Hi, I was thinking about making a poll but it is easy enough to list the options: Tesla continues Tesla gone Musk continues Musk gone Tesla Continues and Musk Continues This is the situation today but meanwhile there are a lot complainers about Tesla the company and Musk the CEO. What if they got their wish? Tesla Gone and Musk Continues The fevered dreams of TSLA SHORTs, they want the company gone ... the investors bankrupt ... all the employees laid off ... the factories shutdown. They don't care about Musk since they hate with a white hot passion that Tesla company in spite of their spirited opposition. Tesla Continues and Musk Gone Some have claim Musk is the problem. Get rid of him and replace him with any of the TSLA SHORTs and the problem is solved. Except the TSLA SHORTs lack the skills and imagination to run Tesla except into the ground. In effect, vulture capitalists who only want to pick over the bones. Tesla Gone and Musk Gone Now this is an interesting thought as Musk has a Chinese parachute. In fact, Musk is an immigrant to the USA and can easily take his pick of where to live. Unlike the critics, Musk is a national resource who has brought huge technical and financial benefits to our country. Are any of these critics up to the task of matching his accomplishments? So would there have ever been an I-Pace, e-tron, or Bolt had there never been an Elon Musk? Would there be rockets landing at Kennedy and barges without Musk? Would there be high-speed, low cost tunneling machines without Musk? Are the Musk critics blind to his accomplishments or do they hate him more than any consideration of what he has done? Bob Wilson
IMHO, I don't think Toyota is in the business of buying other companies for their technology. It is a corporate bias I've seen in Toyota after owning them since 1992. Bob Wilson
Toyota has good reason to have bias, they are the best in the auto industry at design and manufacturing for reliability, and profit... PERIOD!! Ask the BMW folks who worked with them on the new Supra, BMW engineers could not believe how far Toyota went studying every failure mode in the vehicle, both companies learned a lot from each other in the process. Toyota merged/bought Panasonic's battery division as a first move to acquire Tesla, I think it will happen sometime in the next couple years, as soon as Elon blows through the recent cash raise and is broke again. Elon Musk is way over his head when it comes to management and cash control at Tesla, he does not have the bandwidth to run a company this size and make the right strategic investments to move the company forward.
Is OK as I think Tesla has sufficient assets to last a little longer. Care to predict when Tesla will be bankrupt and gone? Bob Wilson
I do not have a time frame, but as long as Musk is in charge the end is certainly closer today than it was yesterday. BTW, did you see JB is starting to dump his restricted shares? hmm, ya, he's bullish... haha!
To some extent, I don't think that the hatred expressed toward Elon Musk has much to do with the fact that he's CEO of Tesla. He's a very successful, very creative visionary; a self-made billionaire who gets credit for innovations such as PayPal and the advances made by SpaceX. There are very, very few people in the world that successful! And of course, Elon himself generates some controversy by his, to put it politely, "unfiltered" remarks on twitter. When it comes to people like "David Green", I seriously doubt he really believes anything he says about Tesla or Elon Musk. He's just parroting the "talking points" of the TslaQ crowd. When he talks about his new EV -- is that an e-Tron? Or an I-Pace? I forget... anyway, when he posts about that, notice how his comments are suddenly free of all the falsehoods and the bull pucky that he copies and pastes anytime he's talking about Tesla. I'm pretty sure he couldn't care less about Elon Musk; he has just bought into the TslaQ cultist mindset that believes if they trash-talk Tesla and Elon enough it will drive down the price of Tesla's stock, which in theory will benefit their "short" position. * * * * * It seems inevitable that sooner or later, Elon will leave Tesla. I am pretty confident the company will continue without him, just as the Ford Motor Co. continued without Henry Ford. With Elon gone, likely the company would be less innovative. But hopefully it would also be more stable, and without Elon's polarizing tweets, perhaps at least some of the anti-Tesla rhetoric would fade away. Those people who say that Tesla would fail if Elon left... well, I hope and believe they are wrong. Let's not forget that, despite his claims, Elon didn't found Tesla motors. Tesla survived the ouster of its founders, and likely it will also survive if Elon leaves. A few years back, Elon said he planned to stay with Tesla for only about 5 more years. He may have extended his plans to remain, but I don't expect him to still be the CEO of Tesla 10 years from now. Credit Elon with one thing: Tesla is in much, much better financial shape today than it was when he took over the company! Back then, most analysts said that it would be unlikely for Tesla to survive for long, and back then I agreed that the odds were pretty long against the company's survival. It is truly remarkable how Tesla has not only survived -- it has and still is growing by leaps and bounds every year! I'm no longer worried about Tesla's future. Unless it falls into the hands of someone who mis-manages it terribly, it is almost certain to still be around and still mass producing cars 20 years from now, and likely a significantly larger company than it is today.
This makes sense. As the staff turnover occurs, personalities become less of a 'lightning rod' and the company can continue to grow based upon what Elon and the early leaders put in place. As a board member with considerable voting stock, Elon is able to help guide future Tesla leadership. He is not the only one to share the vision of an ICE free future. Bob Wilson
I am glad that I am not the only one who is scratching his head over "David Green". Both the M3 and the Etron are great cars, they simply suit different purposes. You do not have to put down Tesla to justify buying the Audi. If it fits your needs this is what you should do. I chose the M3 as I wanted the range and the charging network for long-distance driving. But I also have the older A3 Etron PHEV .... and I love both of them. Let me add a small anecdote from my last visit to my Audi dealer:Typically when I go to the dealer I like to go to the show room and look at the next better car to dream of. Last time when we took our M3 to pick up my Audi after a repair, the head of the service department spend 20 minutes drooling over our Tesla and asking for a test drive ... talk about reversed roles
I’ve given the BMW service manager a static review and his best BMW i3-REx mechanic a +30 min test drive. He loved it and since he owned a BMW i3-REx, one pedal driving was no stranger. Bob Wilson
No need to scratch your head over me. I agree with you M3 is a good car in the premium economy sedan segment. E-Tron is more competing with Tesla S and X, and has clawed away market share from those vehicles (In Norway its a rout!). One visit to the Audi Message boards and you see several former Tesla owners, that have jumped ship give their thoughts (most I have read are very similar to my thoughts, basically Tesla is good at the battery and electronics but not good at building luxury cars with modern amenities) VW is coming with competition for Model3 in the ID3, and Model Y that is non existent in the ID Crozz both undergoing final calibrations currently and due on the market soon. GM, Volvo, BMW and otters are also well into development, by the time Y reached the market, it's going to enter a crowded segment.
