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Tesla Reality Check?

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#31
jon.berna said:
when/if production > demand. I would.
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This is the big question.
He is not projecting to hit production numbers that match anywhere near what he expected.
His ramp up plans at the $2B Shanghai plant are unbelievable at best.
He's talking about doubling production stateside in the next quarter, but doesn't appear to have a way to do that without suffering quality issues again.

Always fun to spectate from the sidelines
 
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#33
What if Elon Musk was 伊隆马斯克 (Chinese)?

Let's say that Elon and his Teslas are made in China.
All of the construction errors that Tesla has made now take on a totally different energy. Tesla makes $100,000 cars with misaligned panels, crooked steering wheels, rattles, fires and it's AutoPilot users have tragically thought that it's really an AutoPilot.

And what of the legal threat that Tesla is funding to kill the franchise car dealer system with it's 1.1 million employees? This isn't an anti-Elon rant, it's an exercise in 'what if Elon was Chinese?'. Would it change our connection to him and his vision? I'd say it would.

This is a lesson on the impact of leadership, its a story of the power of personality. Elon's tools are his vision and taking BIG ASS RISKS. Tesla's customers and investors look past the 'little stuff' and freely give Elon room to grow into his vision. Will Elon get this 'free pass' overseas?

 
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#34
I have never understood why he gets a free pass.
Being incredibly smart at rocket appliances shouldn't mean you get a free pass to mess up manufacturing. Over and over again.
Almost every single projection he has made he has missed. They are still months behind on delivering cars that were ordered ages ago.

The entire model is hinged on that loving feeling for Elon and he put that at risk when he made some inappropriate comments, which I believe were catastrophic to his business.
 
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#35
I have never understood why he gets a free pass.
Being incredibly smart at rocket appliances shouldn't mean you get a free pass to mess up manufacturing. Over and over again.
Almost every single projection he has made he has missed. They are still months behind on delivering cars that were ordered ages ago.
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While I agree his behavior lately is strange and desperate, almost bordering on a nervous breakdown, I give him a pass because he's the only person I'm aware of that takes extraordinary risks and has the stamina to endure all that comes with it.

I drove a Model 3 last week. Thoroughly impressed. The display model in the store looked like a lemon - misaligned panels, things that didn't work. The car I drove, though, was solid and felt well engineered. The car literally reminds me of a smartphone on wheels.

I think they're working through the Model 3 issues pretty quickly - enough to the point I'd be confident ordering one today.
 
#36
Chris Cachor said:
While I agree his behavior lately is strange and desperate, almost bordering on a nervous breakdown, I give him a pass because he's the only person I'm aware of that takes extraordinary risks and has the stamina to endure all that comes with it.
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I don't know that I agree with this - I'm not sure what his extraordinary risks are.
It's also easier to maintain stamina when you're not sprinting to get done on time :D

Every manufacturer is working on new electric vehicles, spending billions of dollars on R&D and many are producing high quality electric cars at decent scale. They're all now fighting for the same battery resources, etc. Although Tesla was first in many areas, they've lost that advantage by spreading themselves too thin over new models and trying to make transport trucks while they still can't deliver on initial promises.

Visionary or not, his business model is rough.
 
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#37
I don't know that I agree with this - I'm not sure what his extraordinary risks are.
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Well, he did start a rocket company without knowing very much about rockets. Most people I know that make it into the millionaire/billionaire club live their lives trying to stay there. Musk risked it all. If it wasn't for him we wouldn't have re-usable rockets. I think it's clear he's causing a whole industry to change. They're probably neck and neck with GM on their self-driving efforts (behind Waymo, though).

I think the whole world should be grateful for the guy. Yea he might get excited and overstate things, but his accomplishments dwarf any of the naysaying IMO. Plus, when it comes to manufacturing. They started from scratch competing with massive companies that have done this for decades in one of the most capital intensive markets existing today.

Granted, it's not just him doing it himself. But what he's achieved is head and shoulders above most entrepreneurs.

Has anyone else driven the Model 3/S/X?
 
#38
Chris Cachor said:
Well, he did start a rocket company without knowing very much about rockets. Most people I know that make it into the millionaire/billionaire club live their lives trying to stay there. Musk risked it all. If it wasn't for him we wouldn't have re-usable rockets. I think it's clear he's causing a whole industry to change. They're probably neck and neck with GM on their self-driving efforts (behind Waymo, though).

I think the whole world should be grateful for the guy. Yea he might get excited and overstate things, but his accomplishments dwarf any of the naysaying IMO. Plus, when it comes to manufacturing. They started from scratch competing with massive companies that have done this for decades in one of the most capital intensive markets existing today.

Granted, it's not just him doing it himself. But what he's achieved is head and shoulders above most entrepreneurs.

Has anyone else driven the Model 3/S/X?
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True. Most millionair / billionaire go bankrupt with their space dreams. He did it while only pocketing 100MM from PayPal too (and started Tesla simultaneously)
 
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