Tesla Question

[Aston Martin]

Ok can someone explain Tesla to me?

From 2003 to January 2009, Tesla had raised US$187 million.
Mercedes, acquired an equity stake of less than 10 percent of Tesla for a reported US$50 million.

In June 2009 Tesla was approved to receive US$465 million in interest-bearing loans from the United States Department of Energy supports engineering and production of the Model S sedan, as well as the development of powertrain technology that Tesla plans to sell to other automakers.

In September 2009, Tesla announced an US$82.5 million round to accelerate Tesla's retail expansion in advance of the Model S. Daimler participated in the round to maintain equity ownership from its initial investment.

On May 21, 2010, Tesla announced a "strategic partnership" with Toyota, which agreed to purchase US$50 million in Tesla common stock issued in a private placement

In June 2010, it was reported that Tesla sold a total of US$12.2 million zero emission vehicle credits to other automakers.

The IPO raised US$226 million for the company

They've sold 2500 cars and the TSLA price is double the Ford and higher than Nissans stock price. With a market capital of 2.6 billion dollars... how the fuck?

An Elise + Sony Batteries = Mega profit?

 

[narf]

They aren't making any profits. In fact, their 2010 income was around -150 million US$. That's how R&D works, you pour a shedload of money into it. If everything works out it'll be a cash cow, if it doesn't ... well ... life's tough.

 

[mitchell.scott]

Investment does not equal profit. Tesla lose money on every Roadster and will lose money on every Model S for quite some time. It's like Sony and the PS3: You do something new for the time period, and your supply costs are going to be huge. But eventually you'll be on an even level with the market demand, so you'll be able to turn a profit.

 

[narf]

Additionally to the actual R&D they still are setting up their proper factory. Planned numbers are obviously totally unreliable, but they say they will be capable of 20000 Model S annually from 2013. Assuming $75k average retail price that'd be additional revenue of $1.5 billion, compared to their current revenue of $0.1 billion.

 

[Aston Martin]

Additionally to the actual R&D they still are setting up their proper factory. Planned numbers are obviously totally unreliable, but they say they will be capable of 20000 Model S annually from 2013. Assuming $75k average retail price that'd be additional revenue of $1.5 billion, compared to their current revenue of $0.1 billion.

Assuming they can sell 20000 annually.
It all just seems very pipe dreamy.

 

[narf]

Like I said, planned numbers are obviously totally unreliable. Apparently over 3000 are already reserved with deposits of $5k to $40k already paid for.

 

[p0w3r]

They've sold 2500 cars and the TSLA price is double the Ford and higher than Nissans stock price. With a market capital of 2.6 billion dollars... how the fuck?

The most common misconception about stocks ever. Just because a company has a higher stock price does not mean that the company is "better" than another with a lower stock price.

 

[narf]

Going by market capital, F is 20 times larger / more worth than TSLA. Same ratio roughly with NSANY vs TSLA.

Price of a single piece of stock is irrelevant indeed.

 

[CAPT_Howdy]

The most common misconception about stocks ever. Just because a company has a higher stock price does not mean that the company is "better" than another with a lower stock price.

Exactly. Stocks are all about a company's perceived value. It's trading high because people expect to sell even higher.

Back in the late Nineties, Chrysler was doing very well sales-wise in the marketplace. Microsoft was doing well, but not as well as Chrysler. Result? Microsoft stock was worth 5 times per share what Chrysler was worth. People wanted tech stocks at the time. Simple supply-versus-demand economics. Now, people want to invest in "green" energy.

 

[NecroJoe]

Also, don't forget that, more than a car company, Tesla is a technology company; licensing the product of their research is their real goal. Selling cars is just marketing.

 

[GRtak]

Investment does not equal profit. Tesla lose money on every Roadster and will lose money on every Model S for quite some time. It's like Sony and the PS3: You do something new for the time period, and your supply costs are going to be huge. But eventually you'll be on an even level with the market demand, so you'll be able to turn a profit.

Yeah, has Sony reached the break even point yet? Don't forget to include the HD-DVD bribe in that cost too.

 

[Cold Fussion]

Sony started making money on each PS3 sold (the unit itself) a long time ago.

 

[mitchell.scott]

Yeah, has Sony reached the break even point yet? Don't forget to include the HD-DVD bribe in that cost too.

I believe they started making money off of the PS3 in 2007 or 2008. And now, thanks to longer console cycles, I'm sure they're making a ton of money off of the Slim still. /offtopic

 

[Merc63]

Also, don't forget that, more than a car company, Tesla is a technology company; licensing the product of their research is their real goal. Selling cars is just marketing.

Yeah, they sell a lot of tech to Toyota, and wil probably end up being bought out by Toyota in the near future.

 

[codymac]

Also, don't forget that, more than a car company, Tesla is a technology company; licensing the product of their research is their real goal. Selling cars is just marketing.

It's going to be difficult to license technology that they don't own the rights to. The technology company is AC Propulsion. The other technology company is Lotus.

There's still information about their licensing with Lotus in their blog. There used to be information regarding their licensing with AC Propulsion and the T-Zero prototype.

As a Lotus guy, I can't explain Tesla. For the difference in price, you can buy enough gas to put over 250k miles on an Elise.

 

[thedguy]

They make a metric fuck-ton off "carbon credits" right now. IIRC that is most of their real business model until they can bring in more cash from car sales and technology partnerships.