Reasons
to buy a Tesla EV (Electric Vehicle)
and/or Tesla Stock
Note:
I am not a financial analyst or broker so I can't legally
give stock advice, but I don't care, because I am extremely
knowledgeable about this subject, so I will invoke my freedom
of speech rights here as I provide you with my opinions. Plus,
shouldn't you be taking anything anyone says with a grain
of salt and do your own due diligence to vet the info anyway?
I've known licensed financial advisors who were very wrong
when I was right.
First,
Tesla's Mission Statement...
To
accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy, which
includes electric mobility with a full range of increasingly
affordable electric vehicles
And
now, the vehicles...
Safety
EVs
are automatically safer than cars with gasoline engines because
in most EVs, there is nothing under the hood that can be pushed
into the cabin (passenger area) in a head-on collision. So there's
a larger "crumple zone" to absorb impact. But not all
EVs are the same when it comes to safety.
Teslas
are the safest cars manufactured today EV or gasoline.
This is not an opinion, it is an objective fact. The U.S. National
Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) has stated
as much if you read all their safety data for all the cars they've
tested over the decades (they're the agency that crashes cars
and tries to roll them over etc).
This focus on safety by Tesla is not by accident... it's by design.
The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, simply told his design engineers
that he wanted to build the safest car in the world. Yes, this
would cost more, but Musk is not your average profit-driven CEO,
which allows him to make these kinds of decisions... decisions
that are in the customers' best interests.
Keep
in mind that when seatbelts were first invented, they were
offered to consumers as an option. When Congress wanted to
mandate that they be installed in all cars as standard equipment,
the car manufacturers objected and tried to stop Congress
from mandating them. Why? It would increase the cost of the
cars, lowering profits unless the automakers passed the additional
costs onto the consumer, and some automakers, in an effort
to gain a competitive edge, wouldn't, thus hurting the profits
of the other automakers who'd have to follow suit to be competitive.
So all the automakers fought seat belts as standard
equipment... because they wanted to make money from them,
demonstrating just how much they care about you. And now these
same car companies are starting to make EVs. Keep this in
mind. |
And what about the new safety innovations that automakers have
come up with on their own that aren't mandated. If you want them,
you'll have to buy a higher trim level car (the more expensive
version of the car model you want). Elon Musk thinks that's "bullshit".
So every safety innovation that his Tesla engineers have come
up with is put into all Tesla car versions, and
none are options, because to do so is "unethical" in
his words. And if you assume that he simply raises the price of
the car when he adds a new safety feature, he doesn't. Like I
said, a different kind of CEO.
And while we're talking about safety, here's another reason Teslas
are safer than any other car. Airbags. All other automakers buy
them "off the shelf" (made by an airbag manufacturing
company). Tesla's CEO felt that today's airbags could be improved
upon. He told his engineering staff to do that with his
help (he's an engineer) and they came up with a better
airbag, but they had to make it themselves, so they did. And all
the airbags in a Tesla will deploy based on the type of crash
the car is involved in... also the only car in the world to do
this.
What about a seatbelt innovation? Tesla's are the only
car to have seat belt "pre-tensioners". What do they
do? When the car senses that it's about to be involved in a collision
(courtesy of its seven cameras that surround the vehicle and the
computer they feed into), the car will add tension to the seatbelts
to further limit the body's forward motion at the moment of impact.
An option? No. It was simply a very good idea, so it was done.
Another good idea is an airbag that comes out in between the driver
and the passenger so they don't collide with each other. And yes,
Tesla is the only car with that too.
What
the heck are "smart" airbags?!!
Tesla
is the only automaker with smart airbags.
The seats are fitted with sensors that detect the weight
of the occupant, their position in the seat, and the position
of the seat relative to the airbag, and the airbag computer
is also aware of the speed and trajectory of the vehicle.
So every
microsecond the airbag computer is deciding, "If
I were to deploy the airbags for the front passenger seat
right now, how would I do it for maximal safety/protection?"
Every microsecond!
It
can change the order in which the bags deploy, and the speed
of their deployment. And that decision would be acted upon
should the airbags be deployed.
No other
automaker does this. Sure, other cars detect whether or
not someone is sitting in the passenger seat, but that's
it. And Tesla doesn't even promote that their cars have
this system! Maybe when Tesla starts advertising, they'll
announce this as another nail in the coffin of the other
EVs. Oh, and Elon Musk also said that with these airbags,
seat belts are no longer needed, but the cars still have
them because Tesla is required to install them (and we're
still required to wear them).
