This is not so unusual. The large German company for whom I used to work made more money from bank interest than it did flogging stuff. I think that at one point it was 65% of its revenue.
Anyway I haven’t kept up with the scheme, so don’t know if this is still true, but Tesla’s income was for a long time largely derived from subsidies paid by the California ( amongst other states) government on each car sold.
ASM
This is not particularly notable. The Sony Corporation these days makes more money from finance than it does from selling consumer electronics.
I think I’d be able to run a profitable car company if I was given a factory in California for “mates’ rates,” which is what Tesla got in the form of NUMMI. Does SpaceX make money? No-one knows, it is privately owned, and if you’re relying upon Bitcoin as a source of value (Possibly through tweets sent while you were high.) what does that say about how secure an asset your company really is?
Bloke on M4
People are generally conservative about cars. It takes decades to establish a brand because cars cost a lot of money to the consumer. It mostly builds by word-of-mouth. Someone buys a Skoda, they’re at a party and they tell someone they’ve had it 3 years and it’s been great. Hear that repeatedly and you buy a Skoda. Toyota were making better cars in the 1980s but it took until 2000-something to become the biggest selling car maker.
And in the case of Toyota, or probably Kia today, they had a better offering. A Corolla was better built and cheaper than a Ford Escort. But what does Tesla have to offer? They look like Mazdas and cost more than the VW electric. Sure, there’s the Elon Is Our God people who will buy one, but who else? A VW will get you to Waitrose, and no-one wanting a fanny magnet is going to spend that sort of money when they can buy a Maserati for similar money.
Ottokring
I think Tesla is a cool name, to be honest. Very good marketing aiming at the well-off well-educated who might actually have heard of the guy.
Steve
I think Tesla is a cool name, to be honest. Very good marketing aiming at the well-off well-educated who might actually have heard of the guy.
It definitely plays well to the I Fucking Love Science™ crowd. But if Tesla was so great, why was he Serbian and mental?
If I had a car company I’d call my first car the FannySmasher 2000.
starfish
I must admit I am mildly curious as to what flavour of money Musk is using for bitcoin speculation
Doubt if Tesla’s made a cent on Bitcoin. A paper profit’s a paper profit. People who made money sold the Bitcoin Tesla bought.
dearieme
Tesla is an anagram of steal.
Agammamon
There’s a “so far” missing here
Not necessarily.
Tesla . . . is the biggest gamble of the startups he’s done – yes, bigger than Space-X. They’re still holding on by the skin of their teeth and look to be ‘failblazing’, ie, they’re the frontrunners in camera-based autonomous driving but it looks like they’re a little early and will crash before that’s viable and then later starters will come along and make it work.
They’ll probably be in a ‘partnership’ (ie, bought out) by one of the big car manufacturers) in a few years.
Alex
Tesla will fail. The car technology is far from unique and the existing car manufacturers have deeper pockets, loyal customers and existing distribution networks. Tesla should stick to Bitcoin. There’s more money in it.
David Boycott
Disagree. Not sure Tesla will ever make money from selling cars.
The model has always been extracting rents from idiot governments, idiot consumers paying for vapourware and idiot corporates paying for carbon offsets.
bloke in spain
Fortunately the manufacture of idiots is a growth industry.
Grikath
reality: manufacturers hardly make money on a car.. They make money on the options.. And Tesla owners are basically Apple Fanbois, so there’s real money in that..
Also, the cars are only a showcase for their technology and IP.. The real value of the company is in the extremely nifty engineering solutions and innovations they pump out in electrical powertrains and batteries, and patent worldwide.
Love or hate Musk, the guy is extremely good at throwing money at a problem and getting real-world results.
Alex
@Grokarh Tesla made all their patents free to use about six years ago. https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you
The reality is that there is nothing special about their power trains or tech and other manufacturers are capable off developing their own or buying in as required. With all car manufacturers forced to switch to electric engines, Tesla is trying to break into an industry with many existing players, and their only advantage is that they are slightly ahead in producing electric cars, but whether that guarantees them a future is questionable.
moqifen
I saw a video on youtube of a guy who was reviewing his brand new Tesla. He wasn’t impressed with the build quality. The panel gaps were inconsistent ranging from the ok to the fucking awful. He did point out a major problem (which i suppose could apply to all electric cars) in that in the event of an accident requiring you to be cut out of the car any rescuer would not know where the high voltage cables ran inside the bodywork making it dangerous for the rescue services.I’ve not driven a full electric car, but several a toyota hybrid courtesy cars and frankly the car ran a lot smoother on petrol. On electric it felt rough.
