Gee, SEC, how did that get out?! 'Leaked' Tesla email claims big boost in Model 3 production A "leaked" email from Tesla boss Elon Musk to all employees claims the company is now making 900 Model 3 vehicles a day – a whisker (well, 11 per cent) away from its 1,000-a-day target. The note, which was widely shared on Reddit and other platforms, also claimed demand for the cars was at an all-time high. "As of yesterday, …
That would never have happened if he used a PR department, like large companies usually did last millennium.
A PR department has the advantage of having a clear view of communications and of the communication strategy, which it applies to everything that goes out. Of course, that also means that the billionaire has to accept that he does not communicate anything that does not go through the PR department.
Which is what is happening now anyway, except that he has transformed the regulator into his PR department - and he can't fire the regulator.
Looks like he should have had a PR department.
"A PR department has the advantage of having a clear view of communications and of the communication strategy"
By producing a lot of meaningless verbiage such as "only a few customers", "your security is our first concern" etc.
Big deal, they finally managed to deliver the cars that have been in transit on ships for the past month or so.
Demand has dropped off to almost nothing in the US, they are cost cutting so hard they won't even pay for toilet paper, their share price is in the toilet, they are trying to sell a cheap car for a premium price and it has the most basic controls, and comes in the most dangerous colour on the road, "black" that no one wants. They do't even have enough staff to give the car a wash before delivery. Pricing is like a yoyo. Its totally unappealing to a mass market.
Oh yeah baby, lets put it on the charger in the garage at home for 48 hours to charge it up!
Only fanboi's would pay the money they are asking.
"funding secured" $4.20 price coming up real soon now.
So producing 900 a day cars without the demand?
Considering they are made to order, what deam world are you living in? Which car company do you work for? Tesla doesnt dump their stock on a dealership like the fossil car makers do. They get an order online, put it into the production and then post our our car, done.
Also you can lok at the offical registration figures each month, seems they are reistering (hence sold) record numbers at the moment in the USA.
This - In the 'small and medium' luxury cars segment, which the Tesla model 3 stands, it is crushing everything in terms of sales... in terms of total car sales for 2018 it looks like it was 35th... but this is of course all categories combined. Highest selling is Ford F-Series with 909,000 vehicles sold, but that looks like an SUV/Pickup to me... If Tesla ever start branching out into other categories of vehicles I expect that will cause some trouble. Not bad for a company that's 14 years old that's taking on established brands that are over 100 years old!
"The whole point of the higher production rates was to be able to meet the massive backlog of existing orders."
There's a missing phrase there. "to meet the massive backlog of existing orders before the federal tax subsidy drops from $3750 to $1875 on July 1
A few points.
- Customers can, and sometimes do, ask for their deposit back and back out of the deal. Not every order will become a sale.
- July 1st is only 5 weeks away
- The subsidy goes away entirely on December 31st. (Let's don't go into the sanity of subsidizing expensive electric luxury cars. Right up there with subsidizing corn ethanol that typically requires almost as much energy to produce as it yields when burned.)
- For a public company, Tesla's finances seem to be remarkably opaque.
- And it's founder ... Some questionable judgment there at times.
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"and comes in the most dangerous colour on the road, "black" that no one wants."
Almost every car company has black an a colour option. Some even regard it as a premium colour. Teslas are also available in other colours it is just a selection on the configurator.
"Demand has dropped off to almost nothing in the US"
No it hasn't they are still struggling to keep up with the orders, hence the keened for extra production. The issues with Tesla always seem to be around not being able to produce enough at a consistent quality.
"they are cost cutting so hard they won't even pay for toilet paper,"
And yet they are building a massive new factory in China. Doesn't seem like cost-cutting.
"sell a cheap car for a premium price"
Isn't that a bit of an oxymoron? The price of the car is the price that it sells for and, as there are no dealers, this is a set price. Or are you saying the car costs very little to make and they are selling it for a lot? In which case they seem like a great bet.
"Pricing is like a yoyo"
Yeah it is a bit, for some models.
"Oh yeah baby, lets put it on the charger in the garage at home for 48 hours to charge it up!"
I don't think anyone is regularly taking 48 hours to charge their car. They'll have a proper chargepoint and they won't be flattening the battery every day. I'm sure for 99.99% of cases overnight charging works fine for everyone.
"Almost every car company has black an a colour option. Some even regard it as a premium colour. Teslas are also available in other colours it is just a selection on the configurator."
Black isn't the option on a Model 3, it's the standard color. Everything else is an option - at a price. White is an extra $2000. I live in the hot & humid U.S. southeast, where black cars gets burning hot. Black is also the color that dragonflies confuse with a stream, so they drop their eggs directly on to a griddle. I will never again have a black car, so if I want a Tesla, I have to pay a premium.
Black cars are horrible for showing dirt, dings, dents, sun-blemishes and any other incidental temporary or permanent small-scale damage.
