Little News From Tesla

[RSchneider]

If Elio does turn it into real production, i'm sure they will have their fair share of pitfalls too.

Let's look at this. Tesla has 10 yeas of experience of building limited production cars and even got an ex GM/Toyota plant to start with. Now they are doing a cheaper higher volume car, thus the problems. As for Elio, they have an ex GM plant that has been shuttered for 5 years and have never built a customer car. So, going right to 65K for the first year won't be a problem at all. Then getting all of those Pep Boys outfitted/trained, 60 stores up and running, warranty department, parts distribution and recall handling will be a piece of cake. Can't imagine any issues at all. I bet every supplier that they have for those "supplier summits" will all be on board too. All you need to do is put it on a website and the problem is solved.

What Tesla has it wrong is in the blogs. They need to try to distract everyone from the real issues. It's Superbowl time and Tesla would make things much easier for everyone if they would tell us about that game (I just read 1.33Bn wings will be eaten on Superbowl Sunday). After that, it's onto the Olympics. What better way to celebrate the Tesla delays by talking about figure skating and how the US will do.

 

[Rob Croson]

Tesla has some of the highest gross-margins in the business, and the Model 3 will be no different. The majority of their sales will not be for base models, and hundreds of thousands of people are willing to wait for their turn to order one.

Are they actually turning a profit yet?

"Argus is predicting that Tesla will achieve 25% gross margin on its sales in 2018 and losses will subside, and by 2019, Tesla will finally reach "full-year profitability.""​

We're talking about their ramp being slower than the new aggressive timeline that Elon set as a goal for the company, as long as they hit 5k/week by the end of Q2 they'll be well on their way.

I honestly hope they do. The better any EV company does, the better the future will be for all EV companies.

... the stock keeps rising year over-year.

Bitcoin kept rising and rising, too. Until it didn't.

Tesla surpassed their initial economy of volume target by 430,000 reservations.

Reservations don't make for economy of scale. Deliveries do.

If you truly believe Elio > Musk

That's not something I ever said or advocated. Pointing out some difficulties Tesla has, or is likely to have, hardly means that I think that EM will be without fault.

If Elio does turn it into real production, i'm sure they will have their fair share of pitfalls too.

Of course they will. And I hope those pitfalls happen to someone else's Elio, and not mine.

 

[johnsnownw]

Being able to sell their vehicles for a profit, and making a profit are two different things. They're an energy company, not a car company. All of their profit gets invested back into the company, that is, a car company, battery storage company, and solar company.

They're the only company providing a national charging network for their vehicles. Your inability to dive your Bolt across country is a factor of GM not investing in their own products. Tesla has invested in the means to allow their customers to use their vehicles as they would an ICE, and that's something to be commended, not used as an argument against them. Tesla has had to carve out an entirely new market, from the ground up...in the automotive sector. How many failed automobile companies have their been? And all they were trying to do was to enter a market that already existed.

As with any business things can go south, Tesla is no exception.

 

[Coss]

Being able to sell their vehicles for a profit, and making a profit are two different things. They're an energy company, not a car company. All of their profit gets invested back into the company, that is, a car company, battery storage company, and solar company.

They're the only company providing a national charging network for their vehicles. Your inability to dive your Bolt across country is a factor of GM not investing in their own products. Tesla has invested in the means to allow their customers to use their vehicles as they would an ICE, and that's something to be commended, not used as an argument against them. Tesla has had to carve out an entirely new market, from the ground up...in the automotive sector. How many failed automobile companies have their been? And all they were trying to do was to enter a market that already existed.

As with any business things can go south, Tesla is no exception.

Don't forget their charging stations only work on Tesla's, just as others won't work in Tesla's.
Can you imagine if gas stations were like that?
You could only gas a Chevy at a GM station, this is where there could be problems in the future.

Your going to have recharge stations, but only certain cars can recharge there?
I can see problems just waiting to happen.

Or someone is going to be smart and build an adapter to make it where any rechargeable can recharge at any station, hmmm think I may have to work on that, could be a good time to start something like that.

