Electric cars

Tesla At Least 4–5 Years Ahead Of Competition — According To German Auto Industry Expert

I suspect the fightback has begun in Germany, and the Zoe50 package is getting a lot of praise, so France is doing well too.

Not sure about Japan, Toyota is still pushing 'self-charging' electric vehicles :rotfl: but are bringing their BEV plans forward.

All good news, I think.

silverwhistle wrote: »

Luxury users, or company car drivers?

Both, I guess. Luxury buyers are generally the early adopters (like the Tesla S), then the fleet drivers when they become cheaper, then eventually mass market. We're still at the point where the EV offerings are the highest spec in the range, but I don't think it'll be long until we're seeing base spec models with EV powertrains.

gzoom wrote: »

Like you I cannot get the man maths to work on replacing the second family car with an EV, at sub 6K per year on a fully owned reliable car no new EV can come close to absolutely ownership costs.

BUT its not the small second car you should replace with an EV, its the €43k E pace!!

Model Y will be out next year, it will have much more utility than an E pace, and will even be offered in 7 seater config. Pricing will start at €40-45k, and range will be same as our 75D X, which has now done 35k in just over 2 years!!

I suspect you may be worried about EV range, but unless your really doing 200 miles+ non stop trips regularly range isn't an issue.

We've just done a 430 mile road trip around the English Lake District, stopped only twice, once the drive up and once drive home, these stops would have happened even in a petrol car to brake up a 3 hr motorway trip.

Family roads trips in the EV is so easy we are planning UK to Norway next year, and am still working on my wife for Lake Como - one comprise is she and the rest of the family files, and I drive to met them there!!

You could have a point and the next few years will tell.
We might even drop to one car in due course as we live in a country where public transport will be free from March 1st 2020 which might mean we don’t need a city car and will need only one car for medium to long journeys.

Tesla are number 1 in the US. :T

Or to be precise TSLA is number 1, as the value of their shares that have been shorted has now overtaken Apple, at approx $10bn. And for comparison, as Apple is worth about 30x more than Tesla, shorted shares represent approx 1% of Apple, and just shy of 35% for Tesla.

I'm a bit wary of calling out 'conspiracy theory', but something very odd is going on here, as even with the share price down 30-50%, shorting continues ....... so is 'outside' money being used, such as big oil, to reduce the shareprice and thereby slow down expansion?

Anyways, time to put my money where my mouth is and invest in Tesla - since I strongly believe in EV's, and the need to decarbonize the transport sector, and personally think Tesla has, and is driving this forward faster than it otherwise would.

So I've bought some shares ...... how bad can it get :rotfl: so fingers crossed for a short squeeze.

I may be wrong, but I think any and all expansion of BEV offerings and sales will be a good thing for Tesla, since competition will eat into ICE sales, not Tesla sales, and prove the concept for those doubting companies that are going down that route.

Fun times ahead.

Kentish_Dave wrote: »

How does a low share price going to slow down expansion?

I’m feeling some regret about my new Model S purchase at the moment, it has just too many problems and any spirited driving at all sees the range drop below 200 miles.

The value of a company will impact on the amount of money they can borrow, and the rate at which they can borrow it.

Think of a simple personal example - you've got a great idea for a new business and plan to borrow the capital against your house. If the value of your house halved, you wouldn't be able to borrow as much, and might have to pay a higher rate too. But your house hasn't changed, only its paper value.

Aside from selling more shares to raise investment capital, Tesla's lower market capitalization (market cap) will impact on their 'normal' business borrowing, and also on external funding, since they now have less value to back up borrowing, and there's also the most recent share action (large drop) that will weigh on the minds of potential lenders/investors.

What's interesting to see with Tesla is the direct correlation between share price and share shorting.

The year started with a share price of about $340 and about 26m shares shorted. The number of shorted shares has risen steadily to around 46m, and the share price fell steadily to around $180, before rising during June to about $220.

If you'd shorted Tesla at $300+, then $180 would be a great price to close your position at (shorting involves borrowing shares at a very low interest rate, perhaps 1%, then selling them, before buying some back at a lower price to return them).

Interestingly, Tesla shorting has continued despite June's share price pushback, which seems to fly in the face of normal shorting, and might suggest outside monies trying to push Tesla even further down. The value of shorted Tesla shares is around $10bn, whilst 'big oil' makes around $200bn per month. So if the shorting is to hurt the company, not to make money, then it could be a good investment if it slows down BEV deployment.

TBF much of this is conspiracy theory, and hence why I used to be doubtful, but things have gone to such an extreme that one has to wonder if outside forces are being applied.

The best situation for Tesla (and my share holding) would be a short squeeze - this is when the share price actually rises and some shorts decide to close their position (buy shares), this pushes the price up higher and faster, and more shorts have to rush to buy shares, causing a rapid spiralling up of the share price. This was seen about 10yrs ago when VW was shorted, and when this was spotted a squeeze forced a five fold increase in their share price.

But would there be a short squeeze this time, if the shorter's aren't worried about the losses, so don't rush to close their position in a race against other shorts?