FIAT may move HQ to US

[Elie]

Then we better see more cars from the Fiat family here in North America! The Fiat 500 is ok, but there are better cars in their line up.

[Dr Mordrid]

They've reviving the Fiat 124 Spider brand. It'll be derived from the Mazda MX-5 Miata.

They're also bringing in Lancia, Alfa and Maserati.

Tesla won't be sold. They're selling all the cars they can make batteries for, and the new battery factory in Nevada and a new car factory will expand capacity to about 500,000. This will be needed with the Model X crossover immenent, the Model 3 compact (~35k) next up and at least one truck after them.

More Tesla battery factories are in the pipeline because of Tesla's new Tesla Energy home/industrial power battery division, which sccored almost $1 billion in orders in its first 2 weeks. They also need to feed Solar City's expanding solar power leasing business and SpaceX's needs for their 4,000+ internet backbone satellite constellation and other spacecraft.

[dZeus]

even with all the subsidies in place, Tesla seems to be burning through their cash at hyperloop speeds:
Tesla has been burning over $500 million per quarter for 2 quarters straight! Two more quarters and they've burned through all their cash....
at current rates, raising $640 million in stocks give them only 3 months more breathing time

At the same time, other car manufacturers, some of which run a profitable business selling ICU cars, keep pouring money into R&D to play catch-up with Tesla. These companies have vastly superior economics due to the scale of their production. For example, Audi just introduced a SUV that has 310 mile range on battery....
Then we have low oil prices also diminishes the current demand/need for electric cars...

Prediction:
Tesla = toast within 2 years (although Musk seems to have been able to defy the odds three times before with Tesla, so maybe a fourth time is possible?).
Wildcard that can change everything (very low chance of happening imo):
Tesla can keep alive until they can sell an autonomously driven car (self-driving car), ahead of other car manufacturers, and gain big orders from companies like Uber and insurance companies that force their most crash-prone customers to switch to self-driven cars...

Another quarter with $400+ mm burn rate.

I marvel at Musk's ability to keep finding additional funding for his Tesla train-wreck.

[Dr Mordrid]

Expansion increases burn rate, but they also have almost $15 billion in Model 3 orders.

The burn rate is because they're building the battery Gigafactory in Nevada (partially open, which will also produce vehicles later), a casting plant in California, adding a Model 3 line at Fremont, just opened a factory in Europe, are being lobbied by France for a 2nd European factory, and are scouting locations for a factory in China to feed Asia.

On top of that, they're buying Solar City and their solar cell Gigafactory (opens this year) in a stock swap, and have new vehicles in development; a pickup, a passenger van type vehicle and a semi truck.

The Solar City acquisition allows Tesla to integrate their battery techs with solar for a combined energy and energy storage product line.

[GT98]

Expansion increases burn rate, but they also have almost $15 billion in Model 3 orders.

How many are they going to lose before the car actually hits the marketplace?

As for FCA...It doesn't look good for them long term. Killing off the Chrysler 200 and Dodge Dart and going whole hog with Jeep/RAM...when gas goes up or the economy goes into the shitter again, they won't be able to survive.

[Dr Mordrid]

How many are they going to lose before the car actually hits the marketplace?

As for FCA...It doesn't look good for them long term. Killing off the Chrysler 200 and Dodge Dart and going whole hog with Jeep/RAM...when gas goes up or the economy goes into the shitter again, they won't be able to survive.

Production of Model 3 should start in Q4 2016, probably November.

West of New Jersey, Jeep etc. and truck sales aren't affected as much by gas prices as you think, and in some locales no other vehicles can do the job. Try hauling heavy business and farm equipment in the west with a small vehicle. Worse where towns are 100 miles apart or ranches can run from Corpus Christi almost to Port Isabel. Or, as in 80% of Michigan and other northern states, try to get around in heavy snow up to your ass.

Back in 2011 with the crisis still going and gas prices rising truck sales still rose.

Dart and the 200 were dropped because they were losing money - people want fast or big - or both.