Guest Post by Eric Peters
Elon just admitted something which is getting very little coverage – and no explanation.
He announced that Tesla will no longer be selling the “affordable” $35,000 Model 3 he promised would be Tesla’s first mass-market electric car. Like so many of Elon’s promises, that one’s out the window, too.
The price of the least expensive Tesla just rose to $39,000. Well, technically $38,990 – to make it go down easier.
Continue reading “The Electric Obamaphone”
Tesla Net Income, Millions…
Q1 2019: -702
2018: -976
2017: -1,961
2016: -675
2015: -889
2014: -294
2013: -74
2012: -396
2011: -254
2010: -154
2009: -56
2008: -82
2007: -78$TSLA— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) April 24, 2019
When one of the best known pro-Tesla blogs on the web says that the Model 3 has a substantial design flaw, it’s time to pay attention.
The “mass accessible” electric car, which became infamous for having its bumpers fall off, was found to have a design flaw in its underbody that causes the car to trap and retain dirt, water and sand from roadways, according to electrek, who this week published an article detailing the flaw.
The blog points out that Tesla has “often been accused of designing cars for the Californian climate” and that water, dirt and sand used to de-ice roads in colder climates are susceptible to getting trapped in the underbody of Model 3 cars.
As the center of the U.S. freezes this weekend, Elon Musk is trying to figure out how to save Tesla from going the way of Enron.
Religions die hard. It takes an orgy of evidence to change a person’s mind on a subject that is integral to their moral and ethical structure.
In the case of Tesla, the mania surrounding it over the past decade has been inextricably bound up with the hysteria of global warming.
For years investors ignored the obvious warning signs that Tesla would never be able to graduate from a boutique, hand-built car manufacturer and technology skunk works to a mass producer.
I’ve been very hard on Musk in the past, with good reason. But, as a guy with vision I applaud him getting Tesla off the ground and legitimizing the idea of the upscale electric car.
But it was never going to work as a mass production scheme because Musk isn’t that guy. He’s a dreamer and a schemer, not a builder. And, as I’ve said multiple times, he should have stepped down as CEO of Tesla ages ago.
Continue reading “When Bubbles Burst – Tesla, The Everything Cycle, & The End Of Global Warming”
While Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the rest of the company’s board of directors were posturing as though everything was fine earlier this year – even as the company struggled with ramping its Model 3 production and its CEO became the target of both the SEC and the Department of Justice – the reality of the situation below the surface was far closer to what most skeptics had suggested, according to a bizarre new Axios interview with Musk that aired on HBO Sunday night.
Speaking to Axios, Musk admitted that Tesla “faced a severe threat of death” earlier this year and that it was “bleeding money like crazy” as it worked through its crucial Model 3 production ramp. In the interview, Musk admitted that the company “came within single-digit” weeks of death before it was able to meet its production goals.
“Tesla really faced a severe threat of death due to the Model 3 production ramp. Essentially, the company was bleeding money like crazy, and if we didn’t solve these problems in a very short period of time, we would die. And it was extremely difficult to solve them.”
Guest Post by Simon Black
Earlier this year I quoted Chicago-based hedge fund manager John Thompson of Vilas Capital Management– who has been incredibly vocal (and blunt) about Tesla.
Back in March, Thompson said that he thinks Tesla is going to crash . . .
“. . .partially due to their incompetence in making and delivering the Model 3, partially due to falling demand for the Model S and X, partially due to the extreme valuation, partially due to their horrendous finances that will imminently require a huge capital raise. . . and partially due to our suspicions of fraudulent accounting activities. . .”
This morning Thompson released his latest investor update, slamming Tesla once again in hilarious prose:
Continue reading “How’s this for crazy: Tesla is still worth more than HONDA”
Tesla has not been this much more volatile than the NASDAQ in almost five years (seven times more volatile) as Elon Musk’s recent mocking of the SEC has sparked yet more selling this morning – this put Tesla stock back near its lowest since April…
Shares are tumbling once again following questions this weekend about Tesla’s safety record…
Guest Post by Eric Peters
If you’re a billionaire.
Count it out. One billion dollars is one thousand million dollars. If you have one thousand million dollars, $20 million is of the same consequence as losing a $20 under a sofa cushion is to the rest of us.
There’s no doubt in Richard Lam’s mind: When he takes the wheel of his Tesla Model 3, he’ll be thrilled with it. “I hear that owners, once they get their cars, are very happy,” said Lam, 31, an electrical engineer from Diamond Bar.
Getting it is the problem. Lam has been waiting more than two months. He’s already paid Tesla for the highest-end Model 3 available, which costs $79,500. He’s paying principal and interest on his loan. But for now he’s left driving a 1999 Mustang, a loaner from his brother.
“I’m not very happy with the current situation,” he said.