White hides everything shot of a T-bone or a rust-through.
I had a black TR6. Oh how the pussy cats loved that long bonnet after the sun had shone for a bit or the mighty straight 6 of massive torque had been fired up. If only they'd wiped their feet all would have been tickety-boo. Ten seconds after parking the bonnet was a maze of little cat-paw tracks.
And yet they are building a massive new factory in China. Doesn't seem like cost-cutting.
Are they? Last I saw, it was a muddy field. But if it turns into a massive factory, then that's a massive investment. A challenge for Tesla is it's cashflow, especially if it's really intending to launch a Model Y, semi, SUV, roadster2.0 and whatever else may come down the Musk dream.. I mean pipeline. Prepping production lines for everything that's been announced is going to need a LOT of money.
Isn't that a bit of an oxymoron? The price of the car is the price that it sells for and, as there are no dealers, this is a set price.
Except prices keep changing, often dropping. That could be because cost cutting means savings can be passed on, or it could mean demand dropping or inventory rising & prices cut to shift stock. But the Model 3 was supposed to be the $35k people's EV.. yet has turned out more expensive, and there's a lot of competition coming across pretty much all Tesla's product range.
Then of course there's still the risk of margin calls, or debt covenant breaches if Tesla's share price keeps falling. Which is where the SEC may be interested to find out how true this email is. Fortuitous timing though.
"Are they? Last I saw, it was a muddy field"
Well it has been created at a remarkable pace, possibly one of the fastest constructions of this size ever. It's amazing how fast the private sector can operate at eh?
Thanks.. But many a slip between framework and filling it with a lot of expensive production line stuff. I'm a bit curious how much of Tesla's woes are now bad timing, ie being caught in the middle of the US-China trade spat.. Which could get even more painful if China restricts commodities and components.
And as for Ellison, Tesla's 52wk high, $387. Low, $188. So figure on Musk's 34m shares, $13.1bn to $6.3bn.. Hardly down to his last dime, but must sting a bit.
If Musk gets the Broad Group to build it, they can get things done in stupidly short times. And usually earthquake proof as well..
"And in the past 5 years, I only remember seeing one Tesla (owned by a coworker). Anecdotal evidence isn't evidence."
...and here in the UK, I drive over much of the country and most Motorway Services have had special Tesla charging points for at least the last 12 months and I've only ever seen one Tesla on charge in all that time. But apparently there are enough sales here to justify all those charging points. I've no idea what the actual sales are, but I rarely see one.
Interesting... you think you should only build a charging network once there are enough cars to fill them to capacity, say 80% of the time?
I would actually prefer, and think it is a reasonable strategy to get the charging network in place well before the capacity is needed. Therefore it doesn't cause a barrier to sale.
It is an unusual criticism to say that their charging network is too good!
Anyway, where I worked we installed a couple of destination chargers, for hotel guests, that had both Tesla and 'Other EV' charge cables. The Tesla one was in use by at least one Tesla about 75% of the time and slightly more than the 'Other EV' charger.
No one wants 'black'? Both of my vehicles are black, I prefer it.
As far as pricing, I initially thought so too until I priced an F150 truck - $50k average starting price - and if you wanted a car, too bad - Ford is dropping all sedans other than the Mustang and the Fusion, will just be producing SUV's and trucks in the future - like Fiat did with Dodge.
/agree that the Tesla's are ugly - dream is to gather a few totalled Teslas and xfer the tech into a Mustang - that would trip the plebs out lol.
I prefer either dark grey metallic (so called gun metal) or mud coloured.
The former because it's less boring than black and stays clean for more than 30 seconds after washing it, the latter if I simply don't WANT to wash it :).
In addition, any new car I buy immediately gets Soft99 wax and windshield coating applied. Both are robust enough to last nearly a year. The wax means I can get a car from covered in mud to factory-new exterior shine in at most 40 minutes if I do it myself, and the windshield coating is something i have been doing for over 30 years, and Soft99's is IMHO presently the best in class.
You have to apply it twice for the first time (trust me on this), but once you have done this you will never want to drive in the rain without.
And yet a Nissan Altima with trimmings can be had for about half that, less if you buy low mileage second-hand like I did.
It's not "luxury" I suppose. Only has everything but the autopilot the Tesla does. But I can get one for the asking without waiting from one of those despised "dealers" (spit-spit)" in about half a dozen colors.
In the US, anyway, there is very good evidence (in my opinion) that car color does not significantly affect accident rates at all. That evidence is that car insurance companies don't factor color into their insurance rates. Given that they do factor in every little thing they think affects the accident rate, I consider this as close to conclusive as we can get.
He hasn't though, really.
His investment is currently worth about $420m less than he paid for it, at current market value. But he hasn't "lost" $420m, exactly. He has 3m Tesla shares, just like he did when he bought them. He'd only have "lost" $420m if he were to sell them at market value today. If he doesn't...he's just holding an investment that's currently in the red. In a year it might be worth twice what he paid for it.