|
What about highway safety? Some cars have "lane departure"
warnings, so that if your car starts drifting across a lane line,
you'll hear a beep or the steering wheel will vibrate. Not good
enough for Tesla (because a crash could result because of slow
driver reaction time). So Tesla came up with "AutoPilot"
for highway driving. It incorporates Traffic Aware Cruise Control
which many cars do have today with Automatic Lane
Keeping, which most cars do not have. Meaning, when you engage
Tesla's AutoPilot on the highway, the car drives itself. Yes,
you have to make lane changes manually when needed, and you have
to get on and off the highway manually, but while on the highway,
the car takes care of the driving. And it does so better than
a human being! How? The car has seven cameras all feeding data
into a state-of-the-art computer programmed to drive better than
any human can. It can react faster than a human, it can't be distracted
or fall asleep, and it can see from all those cameras at
the same time. And NHTSA has said that Tesla's AutoPilot
has already saved lives. How? If another car starts veering into
your lane and is about to contact your car at 75 MPH, the Tesla
can either quickly jump into an adjacent lane to avoid contact,
or if it can't, it can accelerate very quickly to avoid that contact
(because EVs have super fast acceleration). In similar scenarios,
a human driver wouldn't be aware of the impending contact until
after it's happened. I've seen lots of Youtube videos of this
amazing feat (after a near miss, the Tesla driver can push a button
and the last five minutes of video from all seven cameras is saved
to a flashdrive that's in the glove compartment, and these video
files can be uploaded to Youtube. Thank you Elon Musk for this
feature). And AutoPilot comes standard with all Teslas.
And then there's Tesla's "Full Self Driving" feature
(FSD). It will drive the car just like AutoPilot, but on city
streets (where most accidents happen). It recognizes stop signs,
traffic lights, pedestrians, bicyclists, dogs, other cars of course,
cones, garbage cans, double-parked vehicles, parked car doors
suddenly opening, etc... just like you or I would. But it will
react faster than us, and it can't be distracted. I've seen the
demo videos, and it's 98% there... another year. One day I'll
likely have to give up my Driver's License, and wouldn't it be
lovely if my car could drive me around so I wouldn't have to rely
on other people or Ubers. And of course, Tesla is leading the
way with FSD software (others would disagree, but this too is
not a matter of opinion).
Handling safety. The heaviest component of an EV is the
battery pack. If the EV is designed from "the ground up",
the battery pack will be a large rectangular pack only a few inches
tall that sits as low to the ground as possible. If you slide
yourself under the car, you'd be looking up at the battery pack.
This gives the car a very low "center of gravity" which
helps make it very stable if you have to do some sudden quick
steering maneuvers to avoid hitting something or someone... you're
not likely to lose control of the car. Other car companies
now that they're forced to make EVs because of Tesla's success
don't want to design a whole new car, so they take one
of their existing car models, change the styling a bit, and plop
an electric motor under the hood, and place five or six smaller
individual battery packs wherever they can shoehorn them into
the car in an effort to save money (and make more profit). Not
a good design, and these EVs should be avoided like the plague.
And making an EV this way tells you a lot about the car company.
An EV versus a gasoline car
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this topic because I've
already penned an article on it (link at the end). Here I'll just
speak to why the legacy automakers don't want to make EVs, and
hate Tesla for forcing them to (the demand for Tesla EVs is through
the roof, and these other automakers are starting to lose money
to Tesla because of falling sales of their gasoline cars). To
convert their car manufacturing from gas engine cars to electric
motor cars will be a huge expense, and they will lose money in
the transition, and many of them are barely hanging on as it is.
So as consumers discover the many benefits of EVs and their buying
habits shift to EVs, many legacy automakers will go bankrupt or
be acquired by other companies, or just "go out". They
also carry too much debt as it is (Tesla carries virtually no
debt). Remember, Tesla started as an EV company...
a distinct advantage.
And the existing dealers of legacy automaker cars don't want to
sell EVs because they make most of their profit from service,
and EVs don't require anywhere near the same amount of service
as gas engine cars. In fact, Tesla's service centers are not a
revenue generating arm of the company. If you require out-of-warranty
service for your Tesla, it will cost you their cost plus 10%.
That's insane compared to legacy auto dealers, but a great deal
for the consumer. And Tesla has no dealers... you order cars from
them as you would order something on Amazon. No having to deal
with car salespeople.
The company and its CEO
Let's compare car companies for a moment, keeping in mind that
a new car purchase is the second most expensive thing you'll ever
buy (the first is a house). So even though you don't hand over
$40,000 to the car company you're buying from because you'll likely
finance the purchase, the loan company hands over that $40,000
immediately. So it's just like you are doing it.
So who do you want to give that money to? Don't you care what
company you give that large amount of cash to? Is it a company
who honestly cares about you? Do they care about safety first,
customer satisfaction second, and profit third, or is it a car
company that cares about profit first, second, and third, and
they care about safety only as much as they're forced to by regulation.
I prefer to support "good" companies.
I've mentioned how much Tesla cares about safety, and it shows.
But what about the CEO. The CEO "steers" the company.
GM's CEO: Mary Barra. She lies to the American people saying
that GM is the leader in the EV movement. Clearly they aren't;
Tesla has been and still is. And actually GM killed the electric
car back in 2002 when they came out with one because they thought
they'd have to so that they could continue to sell gasoline cars
in California. And they came out with a decent one that the 1000
lessees loved and wanted to keep. But when California bowed to
pressure from the auto industry (and the fossil fuel industry)
and pushed back their state's EV requirements, GM took back all
1000 EVs that were leased out and crushed them. And this is what
spurred Elon Musk to do Tesla, because this made him mad (he's
one of those people who care about the environment). Even the
President of the United States, at an "EV Summit" at
the White House where all top U.S. EV automakers' CEOs were invited
(except Elon Musk) said,
"Mary, you did it, you electrified the entire auto industry,
you led, and it matters." (Hmmm, was he clueless and is just
saying what's written for him to say, or did he know he's lying?)
