren't much better. But still... last?!

Tesla is also a FAR newer company than the others. The bugs and kinks just haven't had enough time to all be worked out yet. Give the company another 10 years (if it survives that long), and it will likely be higher on the list.

Last but not least wrote:

fisky wrote:

Musk is a visionary genius. He's not that good at building cars. JD Powers ranks Tesla worst in problems of all car manufacturers at 250 problems per 100 vehicles. In fairness though, Mercedes, Audi, and Volvo weren't much better. But still... last?!

Tesla is also a FAR newer company than the others. The bugs and kinks just haven't had enough time to all be worked out yet. Give the company another 10 years (if it survives that long), and it will likely be higher on the list.

Tesla is low on the JD Power list because Tesla refuses to pay them for an award. Tesla also refuses to hand over their customer data like the other auto makers do. Tesla refuses to play the game.

Check out Consumer Reports if you want an unbiased opinion on quality and customer satisfaction.

Wishing you all a Happy Battery Day!!

I doubt that many here would appreciate the significance of most battery day announcements.

But here is one thing that everyone can appreciate. The new Tesla Model S Plaid is now available for order on the web site. For $1000 you can reserve yours for delivery late next year.

520+ miles of range

200 mph top speed

0 to 60 in under 2 seconds

And remember, this is a sedan. It's not a sports car.

(Oh, price is $140,000)

However, Musk confirmed today that the Model S Plaid has been delayed to “late 2021.”

https://electrek.co/2020/09/22/tesla-model-s-plaid-unveil-range-speed/