There was an interesting documentary about Tesla yesterday. He was way ahead of Edison and co. in the 1930s, but a hopeless business manager. He was working for many years on a " death ray". This is what may have got him murdered in New York in 1943. His safe had been opened and all his papers were stolen. But guess what, they have been located in the Belgrade museum. They are locked in the archives and seen by nobody for decades. The team were allowed to look at them for 1 hour. Nobody knows if he really succeeded in building this weapon. The team built a smaller version and it sort of worked though.
But they likely saved $200 on Gas, so worth it. LOL Insane amount to lose, but an insane amount to spend in the first place, so more fool him.
I'm not sure if Tesla is going under or not. But one thing is for sure, if their financial situation gets that bad and their stock tanks accordingly, another company will come in and buy them so the dream will live on no matter what. Furthermore, I find that a lot of the negative comments about the car itself are all from people that DON'T OWN ONE. As a Model S P100D owner, let me be the first to tell you that the car is absolutely awesome. There have been comments about there not being many cars at Tesla charging stations. I have owned my car for about 15 months now and I have never once charged it at a Tesla supercharger. Why? Because upon purchase, all Tesla owners are encouraged to install a dedicated 240v line and wall charger in their garage, which is what I did. It's like having a gas pump right in your own garage. I know quite a few other Tesla owners and pretty much all of our driving patterns are similar. Get up, take the kids to school, drive to work, run a few errands, pick up the kids, drive home. That's pretty much the general routine, and every single owner I know can easily do all that for days on a single charge with no problem. Then when the battery gets low, you just pull into your garage, charge it overnight, and then it's ready to go in the morning. And because you are charging it overnight, the electricity rates are ridiculously low... so low in fact that I can't even tell a difference on my electric bill each month from before when I didn't have a Tesla. Again, 95% of the driving that most Tesla owners are doing is just regular daily driving that a 300 mile range can easily accommodate so no trips to a Tesla supercharger are necessary. And no matter what you read or hear, the autopilot feature is insane. I take day trips from Orlando to Cocoa Beach or Clearwater Beach all the time and never even touch the brake, accelerator, or steering wheel once. It just takes me where I need to go with zero effort on my part. And after spending the day at the beach with the family, I just pull up the Tesla app on my phone while we are rolling up our stuff on the sand and tell the car to cool itself inside to 72 degrees so it's nice and chilled by the time we walk to the parking lot. It's a total game changer. In regards to depreciation, drive a brand new luxury car off the showroom floor like a Mercedes or Bentley for 20k miles and then go to trade it in. You'll see that the depreciation is just as drastic with those cars, if not more so. And finally there's the performance. The Tesla P100D makes Mercedes, BMWs and Bentleys look like they are standing still, and it will put Ferraris and Lamborghinis in your rearview mirror like they are Hondas and Toyotas. The fact that a 4-door sedan with two trunks will smoke pretty much every exotic car ever made in a quarter mile run is just mind boggling. Regardless of who ends up owning the majority of the company, Tesla is going to be around for a long, long time.
great post. i'll admit to 75D..nice on you! not gonna change any minds but a reminder: Tesla is an American company Tesla has single-handedly changed the worlds auto manufacturers to move in to EV.
Here is an interesting ponderable about Tesla: Could an actually competent management make it profitable, or are EVs generally at this point in time just money losers?? You see Ford can afford to swallow their loss on EVs, because that is just the cost of doing business in California and such. But a fully electric company can't do the same, and at this time I am not aware of ANY EV maker making profits... Maybe down the road, but not yet...
Can't see why they can't make a profit the prices are high enough to cover the battery cost if guess? Guess not with sales for the profit to cover the R&D and tooling up? Not a EV fan batteries are too costly resources and energy wise to produce, can't see them being good for the planet unless its going to do a million miles without replacement. That said I'd love 1, the instant pull off is really nice around town, 300 mile range isn't an issue, the 60mile range of the Nissan Leaf is useless ofcourse. Musk will turn it around not stupid at all.
recycle. the manager at my local service center claims they are setting up to do some there, and more so @ gigafactory.
Sorry, but not true. Above 60mph a lot of exotic cars beat the Tesla. On top of that the Tesla cannot be driven all the time in the "insanity mode" for fast acceleration, which is mentioned by Tesla themselves. Not healthy for the battery and the car. In "insanity mode" your 335 miles range will be decimated. What's the use of 2.7 sec for 0-60? What is the problem if it is 3-4.5 for exotic cars? More important is the 335 mile range. If you drive fast you will never get over 200 miles, so just a car to drive just around the block. I do a lot of +600 miles trips. Takes me (in Germany) far less then 10 hours (depending on traffic). With a Tesla that trip would take at least 2 days. Savings in energy (no fuel but electricity) will be destroyed completely by bills for food and hotels. Not to mention the waste of time. A weekendtrip to Italy is impossible as all the time would be spent for driving up and back. I wish the Tesla would not have these disadvantages, because then I would really want one. But today for people who drive a lot, a Tesla is not an option. You should also pray not to have any accident as repair is hallucinating expensive.