And GM makes crappy EVs by the way. Their Chevy Bolt started catching
on fire just sitting there. This burned down people's homes and
cost GM billions in damages, and GM had to recall all Chevy Bolts,
all because they didn't want to use the best battery cells, they
wanted to use the least expensive ones. Tesla bought the best
ones, and is now making their own. Even to this very day, Chevy
Bolts are not allowed in airport parking lots and other large
parking lots. There are signs right at the entrances, "NO
CHEVY BOLTS ALLOWED". Yeh, GM is leading.
TESLA's CEO: Elon Musk. What other automaker's CEO can
you tweet on Twitter, saying, "Hey Elon, you know what would
be a good idea, having a feature in the car where you push a button
and the AC comes on to a preset level and a big readout on the
screen shows the internal temperature of the car to show that
my dog that's in the car here in Florida in July is not in any
danger. Maybe include some text too that points this out."
[With an EV, the AC is electric and can run without the car making
any noise.] Elon replied, "Good idea!" And three weeks
later, 2.5 million Teslas all around the world got a software
update that included a new feature called "Dog Mode".
And this scenario happened lots of times. Now there's "Joe
Mode" where you can make all the beeps and dings that the
car makes be a lower volume in case your little kids are sleeping
in the back seat. Why "Joe Mode"? It was Joe Mitchell
that tweeted Elon requesting this feature, and instead of naming
it "Quiet Mode", Elon said to name it after the person
who requested it. What other CEO of a car company does this?!!!
Do you think if you tweeted GM's Mary Barra requesting a feature,
she'll tweet you back? And she couldn't make it happen anyway...
their cars' software can't be updated over-the-air like Tesla's
can. You'd have to bring it into a dealership for each and every
update. Crazy. But the ability to do over-the-air updates makes
the automaker less profit. So not having this ability is good
for the automaker, but bad for the customer. To discover more
about Elon Musk, read his biography.
Fun. Elon wants his cars to be fun too. So while waiting
on line to pick up your kids from school, you can play video games
on the car's large screen, or watch Youtube videos or Netflix.
Or at Christmas time, when you signal to make a turn or lane change,
instead of the usual tic-tic-tic sound, you'll hear sleigh bells
jingling! Are other EVs fun? No. In addition to being the best
designed and safest (and all models having a great sound system),
Teslas are also fun and get better with each software update.
And the updates are free. And don't get me started on the Tesla
app for iPhone or Android phones, or how Tesla is the only EV
maker with their own public charging infrastructure that can communicate
with the car so you know which charging station has available
"pumps" before you arrive, and how they are the only
EV manufacturer with mobile service vans because 90% of repairs
don't need the car to go up on a lift, so why not have the repair
person come to the car. Fun and stress reducing.
Can any other EV maker boast this? No. Because this would mean
profits don't come first. And Tesla's corporate culture is the
reason they will continue to dominate this growth industry.
BEV
= Battery Electric Vehicle, PHEV
= Plugin Hybrid, EREV
= Extended Range EV (has a gasoline
engine)
The Wuling Hong EV would not be permitted to be sold in the US
because it doesn't meet safety standards.
And
let's not forget about their environmental impact (and
"ICE" means "internal combustion engine",
and "gCO2e/mi" means "grams of carbon dioxide equivalent
per mile", and as the grid uses more renewables and less
fossil fuels, those two "grid charged" columns will
shorten)
Tesla
stock
There are two types of people who buy stock. Traders and investors.
Traders are constantly trading stocks in an effort to maximize
their monthly profits (hopefully). Buying and selling and buying
and selling often on a daily basis. Investors however buy stock
to "go long"... to buy it and hold it for many years
in the hope that the value of the stock price will be higher in
seven years than when they bought it. A lot less energy intensive
and less stressful. And the right investment (stock purchase)
can result in more profits at the end of those seven years than
seven years of daily trading. I've seen it. But it depends on
the company whose stock you buy. What are you looking for? Growth
potential.
Amazon's stock price history may seem to resemble Tesla's, but
it's all about future growth potential. No future growth potential,
no meaningful rise in the stock price over time. And there's no
sense in buying a stock if it's never going to increase in price
very much. So, wise investors look for the stocks that have large
growth potential. These days, companies that deal with cutting
edge technologies are closely watched. But there's also the industry
disrupters that warrant a close look. Back when most people had
a horse and buggy (a carriage pulled by a horse), and that was
the "mode of transportation of the day", when the first
automobile was invented (which were electric by-the-way), it was
a huge disrupter. If you could have bought stock in the automobile
industry back then, you would have been wise to do so. And like
most disruptive technologies, the general public at the time thought
the electric "horseless carriage" could never replace
the horse and buggy. Never. Blacksmith's and horse breeders weren't
worried. But obviously they should have been.
Fast forward to today. Electric Vehicles will eventually replace
all fossil fueled vehicles just as the automobile replaced the
horse-drawn carriage. Why? The technology has matured since those
first electric cars back in 1890, and EVs are way less expensive
to maintain and operate, they can last longer, you can fuel them
up at home, even from solar energy, and EVs are way better for
the environment. Did you know that 98% of all new car sales in
Norway are EVs (and 70% of all those EVs are Teslas by-the-way).