It is perfectly possible for Tesla to succeed without their share price increasing. If by succeed you simply mean becoming one of the world’s largest car manufacturers, simply compare their current market capitalisation with that of Ford. If Musk were more interested in the environmental benefits of electric cars gaining traction than profits, it’s entirely possible he could (continue to) sell cars at a loss, eventually running the company into the ground. Many might still argue this a success.
OK, I'll admit bias having owned a Model 3 since last November, but...
It is seriously the best, most fun car I have ever owned, and I'm not young. Has Tesla made mistakes? You bet. The constant price changes, delivery quality issues, AP that's not AP - at least not yet, and more. But here's the thing, Tesla is being held to some incredibly high, unrealistic standard.
Before I bought my Model 3 I bought a brand new Chevy Volt. It ended with GM buying it back because after 35 days in shop - six different visits - they could never fix a problem that started even before delivery. No car company is perfect, and Musk is fighting two huge entrenched industries - oil and ICE carmakers - that desperately want him to fail.
All I can say is this. Having driven my Model 3 and seeing what a well-designed EV can do, I will never go back to an ICE car. There's virtually no maintenance (the REAL reason traditional car dealers hate EVs), the car is better now than when I bought it thanks to OTA updates, and it's just seriously fun to drive. I may sound like a fanboi - I'm not, I bitch constantly about AP and a few other things that are waaaay oversold - but I know a good car when I drive one, and if you've never driven a Tesla you owe it to yourself to take a test drive if for no other reason that to see what's possible with great engineering.
There are a couple of logistic issues they have to solve. E.g. apparently, if you ever are in need of a repair, it can occasionally take very long to source spare parts - traditional vendors have a very sophisticated supply chain that can deliver spare parts over-night or even same-day.
To bad they don't build a station wagon ;-)
Can you comment on how much was paid for this Model 3? And compare the price to the Volt?
Because if you bought a $50K or $60K Model 3 and are comparing it to an MSRP $35K Volt which averages sale prices of $29K - apples and oranges.
I also wonder how many $50K or $60K cars you've driven in the past (assuming that's the price paid).
To be fair, you can argue apples-vs-oranges if the complaint was about, say, ride quality or cabin build quality, but if the issue is between a car that works and one that doesn't... well, really, no one should be making excuses for GM.
What I'm interested in is how good long-term reliability is. In theory, an EV could do several 100K miles before needing any servicing outside of brakes/tires/road-worthiness-inspections. My concern is, if the traditional manufacturers have their way, I doubt their EVs would do much more than 100K before being ready for scraping. I'm hoping Tesla can school them on how to build a reliable car.
Also, I'm a VW owner right now! They do build quality fairly well... but really, there's a lot of scope for improvement, in no small part because modern ICE vehicles are so complex. And because of that, maintenance costs are pretty high. Again, tolerable when compared with cars in the past, but really, not all that good if we're being completely objective.
The Model 3 was just over $60K vs the $42K list price (I paid ~ $37K) for the Volt. But I wasn't comparing the cars, just the initial delivery and reliability experience that all the critics think Tesla should do perfectly.
And yes, I've owned other $50K+ cars, some of which had much nicer interiors - and you could argue exteriors as well, but none of them gave me the "wow" experience the way this car does. And I've never owned a single car that got better, for free, after delivery. OTA updates are a real game-changer.
"if you've never driven a Tesla you owe it to yourself to take a test drive if for no other reason that to see what's possible with great engineering."
I've driven a Tesla, and yes, it's a great car. Seriously overpriced, in my opinion, but then I'm not a "car guy", so driving for the experience of driving is not something that I find compelling. Which, I guess, is just another way of saying that I'm not the target market for Tesla.
Tesla will be bankwupt before long, their actions in cutting costs says it all.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/teslas-bad-news-accelerates-as-wall-street-loses-faith/
“We see shares continuing to trade lower on a lack of near-term catalysts and likely cut to vehicle sales guidance,” CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson wrote in a note to investors Thursday. He cut his one-year stock price target $50 to $150.
We know exactly how it got out: via the workforce. Is that supposed to be only for disgruntled employees or Gurmeet employees throwing shade? Given all the surcharge crap about Tesla, they have a right, a responsibility, to tell employees it ain't as bad as portrayed and of course that will get out, is expected to get out. To bad for the SEC.
Considering the jump to an EV next year - gave the 3 a quick look over at my local showroom in the UK. To be honest it looked pretty basic inside. The game console style steering wheel didn't really appeal and the dash looks god awful. Any owners on here care to share why they bought one?
Musk isn't banned from tweeting, he's only banned from tweeting lies - thanks to his SEC fraud case settlement.
If this production news was true he could have tweeted it - but he didn't.
Seems like Musk needed a new route for dishonest communication, hence the recent *leaked* emails.
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