# And here we go for another quarter of negative press



## epmenard (Mar 5, 2019)

I was appalled this morning by the lack of journalistic rigour following the latest financial results. I was expecting a good and well deserved Tesla bashing after the latest financials, but rather than sticking to numbers and financial health of the company, this financial chronicler at this french radio station, while admitting knowing nothing little of the actual car, went on ranting about the Model 3 having serious reliability issues, claimed Tesla had little to no service centers and that it was getting rid of all its dealerships (clearly, the man only reads article titles on the web).

Playing around with the wording, he mentioned the Consumer Reports build quality survey (dating back to July 2018) and rather than saying they had removed their recommended rating, said that Consumer Reports does not recommend purchasing a Model 3. Also, he made no mention of the latest CR report on customer satisfaction dated January 2019 that placed the Model 3 at the top of the chart.

He then started joking with the radio host about how new owners are abandoned at delivery and don't know how to make the car work. He claimed Elon had said that the service at Tesla was so bad that it would be better for customers if Tesla simply stopped servicing them, when obviously, if such a thing were said, meant to highlight continuous efforts to increase the build quality therefore resulting in a reduction of calls (which hopefully, is a thing every car company does).

If you understand french and want to listen to this analysis, the Tesla coverage start at the 4:45 min mark:  985fm - Tesla Q2 2019.

As my dad likes to say: "One more time, with feeling..."


----------



## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Ugh. Yes, it's tough dealing with this kind of blatant FUD. Now you have to deal with these lies and falsifications being parroted by those who listen to the show.


----------



## NR4P (Jul 14, 2018)

Something positive.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/25/success/tesla-model-s-electric-car-road-trip/index.html


----------



## $ Trillion Musk (Nov 5, 2016)

Tesla really needs to work on its image. 

It’s tough convincing even my own family of how incredible the company is. (One of them bought an ICE car recently.) All they hear is negative press. All they see is a crashing TSLA stock.

If only they could’ve played their cards right, the stock price and public perception would be more in line with their amazing progress.

One could only wonder if this is ever possible in our screwed up world!


----------



## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

$ Trillion Musk said:


> Tesla really needs to work on its image.


They _are_ working on it. They're putting out incredible cars at ever-increasing rates. Eventually, that fact is going to overpower the FUD machine.

For now, take advantage of the FUD and buy up some TSLA before the shorts give up. That is, if you believe Tesla will eventually win this fight.


----------



## Lady Sprite Blue (Mar 10, 2019)

Tesla still needs to become profitable.


----------



## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

Lady Sprite Blue said:


> Tesla still needs to become profitable.


The issue is Tesla is still expanding, and they basically have to expand or die. In face, it wouldn't take their death to cause the end of the EV revolution - if Tesla stops expanding and decides to settle for a while and become profitable first, the rest of the industry would see that as Tesla not being able to sustain itself as an EV seller.

Also, I post this 2 hours after making a trip to CVS, about 4 miles from my house, and seeing three Model 3's on the way. I'm not in California (Central Florida) and this isn't a high-end neighborhood with expensive cars. Yet three Model 3's in a couple of blocks. They're everywhere now!


----------



## JWardell (May 9, 2016)

Lady Sprite Blue said:


> Tesla still needs to become profitable.


Looks pretty good to me.


----------



## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Lady Sprite Blue said:


> Tesla still needs to become profitable.


Profit comes after growth.

Look at Amazon as an example. They were in "growth at any cost" mode for many years, and now are one of the most profitable companies on the planet. Tesla has too many growth opportunities to tackle (heavy trucks, pickup trucks, small SUV, sports car, solar roof, etc) to worry about turning a profit at this point.


----------



## slacker775 (May 30, 2018)

I found it interesting that Tesla has less than stellar results, but really not terrible in the grand scheme of things and it’s the end of the world. At the same time, Nissan is dying, all other ICE manufacturers are struggling to sell cars etc but that’s all just fine and dandy.

Tesla is selling almost 100k cars a quarter with zero advertising and no dealerships. They are selling them as fast as they can make them, are making almost 20% on them and are actively building more production capacity. Are any other manufacturers even able to make and sell an EV above cost? An average ASP of 50k ain’t too shabby at all either. I’m curious what the ASP for Mercedes or BMW is.


----------



## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

At ~19% margins for this quarter even when not taking into account sales of regulatory credits.
And this happened prices (and therefore, margins) were lowered (but also, lowest-priced offerings were removed).
This points to the benefits of ever-higher production rates and Tesla's ability to continually lower production costs.

Source


----------



## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

From this tweet:


----------



## SR22pilot (Aug 16, 2018)

Here are some other interesting numbers assuming I can read the financial data correctly for other manufacturers. Gross margin at 19% is about the same as GM and significantly better than Ford. ASP's at $50K is about the same as Lexus. Mercedes and BMW are around $55K so only 10% higher. 

People view Tesla as a small company. Compared to VW (10M cars per year) they are. However, Tesla is about 2X Jaguar and should surpass Land Rover in 2020. In 2021 Tesla will probably be larger than Jaguar and Land Rover combined. This also explains Tesla's grow or die mentality. The Jaguar - Land Rover size range is a bad place to be.


----------



## PEIEVGUY (Dec 19, 2018)

slacker775 said:


> Tesla is selling almost 100k cars a quarter with zero advertising and no dealerships. They are selling them as fast as they can make them, are making almost 20% on them and are actively building more production capacity. Are any other manufacturers even able to make and sell an EV above cost?