Some (most) countries are way ahead of the U.S. where only about
5% of all cars are EVs (and Tesla owns about 70% of the EV market
here in the U.S.). Some big countries have even decreed that as
of 2027 no new cars can be sold if they have tailpipes! So now
the word just has to spread to more people. But talk about a growth
market! Again, in the U.S. only 5% of all new car sales are EVs
in 2022! Similar small numbers for other countries. Just look
at the chart below to see the growth market for EVs in the world,
and then realize that Tesla has already built huge factories in
Texas, California, Nevada, Berlin Germany, and Shanghai China,
with more to come. Huge factories... some of the
largest in the world. And Tesla already has more than 7 million
cars on the road. They are the market leader, and
even the CEO of VW said they'd be tough to beat (and he was fired
for being honest). And as for "the competition is coming",
that's been said for the last five years, and it's still not here.
And when people find out how much better a Tesla is than anything
made by the legacy automakers, it's game over. Why would someone
not want to own stock in a growth company like that!
NOTE: China
has quickly moved up into third place with 50% in 2024
The U.S. is now 7% in 2024, with California at 25%
Norway is now at 98%
Sweden is now 65%
Oh,
and it's good to know that Tesla is not just a car company. They
have an energy division too, and that's likely to be worth more
than the car division in the coming years. But that's a whole
'nuther story. And they have a truck division... the big trucks
that pull 40 foot trailers (more on this product below).
Here
are some charts
that show how Tesla is doing with things like "market cap"
and other stock investor metrics.
And
this is the article I wrote
about the advantages of EVs over gasoline engine cars.
"Tesla's
just a car company"
Oh yeah?
Tesla
stockholders own the following...
(and keep in mind that most of these products
are sold world-wide)
Tesla
Motors... besides these five models...
...this segment also includes their new 2-door compact car, semi
truck, the Tesla public charging infrastructure "Superchargers"
and their upcoming RoboTaxi fleet
Tesla AI (Self-Driving software which it may license to
other EV automakers, but it will make money from subscriptions
sold to Tesla vehicle owners)
Tesla Energy (MegaPacks, huge 40 ft long x 8 ft wide battery
packs sold to power companies to help stabilize their grid and
to avoid building more "peaker" plants; win-win-win)
Tesla Solar (solar panels see solar roof pic below
and residential battery storage packs that white
box; included under Tesla Energy division above)
Tesla Power (regulatory-wise, like any other power utility
company, uses lots of MegaPacks; included under Tesla Energy division
above)
Tesla Auto Insurance (picking up steam, now in 19 states
in the U.S., and in Europe, highest "take-rate" is when
people buy a Tesla vehicle; started because existing auto insurance
companies were over-charging Tesla vehicle owners. And you get
a lower rate with Tesla Insurance if you let the car drive itself)
Tesla battery cell manufacturing (may sell their cells
to other OEMs one day)
Tesla Phone (may make one in the future if current cell
phone providers don't stop selling phone owners' data says Tesla
CEO, Elon Musk)
Tesla Robotics ("Optimus". It will use them in
their factories to enable much faster production of its vehicles,
which was the initial reason for making them. And it will be sold
to other companies and to consumers)
So
the above is why Elon says that Tesla will be "the most valuable
company in the world". And I agree. This statement is not
one of your typical hyperbolic statements from other CEOs because
Elon Musk is not your typical CEO.
And
as to Tesla being just a car company, for those who like charts...
And "OTHER
BRANDS" as of December 2023 are every other automaker.
Tesla developed the North American Charging Standard for EVs (NACS),
and now every EV automaker wants in. And SASE made Tesla's standard
thee industry standard
|
Tesla
benefits from the other Elon Musk companies
xAI
Will provide "Grok" for Tesla cars, Tesla RoboTaxis,
and Tesla robots. Grok is the AI voice that people can converse with,
kind'a like Siri or Alexa but 1000 times better (and it won't eavesdrop
on you, selling your private data to "trusted third parties").
The Boring Company They drill tunnels, like they're doing
in Las Vegas. TBC already created one tunnel for Tesla's Austin, TX factory.
That property has land on both sides of I-35, and to make it easier to
get from one side of the highway to the other, there's now a tunnel under
the highway.
SpaceX The metallurgists at Musk's space travel company
helped develop the stainless steel for Tesla's pickup truck body. So the
same proprietary steel used to make their rockets is used to make their
Cybertrucks (the middle vehicle in the photo at the top of this page).
(And to those who say that this "collusion" is
illegal, research it a little. Tesla pays those other companies for their
services.)
And as of 2024 to see
second place you'd need a telescope
Tesla
is a very vertically integrated company
What
does it mean to be "vertically integrated"? It means that the
company makes the parts it needs to build the products it sells to the
public; they don't buy the parts they need from suppliers. In Tesla's
case, being vertically integrated means a lower cost of building the car,
greater quality control, and greater control over the manufacturing of
the parts themselves so it's easier to make running changes either as
improvements or to deal with a design issue.