Bloke in Cornwall
One thing that simplifies understanding of Tesla is looking at Elon musk’s long term goal – to die on Mars, preferable not on landing… He plans to colonise it and live there.
He’s building the rockets to get there (spacex), he’s understanding how to build habits and mass transport (the boring company & hyperloop) what he will also need is a way to power the tunneling machines and excavators etc – you can’t use ICE and ideally you don’t want to have to have people watching the machines – hence self driving electric vehicles… Will anyone drive a model s on Mars, no. Will the improved battery / power train etc be used, yes.
Tesla is a means to an end, if it makes money, great, but the aim is to figure out technology he wants for other areas.
That’s my take on it. Full disclosure – love spacex, don’t want a tesla (or any electric car)
Stonyground
To me there seems to be a disconnect in government thinking. They want to force everyone into electric cars but, at the same time, destabilising the power supply by shutting down reliable power stations and replacing them with unreliable wind and solar power. Of course, if the plan is just to deny affordable personal transport to the masses it might work. But a national fleet of personal electric cars could only work if everyone bought their own diesel or petrol genny.
Tim Worstall
It wouldn’t surprise me at all that there’s an element of all that in there.
Mr Ecks
Stonyground–you miss the point.
Leccy cars are shorthand for no more cars for plebs. And Plebs ult means anyone not elite. Poorest will be forced out first–better off middle class types a little later.
Musk is a conman. Despite his battery blather his crappers are still glorified milk floats. The only type that could work–all elec car with on-board petrol jenny to recharge as you go and fill petrol up at garage on the road as now-is the type he doesn’t bother with.
The Marxist greenfreaks hate that kind of hybrid as it would bring elec cars that plebs could afford. And the aim is Shank’s for first plebs then all non-=elite.
Andrew M
How prescient you were. Tesla and BitCoin both getting hammered today.
The tp-link
wifi extender handbook includes all of the information you’ll need to set up and use the router.
When you buy the router, it comes with it.
You can refer to it if you have any questions regarding your tp-link
router.
If you’ve misplaced your manual, you can retrieve it from this website.
Indicate your tp-link
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Press the Download button to begin the download.
After the download is complete, double-click the file to open it.
To set up and troubleshoot your router, read and follow the instructions.
This is not so unusual. The large German company for whom I used to work made more money from bank interest than it did flogging stuff. I think that at one point it was 65% of its revenue.
Anyway I haven’t kept up with the scheme, so don’t know if this is still true, but Tesla’s income was for a long time largely derived from subsidies paid by the California ( amongst other states) government on each car sold.
This is not particularly notable. The Sony Corporation these days makes more money from finance than it does from selling consumer electronics.
I think I’d be able to run a profitable car company if I was given a factory in California for “mates’ rates,” which is what Tesla got in the form of NUMMI. Does SpaceX make money? No-one knows, it is privately owned, and if you’re relying upon Bitcoin as a source of value (Possibly through tweets sent while you were high.) what does that say about how secure an asset your company really is?
People are generally conservative about cars. It takes decades to establish a brand because cars cost a lot of money to the consumer. It mostly builds by word-of-mouth. Someone buys a Skoda, they’re at a party and they tell someone they’ve had it 3 years and it’s been great. Hear that repeatedly and you buy a Skoda. Toyota were making better cars in the 1980s but it took until 2000-something to become the biggest selling car maker.
And in the case of Toyota, or probably Kia today, they had a better offering. A Corolla was better built and cheaper than a Ford Escort. But what does Tesla have to offer? They look like Mazdas and cost more than the VW electric. Sure, there’s the Elon Is Our God people who will buy one, but who else? A VW will get you to Waitrose, and no-one wanting a fanny magnet is going to spend that sort of money when they can buy a Maserati for similar money.
I think Tesla is a cool name, to be honest. Very good marketing aiming at the well-off well-educated who might actually have heard of the guy.
I think Tesla is a cool name, to be honest. Very good marketing aiming at the well-off well-educated who might actually have heard of the guy.
It definitely plays well to the I Fucking Love Science™ crowd. But if Tesla was so great, why was he Serbian and mental?
If I had a car company I’d call my first car the FannySmasher 2000.
I must admit I am mildly curious as to what flavour of money Musk is using for bitcoin speculation
I want one of these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl8mQhxhE_Q
Doubt if Tesla’s made a cent on Bitcoin. A paper profit’s a paper profit. People who made money sold the Bitcoin Tesla bought.
