Tesla has definitely moved the needle on electric cars, it’s slowly moving from being a fad to a more viable purchase. Tesla is also looking to install some of their public chargers at gas stations too, expanding their supercharger map. They progress they have made in a short amount of time is amazing.
From a technology/engineering standpoint I’m curious what they do different. Electric cars and solar power has been out for a long time, Tesla shows up and is able to develop technology significantly better than the competition. Have you ever seen a case study on their development process?
No I haven’t seen a case study on how they do things differently. I think Tesla not being bound by a bureaucracy the way the Big 3 and other large car corporations are, and are willing to think about solutions and not problems, allows them to use talent and management to get things done. They made things like EV’s and solar both cool and chic, something other car companies don’t see as important. Look at the Prius, it’s basically a brick on wheels. Sure it helps save the planet and all that, but why they couldn’t give it a decent aesthetic is beyond me.
Fisker is back with new electric car. Looking like a cross between an old school corvette and Tesla Model S, Fisker Inc. says the car will reach a top speed of 161 mph and will have a 400-mile electric range.
Keep your eyes out for graphene batteries gents, it will solve the range, charging, and longevity issues.
I respect Elon Musk and his eye for innovation, but I could do without his 4 billion dollars in government subsidies from the tax payers.
Can you elaborate on this? The Zev credits are for the consumer and they are no where near 4B. Tesla paid back all the loans they took from the 2007 stimulus package.
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“After unveiling the Supercharger in 2012, Tesla CTO JB Straubel said that Tesla aims to bring the charging down to 5 to 10 minutes.”
This is a terrific 1999 60 Minutes segment on Amazon. The valuation parallels between Amazon then and Tesla now are amazingly similar.
August 7, 2018
The following email was sent to Tesla employees today:
Earlier today, I announced that I’m considering taking Tesla private at a price of $420/share. I wanted to let you know my rationale for this, and why I think this is the best path forward.
First, a final decision has not yet been made, but the reason for doing this is all about creating the environment for Tesla to operate best. As a public company, we are subject to wild swings in our stock price that can be a major distraction for everyone working at Tesla, all of whom are shareholders. Being public also subjects us to the quarterly earnings cycle that puts enormous pressure on Tesla to make decisions that may be right for a given quarter, but not necessarily right for the long-term. Finally, as the most shorted stock in the history of the stock market, being public means that there are large numbers of people who have the incentive to attack the company.
I fundamentally believe that we are at our best when everyone is focused on executing, when we can remain focused on our long-term mission, and when there are not perverse incentives for people to try to harm what we’re all trying to achieve.
This is especially true for a company like Tesla that has a long-term, forward-looking mission. SpaceX is a perfect example: it is far more operationally efficient, and that is largely due to the fact that it is privately held. This is not to say that it will make sense for Tesla to be private over the long-term. In the future, once Tesla enters a phase of slower, more predictable growth, it will likely make sense to return to the public markets.
Here’s what I envision being private would mean for all shareholders, including all of our employees.
First, I would like to structure this so that all shareholders have a choice. Either they can stay investors in a private Tesla or they can be bought out at $420 per share, which is a 20% premium over the stock price following our Q2 earnings call (which had already increased by 16%). My hope is for all shareholders to remain, but if they prefer to be bought out, then this would enable that to happen at a nice premium.
Second, my intention is for all Tesla employees to remain shareholders of the company, just as is the case at SpaceX. If we were to go private, employees would still be able to periodically sell their shares and exercise their options. This would enable you to still share in the growing value of the company that you have all worked so hard to build over time.
Third, the intention is not to merge SpaceX and Tesla. They would continue to have separate ownership and governance structures. However, the structure envisioned for Tesla is similar in many ways to the SpaceX structure: external shareholders and employee shareholders have an opportunity to sell or buy approximately every six months.
Finally, this has nothing to do with accumulating control for myself. I own about 20% of the company now, and I don’t envision that being substantially different after any deal is completed.
Basically, I’m trying to accomplish an outcome where Tesla can operate at its best, free from as much distraction and short-term thinking as possible, and where there is as little change for all of our investors, including all of our employees, as possible.
