EV truck invasion: Tesla & Rivian (Tesla Cybertruck reveal date)

[Umfriend]

Nope. In LHT countries, cars have RHD configurations (Left Hand Trafic, Right Hand Driver).

LOL, confused, yes VJ, you are correct.

[paulw]

only the UK, Ireland and Malta are LHD in Europe.

On that note, one of my colleagues of Irish descent told me: "Ireland is planning to switch over to RHD. They'll start with the lorries."

Are you meaning that they will drive on the right side of the road as the US etc??

[UtwigMU]

There is interesting history to side of driving in Slovenia.
Good old KuK (Austro Hungary) was left hand traffic
Kingdom of Yugoslavia was still left hand traffic
It was changed during German occupation in WW2 to right hand
Right hand was retained in Socialist Yugoslavia

[dZeus]

I think you mean that UK, Ireland and Malta are RHD...

yes absolutely correct. I was confusing LHT and LHD, as Umfriend guessed.

[dZeus]

Are you meaning that they will drive on the right side of the road as the US etc??

you have to imagine proposing lorries to drive against the regular traffic

[UtwigMU]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0F3AuZwOTE

Tesla 3 with dirt stuck in undercarriage.

[Dr Mordrid]

Baja'ing?

[Dr Mordrid]

Teslarati reports the Transportation Research Center in East Liberty, Ohio is receiving Tesla Pickup development mules.

[UtwigMU]

A Modified Ponzi Scheme": 78% Of Tesla Operating Cash Flow Has Come From Customer Deposits

The reason Tesla keeps announcing new ludicrous car models is that most of their cashflow which finances production of present models comes from deposit. Depositing customers are unsecured zero interest creditors. I know Musk is more of expanding, creating new stuff entrepreneur and while doing nearly impossible is his strength, logistics, steady flow and mass production of lower margin standard products are his weaknesses. There are two kinds of entepreneurs: creating something totally new from scratch (example Edison, SGI, Sun) and taking something already existing and improving it (Microsoft). Apple sits somewhere in the middle, though especially under Cook they are in the 2nd camp.

Therefore he did well with SpaceX and Tesla S but will probably be be taken over in mid range car segment by some company more adept at this.

[Dr Mordrid]

Lesson #1: take everything shorters and Zerohedge say, about any company or thing, with a barrel of salt. Shorters aren't disinterested analysts, they're trying to drive the stock down to maximize their profits, and Zerohedge has more than a few "woo-eee-ooo" moments.

[dZeus]

Lesson #1: take everything shorters and Zerohedge say, about any company or thing, with a barrel of salt. Shorters aren't disinterested analysts, they're trying to drive the stock down to maximize their profits, and Zerohedge has more than a few "woo-eee-ooo" moments.

Lessen #0: take everything Elon Musk says with a truckload of salt.

I've predicted Tesla to go bankrupt a long time ago, but they're still going. Seems like it's a bad idea to short a personality cult.

[Dr Mordrid]

It's not all about the fan base.

Q1 was hurt by lower Model X and S sales, long in the tooth & cannibalized by Model 3 & Model Y expectations, and not having enough Model 3's to meet orders. A supply problem.

Even so, Model 3 is now the top selling luxury vehicle in the US and last quarter came within ~356 vehicles of outselling Porsche - in Germany.

Model S and X are getting a redo, to include the new techs in Model 3, Model Y and the upcoming Roadster 2 supercar.

Tesla and Fiat Chrysler are teaming up to meed EU emissions.

New Model 3 & Y factories will be opening in Shanghai (being built, opens Q3) and Sparks Nevada (outfitting in May). A European factory announcement is coming soon.

Meanwhile, US industry analyst Sandy Munro, who advises the auto and DoD manufacturers, days Tesla is years ahead of everyone else in batteries (cost & power density), electric motors (their PM switched reluctance motor still has analysts flummoxed), controls and software. He says their electronics are at 5th gen fighter jet levels. No doubt bleed-over from SpaceX due to their shared personnel and developments.

[dZeus]

It's not all about the fan base.

Q1 was hurt by lower Model X and S sales, long in the tooth & cannibalized by Model 3 & Model Y expectations, and not having enough Model 3's to meet orders. A supply problem.

Even so, Model 3 is now the top selling luxury vehicle in the US and last quarter came within ~356 vehicles of outselling Porsche - in Germany.

Model S and X are getting a redo, to include the new techs in Model 3, Model Y and the upcoming Roadster 2 supercar.

Tesla and Fiat Chrysler are teaming up to meed EU emissions.

New Model 3 & Y factories will be opening in Shanghai (being built, opens Q3) and Sparks Nevada (outfitting in May). A European factory announcement is coming soon.

Meanwhile, US industry analyst Sandy Munro, who advises the auto and DoD manufacturers, days Tesla is years ahead of everyone else in batteries (cost & power density), electric motors (their PM switched reluctance motor still has analysts flummoxed), controls and software. He says their electronics are at 5th gen fighter jet levels. No doubt bleed-over from SpaceX due to their shared personnel and developments.

latest Tesla figures look very ugly. Analysts have pointed out that the latest figures seem to suggest Tesla has stopped paying its suppliers. Only enough free cashflow for one more quarter at current burn rate.
They've been in similarly bad positions a few times before, but always miraculously found new investors (greater fools?) to kick the can.
However, that's not a viable business model and at some point it'll stop working.

If you care about EV tech, it's best to leave it to manufacturers who know what they are doing in terms of scaling car production and that doesn't have a CEO that seems mentally unstable. Maybe they can pick up some Tesla technology on the cheap soon.

[Dr Mordrid]

Tesla's cash reserves are $2.2 billion.

Turns out the S & X sales drop was also because they were redoing them, a changeover. New driveline; transfer gears & PM switched reluctance motor, controller, new adaptive air suspension, and the new neural network chips in the AI supercomputer etc. and a range increase.

Ramping back to 100k/yr for S and X in Q2.

[Dr Mordrid]

Tesla Q3 results blew the doors off their stock; +25% in 3 days, >$5 billion in cash reserves. Market cap: $57 billion (GM = $54.3B).

After the Fiat/Chrysler + Pugeot merger, Fiat/Chrysler's CFO says they may be buying Tesla skateboards (ready to run chassis) and using their own coachwork.

Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory is open with test production underway. Full production about New Year's. This is in a free-trade zone, and Tesla is the first carmaker not required to have a Chinese partner. Model 3, a stretched Model 3 for chauffeured use, Model Y crossover SUV.

The Gigafactory 4 reveal should come soon, likely in Germany.

Model Y crossover SUV production to begin early; mid-2020.

Elon Musk ✓ @elonmusk
Cybertruck unveil on Nov 21 in LA near SpaceX rocket factory

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1192113294036754432