He’s not alone. Complaints about Tesla taking people’s money while they wait weeks for the cars, often with no firm delivery dates, are all over Twitter, Facebook and the Tesla Motors Club user forum. Owners who try to contact delivery representatives say voicemail boxes are full, and calling around to different Tesla numbers yields conflicting information.
Continue reading “As Tesla struggles to exit ‘production hell,’ buyers complain of delivery limbo”
Guest Post by Eric Peters
It is beginning.
Actually, it’s been happening for a long time – like a slowly metastasizing cancer. The afflicted can no longer hide the underlying disease.
Tesla is dying.
Elon is panicking – and executives are bailing. Yesterday, the company’s chief accounting officer, Dave Morton, resigned less than a month after taking the job. What do you imagine he . . . took account of?
Update: it’s just getting ugly in Freemont.
* * *
Easy come, easy go.
Just hours after Elon Musk appeared on a comedy podcast, where he smoked pot, demonstrated his flamethrower and mused philosophically, Tesla’s chief accounting officer unexpectedly gave notice he’s resigning just one month into the job, citing the level of scrutiny on the electric-car maker.
Continue reading “Tesla Tumbles After Chief Accounting Officer Quits After Just One Month”
Guest Post by Simon Black
There’s no doubt you know the story…
On August 7, in the middle of the trading day, Tesla founder Elon Musk surprised investors with a tweet saying he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 per share (a $72 billion valuation) with “funding secured.” He quickly followed up with “Investor support is confirmed.”
Shares of Tesla soared 13% to $387 on the cryptic social media update from Tesla’s exalted chief.
The news created a media frenzy around the already red-hot company (and prompted the SEC to investigate Musk and Tesla for potentially lying to investors about a takeover). A single tweet – while the market was still open, no less – was an odd and informal way to announce such a major event.
Did Musk consult Tesla’s board of directors before making this public? Did they even know of his plans to take the company private? Is any of this even true?
Continue reading “Fool me once, shame on Elon. Fool me twice. . .”
Having surged as much as 7% pre-market – despite missing its deadline for the milestone of producing 5,000 Model 3 cars in a week – it appears the humans have now read the reports (rather than the machines), and Tesla’s stock price is tumbling…
Well that escalated quickly…
What’s wrong with Elon Musk?
And where is Tesla’s board of directors, as the antics of its CEO escalate, as Tesla’s stock price falls, and as the progress of the company’s efforts to manufacture more than a few of the 400,000-plus Model 3 electric cars that customers have ordered ebbs and flows?
We know where Musk is. The going gets tough, and he goes to get tough — on Twitter TWTR, +0.30%
Musk has always been … different. But since Tesla’s TSLA, +0.21% first-quarter conference call, where he dismissed “boring” questions about operations and capital requirements, it has gone to another level. Most recently, his Twitter feed has looked worthy of Silicon Valley whipping boy Donald Trump, with a half-baked distraction about creating a Web site to rate media outlets.
“Anytime anyone criticizes the media, the media shrieks ‘You’re just like Trump!,’ ” Musk tweets, complete with Trumpian grammar.
“Why do you think he got elected in the first place? Because no ones believes you any more.”
That’s nice, Elon. How did that tweet help you make cars?
Continue reading “It’s nearly time for Tesla’s board to move on Elon Musk”
Just days after two teens were killed in a dramatic, fiery crash involving a Tesla Model S in Ft. Lauderdale, on Friday night another Tesla sedan with a semi-autonomous Autopilot feature rear-ended a fire department truck while driving at a speed of 60 mph (97 kph) apparently without braking before impact, although as Associated Press reports so far police say it’s unknown if the Autopilot feature was engaged.
The cause of the Friday evening crash, involving a Tesla Model S and a fire department mechanic truck stopped at a red light, was under investigation, said police in South Jordan, a suburb of Salt Lake City. The police added that there was light rain falling and roads were wet when the crash occurred.
“Witnesses indicated the Tesla Model S did not brake prior to impact,” the statement said.
Is Elon Musk – the recipient of over five billion government dollars – really the focused workhorse he proclaims to be, or is he nothing more than a taxpayer-subsidized, scatterbrained mess hopelessly trying to make his science fiction dreams into reality?
Wall Street is now largely betting against Tesla, which has consistently missed Model 3 production deadline after Model 3 production deadline. Some believe that the company is nearing its make-or-break moment.
To prove private-sector investment houses like Goldman Sachs wrong, Musk claims he is going through “production hell,” working at all hours to quench Tesla’s backlog bug. According to him, he moves his desk to wherever the most pressing Tesla problems are. Musk also claims to sleep on the Tesla factory floor at night, which prompted his all-believers to start a GoFundMe page to finance a couch for the billionaire.
Continue reading “Elon Musk: Production Hell or Party Balloons? Pick One.”
