Biggest issue I see with Telsa is how they have entered into a cycle of “hype” to generate the necessary cashflow they need to sustain themselves. Matt Farah talks about this extensively in his “smoking tire” podcast. Essentially Telsa has to generate hype ($$$) for a new model just to pay for the production of what they are currently offering.
They treat concept cars like final production models. They have really only ever mass produced 3 models but they are now up to 5 promised future cars that are completely unrelated? Cyber truck, model Y, new roadster, semi-truck, and I think there was talk of a Model S update.
Selling features that are not a reality. They have been offering the full autonomy package for 3 years at a charge of something like $7000. You literally could have leased a Model S, paid for this package, and will never see it before your lease is up.
Telsa roadster - $40,000 down payment, no real timeline. All you’ve done is give Telsa an open term interest free loan. Claim a bunch of impressive stats, don’t show any functional model, cash the check.
Cybertruck – Musk loves to flaunt how they have over 250,000 preorders for the vehicle. Telsa now goes to their investors to get that several billion dollar loan they really need – “look at how many people want this!” . In reality it’s a fully refundable $100 deposit. Not to mention all the automotive engineers that highlight that the current design would never pass modern safety standards nor could they ever produce the current spec at their entry price. (Where is the promised $35,000 Model 3?)
I think Telsa has been riding the wave of being first to market and there will be a market correction eventually. Will they completely fail? Highly unlikely, but It will be very interesting to see when the German/Japanese automakers really start to focus on EV over the next few years. You often hear the claim that the big automakers are just sitting idle on EV tech. The reality is I think they have a much better idea of the game than Tesla does. They realize they can’t just push products to market and understand the supply chains, service, long term reliability etc. aspects that are involved which is where Tesla fails miserably. E.g. my old boss who waited 5 months for a new front bumper on his S that the repair shop could never get to fit like factory. drivers side seat foam collapsing / seat stitching opening after 3 years, etc. They have a ton of fit & finish issues on all of their models and this only seems to get worse as they ramp up their production.
They treat concept cars like final production models. They have really only ever mass produced 3 models but they are now up to 5 promised future cars that are completely unrelated? Cyber truck, model Y, new roadster, semi-truck, and I think there was talk of a Model S update.
Selling features that are not a reality. They have been offering the full autonomy package for 3 years at a charge of something like $7000. You literally could have leased a Model S, paid for this package, and will never see it before your lease is up.
Telsa roadster - $40,000 down payment, no real timeline. All you’ve done is give Telsa an open term interest free loan. Claim a bunch of impressive stats, don’t show any functional model, cash the check.
Cybertruck – Musk loves to flaunt how they have over 250,000 preorders for the vehicle. Telsa now goes to their investors to get that several billion dollar loan they really need – “look at how many people want this!” . In reality it’s a fully refundable $100 deposit. Not to mention all the automotive engineers that highlight that the current design would never pass modern safety standards nor could they ever produce the current spec at their entry price. (Where is the promised $35,000 Model 3?)
I think Telsa has been riding the wave of being first to market and there will be a market correction eventually. Will they completely fail? Highly unlikely, but It will be very interesting to see when the German/Japanese automakers really start to focus on EV over the next few years. You often hear the claim that the big automakers are just sitting idle on EV tech. The reality is I think they have a much better idea of the game than Tesla does. They realize they can’t just push products to market and understand the supply chains, service, long term reliability etc. aspects that are involved which is where Tesla fails miserably. E.g. my old boss who waited 5 months for a new front bumper on his S that the repair shop could never get to fit like factory. drivers side seat foam collapsing / seat stitching opening after 3 years, etc. They have a ton of fit & finish issues on all of their models and this only seems to get worse as they ramp up their production.