 

[johnsnownw]

Don't forget their charging stations only work on Tesla's, just as others won't work in Tesla's.
Can you imagine if gas stations were like that?
You could only gas a Chevy at a GM station, this is where there could be problems in the future.

Your going to have recharge stations, but only certain cars can recharge there?
I can see problems just waiting to happen.

Or someone is going to be smart and build an adapter to make it where any rechargeable can recharge at any station, hmmm think I may have to work on that, could be a good time to start something like that.

I'm well aware of this. Tesla was part of the consortium working on the CCS standard currently in use, unfortunately, they could not agree on one before Tesla needed to start building out the network. They have, however, offered to share the network provided that other manufacturers pay into it. Tesla is also a member of the group working on CCS 2.0.

There are three main standards: Tesla SC, ChAdemo, and CCS.

There will eventually be a standard, but until we get more EVs on the road...EVs that can actually charge at speeds Teslas' can, Tesla will continue to have the most DCFC stations above 100kW for some time.

As I said before, trying to turn a positive into a negative simply because it involves Tesla is rather confusing to me.

 

[Rickb]

Don't forget their charging stations only work on Tesla's, just as others won't work in Tesla's.
Can you imagine if gas stations were like that?
You could only gas a Chevy at a GM station, this is where there could be problems in the future.

Your going to have recharge stations, but only certain cars can recharge there?
I can see problems just waiting to happen.

Or someone is going to be smart and build an adapter to make it where any rechargeable can recharge at any station, hmmm think I may have to work on that, could be a good time to start something like that.

The future is wireless charging:



Tesla will be happy to charge any EV in the future as their network expands with the growing number of EVs on the road to warrant demand and profit.

Perhaps Walmart will install Plugless chargers in a designated EV parking area in their parking lots.

 

[Jambe]

If you are traveling on I-15 in central Utah you will find this at the Maverik in Fillmore.

If you can't read it...
$7.50 per use and 25¢ per Kwh. (Picture #3)

Not for Tesla--unless Tesla can use Combo or CHAdeMO.
Six stations for Tesla only in Nephi.

 

[Elio Amazed]

If you are traveling on I-15 in central Utah you will find this at the Maverik in Fillmore.
If you can't read it...
$7.50 per use and 25¢ per Kwh. (Picture #3)

Hmmm. So my EV is going to cost me as much to "fill up" there as my current 23mpg Dodge Caravan.
Say a 16kWh / 100mi range small 3W EV. 16x$.25 = $4 + $7.50 = $11.50 for 100 miles of EV.
100 miles divided by 23mpg = 4.34 x $2.60 per gallon = $11.30 for 100 miles of ICE.

I was amazed to find that I've got a Tesla charging station about 10 miles away.
And I basically live in Rural Armpit, PA. And it's not the only charging station nearby.
There are a LOT of them, but most are single units. Many are at campgrounds.

Just being honest, I don't think charging stations of any kind at Walmart is a good idea.
The people there park anywhere they want with no HCP signs hanging from the RVM.
No-one ever does anything. Besides, how long do you really want to hang out at WM?

http://www.plugshare.com
https://chargehub.com

 

[Rob Croson]

Or someone is going to be smart and build an adapter to make it where any rechargeable can recharge at any station, hmmm think I may have to work on that, could be a good time to start something like that.

Adapters are already available for this. They cost a couple hundred dollars each.

 

[Rob Croson]

Just being honest, I don't think charging stations of any kind at Walmart is a good idea.
The people there park anywhere they want with no HC signs hanging from the RVM.
And no-one ever does anything. Besides, how long do you really want to hang out at WM?

Some Walmarts in our area have deals with EVGo. There are several EVGo level 2 chargers and 2 CCS/Chademo chargers in the parking lot. So far, people seem to not be using them for regular parking. I've used the CCS charger once while shopping. Not very economical, but very helpful if you need a quick shot.

Commercial charging can be very expensive. Some of the companies have very high connection charges, and then a per-minute fee. If you plan on using them frequently, it's often better to pay a monthly fee, and then they waive the connection charge. The annoying part is that some companies, like EVGo, have a 30-minute shut off on their fast chargers.