In May 2014 I asked “what happens when Tesla Motors’ sales equals that of major traditional car makers like Porsche?” At the time I saw a Porsche press release with quarterly sales numbers where Porsche had sold 55,000 cars worldwide for Q1 2014, for an annualized sales rate of 165,000…
Is Elon Musk going insane? Or has Elon Musk started believing his own press releases? Those suggestions come from two different news articles analyzing the fallout from Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s suggestion to take Tesla private, and his subsequent interview with the NY Times in which he admitted this year…
If you “own” something but cannot “repair” it, do you really own the thing? The legal concept is the Right to Repair, that we all should have the right to fix or even upgrade the widgets we buy. Unfortunately many technology companies put up roadblocks in the way of the…
Tesla could be in a world of hurt from the brewing trade war with China, suggests a NBC News report. The Trump Administration is launching a trade war against the rest of the world (more or less), where China is a primary target, a move which is upsetting business plans that…
The layoffs recently announced for Tesla is especially focusing on residential sales through what had been Solar City outposts in Home Depot stores. Solar City had famously sold its systems through both direct sales and through sales partners stationed in Home Depot stores. According to reports, Tesla will close about…
Layoffs are hard on a company, and Tesla Motors is going through a fairly large (9%) layoff. The “survivors” are often left with a kind of survivors guilt, and missing former colleagues, and can easily be demoralized. Those who are laid off must look for their next step in life,…
A few days ago I wrote about a pair of crashes, one involving an autonomous Uber vehicle that struck and killed a pedestrian, and another involving a Tesla Model X that apparently swerved into a lane divider killing the driver. Yesterday an SF Bay Area TV station, ABC 7 news,…
Clearly folks are eager to have self-driving cars TODAY if not sooner. I’m seeing a constant chatter online of folks excited about the prospect of letting their car take over the driving chores. A few weeks ago, a new Tesla Model 3 owner giving a presentation about his newly-purchased car…
Should Tesla Motors be the leading or primary car manufacturer? Or should other car manufacturers step up to take a significant role in electric vehicle development, as Tesla is doing? Or should even other start-up car manufacturers participate in the undoing of the incumbent car industry? That’s a set of…
On the heels of Tesla’s quarterly financial results released earlier this week, the company notified us reservation holders of an update in our Tesla Model 3 reservation. Eagerly hoping the date had been moved up because they’re promising a 5,000/week production rate, I logged into my Tesla account and was…
A whole subsection of the International media exists to tear at Tesla Motors. That’s part of the court of public opinion, the variety of “facts” tossed around that are really interpretations of the information we all receive. This afternoon Tesla released their quarterly financial results, and we don’t have to…
Tesla Motors today announced that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had agreed to remain as CEO for at least 10 years. What was announced is the new compensation package and performance awards for Elon Musk. In industry parlance we call this kind of package “Golden Handcuffs” because the payoff is tied…
This evening we didn’t have the second coming of Christ, but we did see a couple nigh-on-impossible vehicles announced. A semi-truck that does 0-60 miles/hr in 5 seconds? (unloaded) And a 4-seater sports car that does 0-60 miles/hr in 1.9 seconds? And, the truck will be available in 2019, and…
The long-awaited Tesla big rig is due to be shown tomorrow, after being delayed a few times supposedly because of focus on ramping up Tesla Model 3 production. Of source the Model 3 is the make-or-break product of the moment and therefore Elon Musk and others at Tesla Motors must…
The SeekingAlpha website isn’t exactly known for highly accurate investing prognostication. We should therefore take the suggestion that Tesla Motors is doomed because of the Gigafactory with a suitably large chunk of salt. According to conventional thinking, the Gigafactory (Gigafactories, actually) is what will propel Tesla Motors into a huge…
