• Stop being a LURKER - join our dealer community and get involved. Sign up and start a conversation.

Tesla Reality Check?

Aye aye aye this is the epitome of fake news. It's like a terrible game of telephone!

Tesla currently has ~$5b in cash on hand. In the memo, Musk states, "at our current burn rate, it will take 10 months to break even".

No where does he mention insolvency. He's simply stating if we don't get our operating expenses in order, we can't show a profit sooner than 10 months. Tesla already issued guidance of a net loss per share for Q2. Why? Because they're still making capital investments into their productive capacity while also paying debt. As they continue to scale up, revenues will grow bigger and they can show a profit.

How this gets misconstrued into 10 months until they file BK is utterly baffling...
 
Last edited:
I dunno Chris... “growth” via aggressive cutting has historically not been so viable. I’m neither a fanboy nor an opponent, but awfully hard for me to see Tesla as an independent company after another 12-18 months.

Aggressive cuts to make the company more attractive to potential purchasers? Now that’s an oft-told tale.

Facts as stated in the article:

...Tesla continues to burn through money at an alarming rate. So much so, in fact, that Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently sent an email (obtained via Electrek) wherein the Tesla CEO explained that the company — which has approximately $2.2 billion in cash on hand — may not have enough cash to last beyond a period of 10 months.

“This is a lot of money,” Musk said, “but actually only gives us about 10 months at the Q1 burn rate to achieve breakeven!”

Musk conceded that the soon to be implemented cost-cutting measures are “hardcore,” adding that it’s the “only way for Tesla to become financially sustainable and succeed in our goal of helping make the world environmentally sustainable.”
 
Tesla continues to burn through money at an alarming rate. So much so, in fact, that Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently sent an email (obtained via Electrek) wherein the Tesla CEO explained that the company — which has approximately $2.2 billion in cash on hand — may not have enough cash to last beyond a period of 10 months.

This is false. Tesla just did a capital raise of $2.7b bringing their cash on hand to an estimated $4.9b. How the 2.2b figure still gets reported, over a week after a very public capital raise is beyond me. Purposefully misleading "journalism".

“This is a lot of money,” Musk said, “but actually only gives us about 10 months at the Q1 burn rate to achieve breakeven!”

Of course these quotes are taken out of context. Look up the Q1 burn rate and see if this makes sense.
 
  • Useful
Reactions: john.quinn
Tesla cuts base price of new Model S and Model X vehicles
https://electrek.co/2019/05/21/tesla-price-model-s-x-changes/

Electrek’s Take
These price and option changes are truly impossible to follow. Tesla just launched a new version of these vehicles less than a month ago.

Those who ordered the new vehicles and are just now getting their hands on them after custom ordering are seeing the cars being sold for $2,000 to $3,000 less than they paid.

It’s bad for their resale value.

Of course, the counter-argument is that with the dealership model, the price of vehicles from other automakers changes all the time, but the thing is that Tesla wanted to move away from that with its direct sales model.

Now it’s also becoming difficult to navigate Tesla’s price structure because it changes so often.

More interestingly, I think it might have something to do with the upcoming refresh. Tesla could be reducing prices to liquidate some parts in order to be able to switch to the new versions.
 
Another leaked memo, confirmed by Reuters, Musk noted 50k net new pre-orders in Q2 alone. There's no demand problem. They do need to make their vehicles cheaper - but right now they're still supply constrained. IMO the supply constraint isn't the actual vehicles but the batteries that go in them. They're making headway there, though.

Here's a few links where a lot of those terrible headlines were walked back. Negativity gets clicks!

Also, Adam Jonas is a complete dumbass (https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2019/05/23/1558607451000/The-best-of-Morgan-Stanley-s-Adam-Jonas/).

Please see:


https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-navigate-on-autopilot-consumer-reports-review-clarified/
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/05/2...-taking-in-800-tesla-model-3-orders-per-week/
https://electrek.co/2019/05/23/tesla-new-delivery-record-elon-musk/

I read the other day about the Canadian EV incentives. Something like $10-15k off the hood of a Model 3. So not surprising to see 800+ orders out of the Vancouver store each week
 
Another leaked memo, confirmed by Reuters, Musk noted 50k net new pre-orders in Q2 alone. There's no demand problem. They do need to make their vehicles cheaper - but right now they're still supply constrained. IMO the supply constraint isn't the actual vehicles but the batteries that go in them. They're making headway there, though.

Here's a few links where a lot of those terrible headlines were walked back. Negativity gets clicks!

Also, Adam Jonas is a complete dumbass (https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2019/05/23/1558607451000/The-best-of-Morgan-Stanley-s-Adam-Jonas/).

Please see:


https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-navigate-on-autopilot-consumer-reports-review-clarified/
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/05/2...-taking-in-800-tesla-model-3-orders-per-week/
https://electrek.co/2019/05/23/tesla-new-delivery-record-elon-musk/

I read the other day about the Canadian EV incentives. Something like $10-15k off the hood of a Model 3. So not surprising to see 800+ orders out of the Vancouver store each week

I wouldn't call him a dumbass with his portfolio of investments and that link you've provided requires a login, no thanks. :)