This proposal to go private would ultimately be finalized through a vote of our shareholders. If the process ends the way I expect it will, a private Tesla would ultimately be an enormous opportunity for all of us. Either way, the future is very bright and we’ll keep fighting to achieve our mission.
Thanks,
Elon
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When this thread was started the stock price was at about 90 bucks a share. I remember @DBCooper bought 50 shares at that price. The price is at 380 now so Coop has done pretty well.
I bought 100 and have traded it regularly over the last 5 years. I currently have 200 shares and I actually sold 20 on Friday (bad timing).
I’m disappointed they are going private despite the short term gain. I think the long term stock opportunity is a much better opportunity. Elon’s point about short interest’s sabotaging the stock is well taken so I understand.
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Just want to bring this to the top and highlight one of the great equity minds of our time, @on_edge
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I don’t come to the site often anymore but I still get email updates on subscribed threads. Man, I never pulled the trigger on this one so I’ve totally missed the ride. I jumped on the MNKD one as someone mentioned and that’s in the shitter.
5 years since your last post…jesus.
Still have the bike?
I think it’s about the same time I found reddit and just migrated there for my random BS. Only so much lifting stuff I can digest before I get bored of reading it anyway haha.
Nah, ended up selling the bike once I had kiddos. I’ve been goofing around with an older mini cooper S to get my heart rate up a little on back roads.
How are you doing? Been a while but I do remember you being one of several members that actually benefited this place.
Haha, thanks Doc and thanks for bumping the thread.
Notice how well TSLA has held up over the sharp down days? Nobody wants to sell, it (along with Amazon, Google, FaceBook and Microsoft) is a flight to safety in these tough times.
I think there’s still massive upside. Full Self Drive is on the way, the Cyber Truck, Robo Taxi, Tesla Semi. Wide spread adaptation of solar and battery storage. With the exception of solar, Tesla is years ahead of the competition in all these areas and all these areas are going to by huge.
Congrats on the family, Nate!
Up 11% today. Mostly due to imminent inclusion in the S&P 500.
Thanks on_edge! Hope you are well, bud. Congrats on being in on this awesome TSLA ride. Hopefully you didn’t bow early!
Apparently Elon tweeted this clip at Warren Buffett when he past Warren on the world’s richest list. Freaking hilarious.
Poll: How long before Tesla gets broken up as a monopoly?
Sound like a crazy question? As recent as a year ago one of the many talking points against Tesla was that when the old school automakers decided to get serious about electric vehicles, they would bury Tesla.
Today, Tesla has all the money while Ford, VW, Daimler, Toyota etc, are all in a cash crunch. The existing automakers can’t even compete if they want to now. Tesla currently has all the cash they need, yet they are going to be asked to issue more shares to add liquidity for S&P 500 inclusion. They are going to have more money than even Elon can figure out what to do with.
The CEO of VW saw the writing on the wall and had a plan to go all in on electric vehicles. He was Volkswagen’s last hope. Unfortunately, the old codgers on the Volkswagen board just removed him as CEO and his plans are aborted.
Toyota, a company with the resources to compete, has been playing see no evil and are blissfully making ICE cars while playing with hydrogen as a side project. Mostly just to be able to say they are participating in the clean energy revolution even though they are not.
Ford, the only US car company to never go bankrupt, is going to go bankrupt.
Nissan, an early leader in electric vehicles, failed to follow through. The Nissan Leaf is a great little car, I have one and love it for what it is but it’s nothing but a sunday golf cart compared to a Model 3. Nissan just developed the Leaf to have an electric car in their portfolio but they made no effort to actually transition to all electric. Now it’s too late for them.
Daimler is frozen in fear. Honda is making no effort.
Tesla is attracting all the talent. All the top engineers, from every discipline want to work for Tesla. Tesla gets to pick the cream from every crop. On top of that, as I said above, they have all the cash. They have the best talent, the money to pour into R&D and a visionary leader on a mission.
The most likely competitors for Tesla in the future are Apple and Google because they have the resources they could deploy to compete. The haven’t made that commitment yet so who is going to be left to compete with Tesla?
My guess is 20 years. In 20 years Tesla is broken up into 2 separate car companies. I have no idea how their energy unit, ride sharing unit, and materials transportation unit will fit into the equation but that’s my guess for their passenger car business.