Look how vertically integrated Tesla is. NOTE: One huge
thing that isn't on this chart and should be is software development.
Most other automakers farm this out to software development companies.
Tesla has their own in-house software engineers. And not just any run-of-the-mill
software engineers, but today's best and brightest. Why is this super
important? Cars today are computers-on-wheels, and Tesla's software engineers
create the software, not just for the cars, but also for the factory production
lines, Tesla's public charging network, the back office management systems,
and their self-driving software and the software for their humanoid robots.
Tesla's
semi truck
Semi trucks
are only 1% of the vehicles on the road, but contribute 20% of the
CO2 and air pollution. So this is a good market for an electric
version. And that's just what Tesla did.
Some new gas-powered
pickup trucks get 19 MPG not towing, and 8.5 MPG while towing. Guess
what the new Tesla electric semi truck gets... 20 MPGe. And that's
pulling a trailer that's fully loaded!
Yes, a Tesla
EV car can get 124 MPGe, but we're talk'n big Class 8 trucks here,
and the average Class 8 diesel truck gets 6.5 MPG. Hmmm, let me
think... 6.5 MPG or 20 MPGe... which would a fleet owner want? Especially
considering that electricity fuel versus diesel fuel has electricity
being way less expensive per BTU of energy, so the Tesla electric
semi truck's cost-per-mile is way less than a diesel truck's. And
considering that the Tesla semi is far safer than diesel trucks...
no gearing down when coming down a hill with an EV truck... If a
diesel truck driver misses a shift and overheats the brakes, the
truck can get away from him. That's why you see those "runaway
truck ramps" at the bottoms of big long hills. The Tesla semi
has cold brakes at the bottom of hills because the brake pads aren't
being used because of regenerative braking!
Tesla will sell
every one of these they make. And no one else has anything like
it. And the ROI pay-back on the Tesla truck is 3 years (because
the savings are so large).
A quote from
all the other semi truck manufacturers: "We're screwed."
And even the
truck manufacturers who have made an electric semi truck have found
that the Tesla semi gets twice the range, charges in half the time,
and has a lower cost-per-mile than their electric trucks do. And
here's the kicker... the Tesla semi is the same price as their trucks!!!
More
about the Tesla semi-truck
|
Do you see the
trend. This is the beginning of the "S curve". As costs
of making EVs comes down (which results in the retail price coming
down), and governments institute EV financial incentives, and as public
awareness of the lower cost-of-ownership of EVs increases, the curve
will become more vertical (faster adoption rate). And if you look
carefully, you'll see two 10x increases, both about 5 years apart.
One more 10x increase, maybe over another 5 years, and that would
bring it to 100% adoption. And keep in mind that the biggest contributing
factor to the above chart has been Tesla (not GM, Ford, Toyota, etc).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why
all the negative press about EVs
and about Tesla specifically?
Why all the FUD?
(Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt)
There are a lot of
very powerful entities that stand to lose a lot of money due to the increase
in EV sales. An obvious one is the fossil fuel industry. And "Big
Auto" doesn't want to have to change over to them because some automakers
won't be able to (they'll go bankrupt before they can), and some simply
don't want to take the loss that will come with the transition because,
like all businesses, their goal is increased profits, not less profits.
And the car dealers don't want to sell EVs either because they don't make
much profit on the sale of the cars they sell, they make the bulk of their
profits on parts and (out-of-warranty) service, and EVs don't require
much of that. So they are trying to downplay EVs too. And since Tesla
is responsible for the majority of EV sales, and is the singular reason
that automakers are being forced to start making EVs (which is going to
cannibalize their gas engine car sales), all of the above entities are
trying to hurt Tesla.
And then there are the short-sellers... people who play the stock market,
but instead of buying stocks in companies hoping that the companies will
increase in value, they hope the companies will fail, because that's how
short-sellers make their profit. And when Tesla came into being, short-sellers
thought it was a slam-dunk that Tesla would fail, so Tesla became the
the most shorted stock in the history of the stock market... and today,
all those short-sellers have lost their shirts... to the tune of billions
of dollars. So the remaining short-sellers hate Tesla too, and do everything
in their power to hurt Tesla, which at this point is just lying about
Tesla because that's all they can do. But saying that Tesla is not doing
well when the actual numbers say the opposite just makes them look like
clowns. All anyone has to do is to look at Tesla's quarterly reports to
see that these people are lying.
But at this point,
Tesla is beyond being negatively affected by any of the above entities.
All those industries and people can hope to do now is to slow the transition
to EVs, and that isn't working either... not at the legislative level
nor at the consumer level... the public has the final say, and the more
they find out about the benefits of EVs and of Teslas specifically, the
quicker the transition to EVs. Just as with the horse and buggy, old technology
is once again on the way out. And the transition to EVs will be just as
quick if not quicker.
A
good debunking of a typical misleading "EVs are bad!"
post that circulates around social media is here...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Keep in mind...
Tesla is the
only automaker with a confirmed positive operating margin on their
EVs, all while self-funding the world's biggest super computer and
the world's biggest EV public charging network, and developing a
global Self Driving platform, with an energy business growing 200-300%,
and two brand new vehicles ramping... and all this during a macro
economic downturn!