This cannot be understated. They are making money on them when the other companies are not! Imagine where Tesla will be in 12 months when Giga3 is fully operational. And then another 12 months with the Y and Semi rolling off the lines.


----------



## Dangermouse (Apr 27, 2016)

I saw this in an article on CNN on the future of electric cars and was just shocked at this prediction. Tesla making ONLY basically their current years' guidance...in 2025.

I think I'll print this out and leave it up for five years just to see how close they were. Too funny.


----------



## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

so 2025 is the new 2020?


----------



## FF35 (Jul 13, 2018)

This chart was funded with dieselgate money.


----------



## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

I don't understand that chart.
They start off by showing historical values from 2015-2018.
You can clearly see the trends happening...


----------



## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

And then it jumps all the way to 2025, without any attempt at showing the path to this great reversal of fortunes.


----------



## slacker775 (May 30, 2018)

Does Nissan-Renault have anything announced that would make any of this remotely plausible or is there some odd assumption that the global car buyer is suddenly going to go mad for Leafs? A 10-fold increase in 5 years is a pretty substantial jump. With Tesla, we all already know there are a few more models in the works as well as more manufacturing capacity to make it happen. I don’t think we may be talking 1.2M vehicles annually by that point, but there is room for things to happen. If they are looking at 300-400k per factory, you could be in that neighborhood. Would Nissan even have the access to enough battery capacity to support that many vehicles?


----------



## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

slacker775 said:


> Does Nissan-Renault have anything announced that would make any of this remotely plausible or is there some odd assumption that the global car buyer is suddenly going to go mad for Leafs? A 10-fold increase in 5 years is a pretty substantial jump. With Tesla, we all already know there are a few more models in the works as well as more manufacturing capacity to make it happen. I don't think we may be talking 1.2M vehicles annually by that point, but there is room for things to happen. If they are looking at 300-400k per factory, you could be in that neighborhood. Would Nissan even have the access to enough battery capacity to support that many vehicles?


i think you meant VW, not Nissan.... which is even harder to believe.


----------



## webdriverguy (May 25, 2017)

MelindaV said:


> so 2025 is the new 2020?


Even that is too conservative. With china coming online I expect them to pump out more than 500k. I hope i am not wrong.


----------



## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

slacker775 said:


> Does Nissan-Renault have anything announced that would make any of this remotely plausible...





MelindaV said:


> i think you meant VW, not Nissan.... which is even harder to believe.


Well, I found this pronouncement yesterday:

*Volkswagen exec reaffirms commitment to diesel: 'Now it is absolutely clean'*

**


----------



## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

webdriverguy said:


> Even that is too conservative. With china coming online I expect them to pump out more than 500k. I hope i am not wrong.


my comment was more to everyone other than Tesla that was sure 2020 would be the year everyone blew past tesla like they were standing still. aren't 2020 model year cars coming out for other manufactures now?


----------



## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

garsh said:


> Well, I found this pronouncement yesterday:
> 
> *Volkswagen exec reaffirms commitment to diesel: 'Now it is absolutely clean'*
> 
> **


so maybe by electric vehicle, they meant that VWs would have something electric in it - like a 12v battery.


----------



## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

flipping thru other manufacture's USA websites,

Ford lists the 2018 electric Focus
Chevy lists the 2019 Bolt and 2018 Volt (no longer being built)
Nissan lists the 2019 Leaf, with the tagline "You don't need sky to soar" (what?!)
VW lists the 2019 eGolf and a 'concepts' page with the tagline "We are very plugged in" (ok, prove it) with one listed as in dealerships end of 2020, one end of 2022 and no date on the other two.
Mercedes lists (no year) the GLC in their elec/hybrid section with a photo of a turbo gas motor
BMW lists (no year) i3 and i8 with the i8 description being 'plug-in hybrids being the future of electric mobility' with it's 8 mile range.
Chrysler doesn't include an electric section
Fiat also doesn't include a dedicated electric section, but does include the 2019 500e that is "100% electric, 0% boring"

some of these already had some (gas) models listed for the 2020 model year, but nothing for electric.


----------



## Dangermouse (Apr 27, 2016)

garsh said:


> And then it jumps all the way to 2025, without any attempt at showing the path to this great reversal of fortunes.
> 
> View attachment 28411


Maybe they are confusing all of those VW concept cars with actually planned VW electric cars... 🤨


----------



## Love (Sep 13, 2017)

1. Design electric car prototype (see also: vaporware)
2. Make electric cars 15 years after another company (I'll just call _that_ company Tesla, for S&G's)
3. ??? <-clearly where this recent data is strongly rooted in
4. Profit even though they keep saying Tesla doesn't profit on any car sales, but they'll somehow do it "right" "better" etc.


----------



## JimmT (Aug 1, 2017)

This chart and these types of articles remind me of all those articles claiming that Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS would take 2nd place in mobile operating systems, behind Android and that iOS would end up a distant third place. This was at the start of the iPhone's dominance and we all know how things turned out then.


----------



## ummgood (Feb 13, 2017)

MelindaV said:


> "You don't need sky to soar" (what?!)


OMG where has this quote been my whole life! I can feel my life changing right now. I absolutely love over the top marketing departments!

There is a moving company that has trucks that say "Don't pack your snake in the same box as your hampster"


----------

