Musk: Tesla's doing great. I mean, have you seen my Twitter follower count? Never mind the headlines. 2022 was Tesla's best year ever, Elon Musk claimed in the automaker's Q4 2022 earnings call this week. According to Tesla [PDF], the electric car maker brought in $24.32 billion in revenue in the final three months of 2022 – a 37 percent year-over-year increase. Earnings per share were also up 40 …
It's also kinda hard no to follow him.
When you create a new twitter account it forces you to choose one person to follow and the top of that list is Elon Musk.
I had to scroll a long way down to find someone I wouldn't mind following before it would let me proceed.
I chose stevenage football club
....was probably due to significant price cuts.
It may be a function of where I live but there are more and more of these things about. Its one of the more common makes of new cars in our area. I don't know why except that everyone I know who owns one seems to really like it.
I used to live in an EV-centric place (or one that was moving heavily towards EV). Teslas were reasonably common, but there were enough people pretty happy with Nissan, VW, BMW. The SUVs were not that common yet. The perceived value of Teslas was not that high, and the cabbies I talked to (mostly driving Teslas) were positively underwhelmed.
I see them on the motorways daily and any time I pull into a motorway services, the number charging on the "special" Tesla charges is significant. Just a couple of years ago it was rare to a tesla charger in use. There's definitely a lot more of them on the roads now. The upside is that the motorway service usually have more Tesla chargers than they do generic ones. I've seen people waiting for generic ones to become available, but never seen so many Teslas there that there isn't at least a few spares ones. No idea how that maps to the rest of the country, but Tesla seem to have the right idea when it comes to motorway chargers. 8-10 or more compared to 2-4 generic ones,
Yeah, saw that reported on the Beeb the other. It surprised me that it even existed and I was a bit disappointed. Then I considered where SpaceX is now with Falcon9, Heavy and soon-to-be Starship compared with where they started with Grasshopper. The economics and demand are very different though. We shall see.
Glad someone else sees it. Saw a British couple a while ago doing their vlog (hate that term) who were going to go camping "We have this amazing solar panel that can be used for camping. Its great and does blah blah blah. Oh and thats to CampingCompanyNameHere for the panel. We haven't actually tried it yet". So how can you say its fucking great? Is it because you got it free and want more free stuff from people so will just so something is great before you've even fucking tried it?
They annoy the shit out of me. Granted, I'd love the money and free items but just can't bring myself to sell out. Really liked Britec's videos but then he started to "review" more and more IT stuff clearly sent to him for free buy Chinese sellers. Never declared this and the "reviews" were never reviewed just unboxings.
While I'm a non-fan of Tesla, the truth is there is no bad news in this for Tesla:
- Lower prices are straight out good for electric car uptake, and thus demand.
- We have to make more electric cars in the next decade or so, than all the current production capacity from all the manufacturers put together.
- There is no shortage of customers - you just have to be able to make them for the price those customers can pay.
- While Tesla cars have various issues, the fact is that they are more than good enough, and will continue to be until the market starts to saturate - probably in the mid 2030's
- Lower margins might make Tesla drop some of the expensive, negative-value techno-junk from the base models, which would actually make them better cars, more reliable, and more attractive to many buyers.
- When margins fall enough, and Tesla have excess capacity in the supply chain for motors, batteries etc, they will simply partner with other companies to build the cars with Tesla components. This is what every other car company does.
Heaps of Teslas where I live in second half of 2022, because they've been the cheapest e-car which is actually available when you want to buy one.
the fact is that they are more than good enough
But geting less so - given that, due to Musk's inability to be professional with his suppliers, they are stripping off a lot of the sensors that you would expect from a car that proclaims to be 'self-driving'. If you think the situation with driving into freeway splitters is bad now, just wait until the radar and lidar systems are removed and it's just cameras.
Even my C-HR will have more sensors than the supposedly premium e-car!
(Seeing a lot more Hyundai/VW e-cars around than Teslas. As well as other marques e-cars. They are very much a minority here in the UK - mostly bought a year or two ago by people who *must* have the latest techie-toy!)
> I've got 127 million followers. It continues to grow very rapidly. That suggests that I'm reasonably popular,"
Bollocks. While I'm sure there are plenty of stans slavishly following Elom's every little tidbit of twaddle, it's a fair bet all 127M aren't that. Assuming you even believe his number in the first place, and that it's composed mostly of human eyeballs rather than bots or other API-like content scrapers and similar shenanigans.
More like he's a big unstable spectacle and a lot of people want to see what crazy unhinged thing he's done this time, not because they actually like the guy. Train crash, etc. Plus hate-watchers, pundits and media writer types looking for a headline, and so on.
If he'd have instead claimed "I'm good at making a ruckus and attracting attention", then fair enough. But, any loud smelly fart can too....
I bought a a "dirty, horrible" diesel 5 years ago. Before you EV smuggos start on at me, you know why? I bought that car which was second hand demo model only at 6 months old, just for towing, towing a caravan as I utterly hate flying and I needed a cheap way to have holidays. So before you EV types start on at me I can tell you that I've not been on a plane since 1998, so you keep your peace with the environment your way and I'll keep it in mine.