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OTHER
TESLA STUFF
Short
sellers (many of whom are Big Oil willing to lose some money if it holds
back or ruins Tesla) are spreading the rumor that Tesla is on the verge
of bankruptcy. They have no demand for their cars. They can't be profitable.
Etc.
Oh really?
The facts say otherwise...
And
yet, a Tesla hater and short seller posts this...
What
Mr. Warden then did was to post his own chart that showed Tesla losing
market share in California. How could this be? Simple. When another EV
maker sells zero EVs in 2022 and then sells 241 of them in 2023, this
lowers Tesla's market share (it was a 241% increase in sales). When another
EV maker who sold 3,123 EVs in 2022 then sold 6,711 EVs in the following
year, this also takes market share away from Tesla. Infinitesimal amounts,
yes, but a chart can be made to show anything the maker of the chart wants
to show, in this case, that Tesla is losing ground, even though it's increasing
sales and sells more EVs than all other EV makers combined! Adam simply
chose to leave certain things out of his chart. Year-over-year growth
as a percentage is meaningless without factoring in the number of units
sold. Nice try Adam. Too bad you're losing your shirt as Tesla's stock
value increases. This is what he gets for lying about other EVs having
"better value and quality" than Tesla. Keep in mind that the
worse Tesla stock does, the more money short-sellers make. I think short-selling
should be illegal because of what some people will do to increase their
profits... misrepresent the truth. This post by the person who pointed
out Adam's deception puts things in perspective...
And
here's a more accurate chart by James...
Here's
a more visual chart to show Tesla's dominance in the California EV market.
There are plenty more
charts showing market cap, and lots of other complicated financials that
clearly show that Tesla is here to stay, and will grow to be the Kleenex,
BandAid of EVs.
Other factoids
that the short-sellers don't want you to know about
In 2018, Tesla produced
245,240 vehicles. This is more than all the cars they've made from 2012
to 2017 combined! The lower priced Model 3 accounts for this. And the
market for the Model Y (Crossover SUV) is 2.5 times larger than for the
Model 3, a 4-door sedan. Then there's their pickup truck coming end of
2023. Not to mention their electric semi-truck that's already being used
to deliver their cars (and has lots of pre-orders from forward thinking
companies like Anheuser-Busch, Pepsi, and Walmart).
And Tesla opened up
a huge factory in China (one that Tesla owns 100%, unheard of in China),
and one factory in Berlin Germany. So sales there will rise because the
cars will be less expensive because of no import tariffs. And some countries
outside the US have passed laws that there will be no more fossil fuel
powered cars allowed to sold after a certain date (one is 5 years away,
and one is 10 years away).
And Tesla makes more
Li-Ion batteries than all the other Li-Ion battery manufacturers combined!
And Tesla's acquisition of Maxwell Technologies for their dry process
Li-Ion battery technology will continue to make Tesla the leader in EV
battery technology. And the 2012 Tesla Model S still outperforms 2019
EVs from legacy automakers in efficiency (miles/watt-hour)! Do I hear,
"game over"?
And Tesla is the only
EV maker to have their own worldwide
charging infrastructure. Other EV makers are depending on third-party
companies to provide EV charging stations. But Tesla's charging stations
are less expensive to use (power sold at cost + 10%), and are only for
Teslas, but Teslas can use the other charging stations via an adapter.
And as of 2023, all the for-profit public chargers have gotten horrible
marks for reliability. Whose charging stations got the best marks? Guess.
Yep. 99.95% uptime. And yes, legacy automakers say they
will build their own charging infrastructure to service their EVs, but
they say a lot of things that never come to pass. They say these things
because they have to. (UPDATE: Telsa is allowing all the other EV makers
to use most of Tesla's public chargers. As of November of 2023 all but
VW and Stelantis have sign up.)
But trust the short-sellers...
don't invest in what will likely be the next Amazon. And what about all
those who had the vision to see what Tesla could become who bought their
stock at $1 a share when it IPO'd back in 2010... at $220 per share today,
those who spent $5,000 on Tesla stock back then have stock that's now
worth $1,100,000. But they're not selling. Why? A lot more room for growth.
Here's a great
article on EVs in general.
"Conclusion:
I think a person who doesnt mind doing a few easy
tasks themselves can reduce the 5 year cost to $980."
NOTE 1: You don't see Brake Job on there because
it's an EV and has regenerative braking.
NOTE 2: The Tesla "engine" can go for 50 years with zero maintenance
and zero issues!
NOTE 3: Teslas have no transmission, so no transmission repairs!
CLICK ON THE
ABOVE CHART FOR THE ENTIRE ARTICLE
An
example of a Clueless Legacy Automaker
Japan's economy is
heavily dependent on their gasoline powered vehicles from Toyota, Nissan,
Subaru, and Honda. Just like their American counterparts, those companies
do not want to change over to making battery EVs, so they look for excuses
not to make them. And China is very happy about this, because China will
do for the battery EV market what the Japanese automakers did for the
gasoline car market back in the 1970s... and China is already doing it.
