Warning Tesla is a cult now, i never thought id find such a Gem.

I see according to the April figures that Model 3 sales have rocketed up from 3820 in the previous month to a massive total of ...er 3875.

As production seems to be at about 2,500 a week, does this mean that about 6,000 of them are clogging dealers showrooms or lined up in a field somewhere, or have they been exported?

 

This rather puzzling subject is already being discussed, starting here:

https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/ev-sales-numbers.13/page-4#post-12880

 

Well, whatever the minutiae behind the figures, it doesn't seem as if the Model 3 is being sold in very large quantities despite a third of the year having gone by.

I predict another gee-whiz launch of something of doubtful feasibility from Musk in the near future in order to keep the investment funds a-flowing!

 

EV bashers, like you, keep moving the goal posts for what constitutes significant amount of EV sales. It won't be many years before you're claiming that EV sales aren't significant because they're still not outselling the sum total of all gasmobiles worldwide!

Oh, Tesla just passed China's BYD in selling the most EVs per month:

"Global Plug-In Electric Car Sales Hit 140,000 In March, Tesla #1"

I wonder how many more months it will be before the Model 3 outsells the sum of all the other plug-in EVs sold in the U.S., combined? I suspect we'll see that this year!

 

Tesla has always been in the midst of controversies. Given the recent events (car crash, lawsuit on Semi, Model 3 target delay, employee safety), it is inevitable to think the company is failing... Hope Musk, as usual, finds a way out of these...

 

Well, the share price is slipping as investors' patience becomes exhausted. And I don't imagine Musk dismissing financial questions about his record $710 million loss in a single quarter - twice what he managed to burn through in the same period last year - as "Boring" will help much either!

If it folds - an event which seems to be growing in probability - I would not be surprised to see battery-powered cars become generally even less popular than they are now. The sad fact is that it's OK to spend big money to make a profit, but it is NOT ok to spend big money and make a loss. Promises are not a substitute for profit.



Will there be sufficient faithful cult investors to keep it afloat?

Who knows!

 

Man, that was a strange earnings call... I have listened to some tense earnings calls before (2011 BA 787 delays) but never heard a CEO assert himself so strongly. Investors are paying a heavy price for Musk being a baby... Sad...

 

I'm not a follower of him or his cars, but I hope he knows what he's doing. Refusing to address your financial state because it is boring is usually a recipe for disaster.

 

Dagnabbit! It must be extremely frustrating for Tesla haters, bashers, and short-sellers everywhere. No matter how many times they predict Tesla is about to fail, the company stubbornly grows by leaps and bounds every year!


Tesla’s global automobile sales totals:
2012: 2650
2013: 22,300
2014: 31,655 (+41.95%)
2015: 50,580 (+59.8%)
2016: 76,230 (+50.7%)
2017: 101,312 (+32.9%)

 

Anyone can sell more cars if they are continually using investors money to sell them well below their true cost. $20,000 a car last year. Eventually, if it goes on like this, Tesla will go pop.

And if Musk treats his investors with the contempt - as he just has - it will happen sooner rather than later.

I don't wish him or Tesla ill. My advice would be to stop the relentless expansion and to turn a profit with what he has. You cannot go on promising jam tomorow, indefinitely. At some point you have to supply it! The company has so far made a growing loss every year, and looks to double last year's $2 billion loss to £4 billion! The rumblings from investors is growing louder. Musk needs to hear it and take appropriate action. Not by bringing out yet another barely adequate car but by fulfilling what he promises for a change.

 

Well, I genuinely hope you are right. I really have no interest in seeing any company fail. Schadenfreude simply isn't my thing.

But it sure looks flaky to me and Musk's attitude - whilst I quite like the idea of telling the financial community to go **** itself - seems very ill-advised. Money men are really only interested in money and will pull the plug on the enterprise with zero consideration about the future of EVs, the planet, pollution, or anything else if it makes a profit, or minimises loss. He is playing a dangerous game.

 

Someone might like to calculate how much Musk's petulant outburst has cost his shareholders.

What's happened to the 'hyperloop' by the way? Now that IS a truly ridiculous idea. I imagine that is another money pit.

 

Try going back even further and listen to the last few Enron earnings call. There may be some similarities..

No one has seen the list of 450,000 people. Could Elon be over optimistic in his counting? Time will tell.
if you look at the recent VIN and invites, they are decreasing.

 

Surely, the accounts will be audited and will show 450,000 deposits being held by the company? I can't think that this list is fictional, although there may be cancellations or people no longer interested or indeed a fair number who have died of old age!

Past experience shows that when the management becomes coy about revealing financial details, then that is the time to dig in and investigate further.

 

Right, "TeslaInvestor" is just posting anti-Tesla FUD again. I guess we know why he's here, hmmm? His not-so-hidden agenda of posting B.S., trying to soil Tesla's reputation.

In fact, at the Model 3 "Reveal" event, Elon said something about over half a million Model 3 reservations, but a short time later gave a correction saying that the actual total was about 455,000. I'm not sure where he reported that (perhaps on Twitter?), but it was reported in this Reuters article. So it seems pretty clear that he regards the number as materially significant statement which affects Tesla's corporate performance/financing, and as a corporate officer of a public company he has a duty to avoid making public statements containing incorrect information material to Tesla's business, such as that one.

I'm very far from understanding the intricacies of corporate law and SEC filings, so I don't understand how corporate officers everywhere can get away with so much of the shading and stretching of the truth that's called "spin" and "advertising". But we can be reasonably certain that Tesla execs at least won't exaggerate that number.
-

 

David,
the axle is a 2 speed; it has different ratios for each motor (2 of them). I suspect each has a disconnect clutch so the truck can run on one or both depending on the driving demands of the moment. Its clever, and as efficient as you can imagine is possible.

The kwh energy use for a ICE semi is about 5 kwh for auxiliaries (air compressor, engine cooling fan, alternator, steering pump, HVAC; this number does not include the water or oil pump for the engine or gearbox) - see ICCT data on EU trucks - same engines and gearboxes on the majority of US trucks.

Mark my words, the 300 mile Tesla Semi will weigh about the same as a conventional truck. You have about 6k lbs of ICE components that go away, and what you replace it with weighs close to the same (mostly batteries; the motors/inverters and power electronics don't weigh much). Folks keep over-estimating the weight of the battery packs in the Semi because they are using 2012 Model S packs as a benchmark, and not accounting for improvements in energy density that are going to reduce the weight per battery pack.