Tesla is an anagram of steal.
Not necessarily.
Tesla . . . is the biggest gamble of the startups he’s done – yes, bigger than Space-X. They’re still holding on by the skin of their teeth and look to be ‘failblazing’, ie, they’re the frontrunners in camera-based autonomous driving but it looks like they’re a little early and will crash before that’s viable and then later starters will come along and make it work.
They’ll probably be in a ‘partnership’ (ie, bought out) by one of the big car manufacturers) in a few years.
Tesla will fail. The car technology is far from unique and the existing car manufacturers have deeper pockets, loyal customers and existing distribution networks. Tesla should stick to Bitcoin. There’s more money in it.
Disagree. Not sure Tesla will ever make money from selling cars.
The model has always been extracting rents from idiot governments, idiot consumers paying for vapourware and idiot corporates paying for carbon offsets.
Fortunately the manufacture of idiots is a growth industry.
reality: manufacturers hardly make money on a car.. They make money on the options.. And Tesla owners are basically Apple Fanbois, so there’s real money in that..
Also, the cars are only a showcase for their technology and IP.. The real value of the company is in the extremely nifty engineering solutions and innovations they pump out in electrical powertrains and batteries, and patent worldwide.
Love or hate Musk, the guy is extremely good at throwing money at a problem and getting real-world results.
@Grokarh Tesla made all their patents free to use about six years ago.
https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you
The reality is that there is nothing special about their power trains or tech and other manufacturers are capable off developing their own or buying in as required. With all car manufacturers forced to switch to electric engines, Tesla is trying to break into an industry with many existing players, and their only advantage is that they are slightly ahead in producing electric cars, but whether that guarantees them a future is questionable.
I saw a video on youtube of a guy who was reviewing his brand new Tesla. He wasn’t impressed with the build quality. The panel gaps were inconsistent ranging from the ok to the fucking awful. He did point out a major problem (which i suppose could apply to all electric cars) in that in the event of an accident requiring you to be cut out of the car any rescuer would not know where the high voltage cables ran inside the bodywork making it dangerous for the rescue services.I’ve not driven a full electric car, but several a toyota hybrid courtesy cars and frankly the car ran a lot smoother on petrol. On electric it felt rough.
One thing that simplifies understanding of Tesla is looking at Elon musk’s long term goal – to die on Mars, preferable not on landing… He plans to colonise it and live there.
He’s building the rockets to get there (spacex), he’s understanding how to build habits and mass transport (the boring company & hyperloop) what he will also need is a way to power the tunneling machines and excavators etc – you can’t use ICE and ideally you don’t want to have to have people watching the machines – hence self driving electric vehicles… Will anyone drive a model s on Mars, no. Will the improved battery / power train etc be used, yes.
Tesla is a means to an end, if it makes money, great, but the aim is to figure out technology he wants for other areas.
That’s my take on it. Full disclosure – love spacex, don’t want a tesla (or any electric car)
To me there seems to be a disconnect in government thinking. They want to force everyone into electric cars but, at the same time, destabilising the power supply by shutting down reliable power stations and replacing them with unreliable wind and solar power. Of course, if the plan is just to deny affordable personal transport to the masses it might work. But a national fleet of personal electric cars could only work if everyone bought their own diesel or petrol genny.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all that there’s an element of all that in there.
Stonyground–you miss the point.
Leccy cars are shorthand for no more cars for plebs. And Plebs ult means anyone not elite. Poorest will be forced out first–better off middle class types a little later.
Musk is a conman. Despite his battery blather his crappers are still glorified milk floats. The only type that could work–all elec car with on-board petrol jenny to recharge as you go and fill petrol up at garage on the road as now-is the type he doesn’t bother with.
The Marxist greenfreaks hate that kind of hybrid as it would bring elec cars that plebs could afford. And the aim is Shank’s for first plebs then all non-=elite.
How prescient you were. Tesla and BitCoin both getting hammered today.
Great post!
Extender Setup via TP-Link:
The tp-link
wifi extender handbook includes all of the information you’ll need to set up and use the router.
When you buy the router, it comes with it.
You can refer to it if you have any questions regarding your tp-link
router.
If you’ve misplaced your manual, you can retrieve it from this website.
Indicate your tp-link
router’s model.
Press the Download button to begin the download.
After the download is complete, double-click the file to open it.
To set up and troubleshoot your router, read and follow the instructions.