I never understood why anyone would buy a car that could only go 200 miles then have to sit overnight to refuel!
Tesla: Our tax dollars at work.(in case y'all do not know Space X, Tesla and most of his other adventures have been funded by gov't grants and loans). He is the 21st century PT Barnum and we are the suckers! He spends our money, and gets the credit for being a bold investor meanwhile he sits back smoking a big doobies on the streets of San Francisco while risking nothing of his own.
Electric cars are nothing but a curiosity until they are not so horribly polluting in their manufacture (the batteries can only be built in third world countries without anti pollution laws), go at least 400 miles and can recharge in the same amount of time it take to fill a tank with gas. Until then they are the toys of the wealthy and the politically correct stupid.
I don't want to go too political with this conversation but until there is the infrastructure to support electric cars Tesla isn't going to be viable alternative.
I looked at buying one a couple of years ago ( went to DC and test drove one). Love the idea of not playing roulette with gas prices as they rise and fall as a cost of life but once you get out into the burbs and with the limited distance of most models it isn't going to happen.
I'm sure the master plan under the previous administration was to fund GE ( home of the then job czar) to build out as much as they could but the first Stimulus plan turned out to be a big pork sandwich with no real meat. With this administration it isn't going to happen and you can see with GE for a handful of reasons they aren't exactly riding the wave of profitability even with the market exploding.
Being from Detroit and spending half of my life around muscle cars, I say unless it makes that throaty sound from the exhaust, it’s only a glorified golf cart no matter how fast it goes.
Heard Musk talking a few weeks back he sounded like he was making excuses for Tesla’s inability’s to meet production goals the kicker for me was the thought that he would merge SpaceX with Tesla I don’t think they really have the cash they claim.
I got long thesis but sold 2 or 3 days ago. Made money on the trade.
I see tesla as more of a battery company instead of a car company. The quantity of cars sold so far is pretty small compared to the big 3. A Chinese version of tesla may give serious competition. I can imagine electric cars as the future of cars though. Costs are going down. Major car manufacturers agree with electric cars as the future. Tesla has the lead. Almost every new major tech development starts off expensive and gets costs reduced with time until it becomes a mass produced commodity like computers, cell phones, etc. people once thought having electricity, phones, a car,etc in every home was a luxury for the rich when they first came out. I remember reading when cars were first built, some thought it was a fad and shouted get a horse. Electric cars run much more efficiently than gas. I thought hydrogen fuel or natural gas had promise but all alternative transportation requires infrastructure for mass adoption. Our government could determine what gets adopted across the nation.
So are you currently short tesla? I doubt anything posted on this web site will affect stock prices. I don't think warren buffet is going to buy or sell based on what we say.
The battery tech is the prize no doubt but there are dozens of well capitalized companies working on it without all of the distractions Musk has maybe he’ll find some more deep pockets and buy out whoever comes up with the winning battery technology but I wouldn’t make that bet myself.
3 things need to happen to make electric cars viable:
1} A fast charging, long lasting, high output, and low pollution produced battery
2} Charging infrastructure - will only happen when item 1 happens
3} The vehicle become cost effective and practical.
(currently they are high priced, under performing and tiny) Until they are able to haul Mr. & Ms. Joe Middle-Class and their 3 kids from Hoboken to Disney World and he does not have to sell a kid to buy one, the electric car will remain a toy for the ignorant wealthy (actors, politicians, inherited money) who can afford to waste on a toy car for the eco-show.
Gasoline Automobiles were a curiosity until Henry Ford made them affordable and practical, then gas stations and repair shops began to spring up in every town.
I have never taken a position in Tesla because I prefer not to invest in companies that are a solely a "growth story." I realize it has caused me to miss more than a couple of truly breakout stocks. With Tesla, sales usually miss targets and the company burns through cash like a furnace. I wonder were/ what Musk and Tesla would be without the taxpayer subsidies that his companies have sucked from the public teat. The last estimate I saw was that Musk's three companies had amassed $4.9B in taxpayer subsidies/grants/handouts since inception. You can make a pretty good argument that without massive gov't. support, these companies probably don't exist.
If my neighbor, the plastic surgeon, wants to own a Tesla (he does), I could care less. But do I have to be a part of the $7500 taxpayer rebate he will get when he buys the car?
If/when it happens, governments will have find a new way, other than gas tax, to fund the highway infrastructure.
Just try getting me outta my Mustang GT. :)
I've always said that the extra money spent on an electric car will buy you a lot of gas. Even when we were well over the $3 a gallon mark, the extra $30K spent on an electric car would go a long way. Either way I'm still optimistic that one day the technology will get better and it takes the early adopters of this type of vehicle to give these companies the "push" that they need to make it better.
Oil and gas industries have been heavily subsidized for many years as well. You could argue the US has spent trillions in dollars and thousands of lives defending oil assets via our military. It was important for national interests in the past though. It doesn't have to be in the future.
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