China has proven that EVs with lithium-ion batteries can be, not only
at cost parody with similarly equipped gasoline vehicles, but even less
expensive than gasoline vehicles. And Tesla will be showing this too as
they ramp up their own internal production of batteries. So this statement
is even more ridiculous than the previous CEO of GM's statement about
Tesla made ten years ago when Bob Lutz said, "Mark my words, Tesla
will never make it in this business." Well, now Tesla is poised to
be the world's leader in car manufacturing... and in many ways, already
is. The new "Big 3" automakers in the future will be Tesla,
and two Chinese companies, BYD and Geely. Watch. Today's big legacy automakers
are two big and too invested in making fossil fueled vehicles and too
much in debt to be able to transition to EVs, which will be the car technology
of the future... which is here now.
A
few statements from a financial analyst
who is a Tesla "bear" (down on Tesla)
"Tesla's autonomous
driving feature won't be worth anything because the power the self-driving
electronics draws is the same as the powertrain."
FACT: He's wrong. Very wrong. This is physics folks, and
he can lie all he wants about something that is squarely in the realm
of physics, but since it's physics, this is not a matter of opinion. Is
he actually expecting people to believe that the amount of electricity
that the computer uses is the same as the amount of electricity that the
motor that moves the vehicle uses? Is he insane? Or is he just saying
things to turn people off to Tesla.
"And the autonomous software is far from perfect because it has caused
fatal accidents."
FACT: No it hasn't. First of all, he said "fatal accidents"
plural. The one death that occurred was because the driver of the car
wasn't paying attention. Yep, that's right. The software was in the "beta"
testing phase at the time, and the drivers who are testing the software
are cautioned to pay close attention to the car's driving and to keep
hands on the wheel and be ready to hit the brake. So if someone dies and
it was an avoidable death (the driver could have prevented it if he had
been paying attention), the fault is with the driver not with unfinished
software. And with many thousands of drivers testing this software (400,000),
having driven millions of miles using it, and no accidents other than
that one, that sounds like the self-driving software is doing pretty well.
Yes, that one death was a tragedy, especially because it was preventable.
In reality, this software, once finished, will save lives. Many lives.
And the highway version (which is finished) has
already saved lives.
An
example of how the auto and fossil
fuel industries try to screw Tesla
by using their influence with government
Just to show how powerful
the auto industry and the fossil fuel industry are regarding their ability
to influence legislation at the National level, to help automakers like
Ford and GM, the Federal government passed an EV incentive bill that reduces
the cost of EVs by $7500 (either through a tax credit or a Point-of-Purchase
rebate). But only Ford and GM is meant to be helped by this, not Tesla.
But since Tesla tics all the boxes as far as which car companies qualify
for participation in the rebate program, something had to be done to exclude
Tesla somehow. So here's how they did it. They placed the MSRP cap for
the most popular Tesla car slightly below the price of the car, so now
it doesn't qualify!
All numbers as of January
1, 2023
Wanna bet that Tesla
will simply lower the price of the car so that it qualifies for the rebate.
I hope they do, and stick a middle finger in the eyes of all those arrogant
pin heads who think they've screwed Tesla. (I'm obviously more than just
annoyed by this... Tesla is the one automaker that actually cares about
the environment, but that doesn't matter to greedy people.) [UPDATE: Tesla
did lower prices so their cars qualify for the Federal
EV incentive. They have the profitability to be able to do this, unlike
other EV manufacturers.]
And what did Elon Musk think of this...
And
what about the "EV leader", GM
They
say they're commited to making EVs. The President of the United States
(incorrectly) said they are the leader in the EV industry, and yet...
"Cell Factory"
is where they make batteries. "Semi factory" is where they make
semi-tractor-trailer trucks.
GM, and
all the other legacy automakers, don't want to make EVs (less profits
over time). If Tesla disappeared, they'd all stop making EVs. Who do you
want to give the many thousands of dollars that a car costs to... Who
do you want to support? Tesla or GM? UPDATE:
GM's CEO Barra asked Elon if GM cars could charge at Tesla charging stations.
Why? Because Ford asked and got this a week prior. And Barra admitted
publicly that Tesla was the leader in the EV space. I can just imagine
Elon saying to Barra as a condition that Barra had to admit this in public!
It's
a shame when you can't even trust Ralph Nader
Keep in mind...
Tesla is the
only automaker with a confirmed positive operating margin on their
EVs, all while self-funding the worlds biggest super computer and
EV public charging network, and developing a global Self Driving
platform, with an energy business growing 200-300%, and two brand
new vehicles ramping... and all this during a macro economic downturn!
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Reasons
to be Bullish on Tesla
November 6, 2023
* Tesla cars
are the safest cars in the world
* They have their own public charging stations (non-Tesla charging
stations are unreliable)
* Tesla has no dealers; they sell direct to consumers. This results
in lower prices.
* Tesla's CEO takes suggestions from customers, and incorporates
them into the cars
* Their energy business is growing (it will one day earn them more
than their car business)
* They are starting to put their humanoid robots on their assembly
lines (reduces costs)
* A Tesla rolls off the assembly line every 30 seconds. The industry
average is 60 seconds.