I'm not the one driving my Tesla Smugmobile(tm) to the airport to fly and forth to Val d'Isere to go skiing twice a year for a few days!
"I'm not the one driving my Tesla Smugmobile(tm) to the airport to fly and forth to Val d'Isere to go skiing twice a year for a few days!"
Somehow I suspect that very few Tesla owners are, either.
" just for towing, towing a caravan as I utterly hate flying and I needed a cheap way to have holidays"
One characteristic of electric cars is monstrous amounts of torque, with 100% availability all through the rev range (they don't have a torque curve they have a torque line), making electric cars ideal for towing. Of course there are many other characteristics including build and price, everyone is entitled to get themselves a diesel if that's what works for them. Personally I would go for an electric car but I don't have anywhere to charge it, so it's a 5-year old diesel for me too.
No - not ideal. Tesla 3. Tesla rates their Standard Range Plus and Long Range Dual Motor models for a rather feeble 1000kg max towing range with a 55kg noseweight limit - only suitable for towing smaller loaded camping trailers or v small caravans. Add the "dark art" issue of guessing how much the real-life mileage range will be reduced on the journey ahead - 50% is a good start - but hills, unpredictably stuck in traffic jams etc etc = range anxiety with the whole family on board.
I'd stick with the diesel for now thanks.
"I'd stick with the diesel for now thanks."
Good for you! I'd bet most EV owners, other than maybe the most ardent greenies, would agree with you. I single long haul flight probably outweighs your annual emissions :-)
Just Googled it. A fully occupied 747 emits less pollution , but in the comparison that was a diesel car with a single occupant. So for your holiday trip will all the family, probably much less pollution than flying the same distance. I can't be arsed to work the numbers, but a flight is generally far, far further than a 200-300 mile caravan trip. And not all flights are filled. many are empty or near empty return flights at night just to get the plane at the right airport for start of day.
"One characteristic of electric cars is monstrous amounts of torque, with 100% availability all through the rev range (they don't have a torque curve they have a torque line), making electric cars ideal for towing."
I assume a hybrid would be not too far behind an EV?
I am guessing a hybrid is a conventional motor, a generator/alternator and battery powering an electric motor.
The picture of a 747 (now 53 years old) towing Clarkson caravan over the Atlantic is priceless and I imagine that more than few would pay double to have Clarkson inside it.
Well, whoever does not see that there are applications where EVs (and quite often small EVs - and smaller cars in general) make sense and there are (at the same time) applications where they don't make sense (yet? hopefully at some point in time, I guess) is just not a person you want to (or even can) have a meaningful discussion about this. So, the "holier than thou" loons that (as you wrote) "fly to val d'Isere twice a year" (and additionally in Northern Hemisphere summer to New Zealand or Australia) faction can please shut up (as can the "EVs suckerz ballz" people).
Short(er) commute? Chance to charge at home? Get an EV, a smaller one (Nissan Leaf, or the small VW, I think it's called eUp, or even the small Twizzy, with added doors and windows). Long distance, hauling a caravan? Nope, I don't think an EV is for you. And then there is a whole spectrum in between. What about maintaining your old car, which you don't use too often, but has an ICE vs. buying a completely new EV, for the few 1000 km you drive each year?
I can tell you that I've not been on a plane since 1998
Neither have I. But I also don't have a dirty old diesel smogging up the place..
(Of all the ICE engined vehicles, diesel produces the most pollution. Even newer ones.. especially ones that haven't had the cheat-to-pass-emissions-tests settings removed)
Ooooooh, of course. I'm glad you posted that! Here on the right side of the pond, a truck is something used for heavy haulage. The "Cybertruck" is that over-sized car thing. I had completely the wrong image in my head. I thought that was about the big heavy haulage truck he's also developing.
I'm in Scotland, and- assuming that's what you're referring to- I'd have called such a thing a "lorry". I always thought that "truck" in that sense was more of an Americanism.
I'd assumed that everyone had seen the image of the Cybertruck because it was in the middle of the article, but checking now I realise it was actually in the middle of one of the linked articles. Here's a direct link to the Tweet from Elmer Fud himself.
I can't work out whether that thing is brilliant or awful, but I sure as **** can't imagine a builder tossing sacks of cement mix into the back of it.
"Let me check my Twitter account. OK, so I've got 127 million followers. It continues to grow very rapidly. That suggests that I'm reasonably popular," Musk said
Do we know what's going on with his Twitter changes? *
* Not a social media user so no idea what's going on, I have read people moaning that his tweets seem to show in their app even though they don't follow him - so wondered if he has had devs do something to make his visibility artificially prominent on peoples apps (which may help him to potentially get new followers)
Perhaps Ford will outlast Tesla because Henry never tweeted?
Henry used the Tweet technology of the day, and bought the Dearborn Independent. Much as with Musk, or maybe some other newspaper owners, his thoughts were just a tad controversial, and would result in it swiftly being cancelled today. And Ford probably, and probably rightly, arrested. In many respects he may have been a good businessman, but he wasn't a very nice guy.
'Elon Musk has made me embarrassed to drive my Tesla now'
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