* The other automakers are slowing down their EV plans (lower demand
for their EVs + costs)
* EV demand is increasing (despite what you hear from mainstream
media)
* Cybertruck = giant Halo Effect + profits (both from the truck
and its accessories)
* Cybertruck has new tech that will make its way to the other Tesla
vehicles
* They are lowering their costs to build the cars, allowing them
to lower their prices
* Lower prices = increased sales
* They are moving faster on their new in-house 4680 batteries
* The new Model 3+ has gotten very good reviews (and
will sell like hotcakes in Europe)
* Elon Musk's other companies (X, xAI, SpaceX) can benefit Tesla
* Tesla's supercomputers are among the world's best
* Tesla's in-car computers are currently the world's best (not likely
to change)
* Tesla is expanding their factories in Berlin and Shanghai to make
the Gen 3 compact car
* Tesla is building a new factory in Mexico to make the Gen 3 compact
car
* Tesla's Austin Texas plant is building a production line for the
Gen 3 compact car
* Their Gen 3 compact car will sell for under $25,000 - $7,500 EV
incentive = $17,500
* The construction of their lithium refinery plant is ahead of schedule
(used for batteries)
* EVs are better than gasoline cars by almost every metric, and...
* Tesla only makes EVs, and makes the best ones by every metric
* The market will realize that buying a car without Self Driving
potential is a bad idea
* Tesla has the best Self Driving software, no contest
* Tesla has the best EV operating system software, hands down
* All Tesla vehicles can do Over-The-Air updates, so the cars get
better over time
* Tesla takes suggestions for improvements from their customers,
and implements them!
* Established EV models with huge market shares have better service
metrics
* Established EV models with huge market shares have better resale
metrics
* Tesla attracts the best engineers, and gives them autonomy, and
this scenario is impossible to compete against. 90% of graduating
engineers want to work for Tesla or SpaceX
* Tesla has no debt and has $24 billion in the bank despite massive
capital spending
* No other car manufacturer has as dedicated a fan-base as Tesla,
and with good reason
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Other
Tesla related Articles I've Written...
Comparison:
A Tesls EV versus Other EVs
Safety - An example of a Tesla crash
Tesla 2019 Q3 Earnings Report
Bloomberg Survey of a Tesla
Model 3
Tesla Short-sellers are Hurt'n
Tesla Rising!
Tesla's Cybertruck Reveal
Tesla on the Move in China
EVgo adding Tesla connectors
to its fast charging stations
Getting closer to Full Self
Driving
Reuters News (when they were
unbiased)
Tesla Energy news
Tesla Competitors Bad-Mouth
Tesla
Tesla's CEO - The Most Communicative
in History
Safety
Tesla on The Simpsons!
Consumer Reports - The Most
Satisfying Cars on the Market (when CR was unbiased)
Corporate Misrepresentation
as Usual
Legacy Automakers Hate Tesla
Legacy Automakers Can't Transition
to EVs Very Well
The "left" Appears
to Hate Elon Musk
The
Tesla Competition is here!
Do
You Like Being Lied to?
Worth
Mentioning - Expansion at the Tesla factory in Nevada
The
Brilliance of Tesla Engineering
Better
Brakes?
Tesla
in last place with autonomous driving?!!
Big
News!
The
future of energy (with a video)
Bias
Against Tesla in Full View
ExxonMobil
and Toyota's Goal: Slow down the adoption of EVs
Examples
of Media Bias Against EVs
"There's
no demand for EVs"
Teslas
vs Other EVs
People
evidently care about quality, safety, and cost of ownership when it comes
to EVs
Tesla
and Ford Partner Up!
Tesla
is not just a car company!
Good
News! - Global EV adoption and EV sales
Anti
EV corruption can't stop Tesla
Are
American Car Companies Really American?
Another
Example of Bias Against Elon Musk
Tesla
needed a huge supercomputer, so they built one
Tesla
self-driving software competitor lies about Tesla's self-driving software
and endangers pedestrians
More
misinforming the public by the oil industry and the media regarding EVs
Teslas
Mohegan Sun deal in Connecticut angers auto dealerships
What
is wrong with people?
The
Tesla Difference
The
Tesla Master Plan - Part 1
Feast
your eyes on this chart!
Tesla
took first place, but didn't win?
Tesla
built a train line!
Tesla's
Price Cuts are Unprecedented, by Farzad Mesbahi
New
Tesla Showroom!
A
requirement to be President of the United States / Why is the GOP against
EVs?
Big
Bank Gives Discounted Loans to Tesla Customers on the Tesla Website!
More
Education is Needed about EVs
How's
Toyota Doing in the EV Market?
Is
the president of the United Auto Workers Union corrupt or clueless?
Oil
industry lackeys take every opportunity to bash renewable energy
Tesla
competitor resorts to deceit to increase their sales
Why
are China and Europe way ahead of the United States in EV adoption?
"An
electric semi-truck is not possible"
How
some governments treat EV owners unfairly
Tesla's
most popular EV yet isn't even for sale yet
Tesla
is spending a lot of money! Where did they get all that cash from?
Demand
for EVs is softening
"Tesla's
98 Stall California Supercharging Station Powered by Diesel Generators!"
Why
does GM's CEO lie to the American people?
And
about EVs in general
EV
Buyer's Guide
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