there are a lot them on the road in berkeley / north oakland. the ones in richmond are probably being shipped to canada or whereever…?
i was invited to configure about a month ago but started hearing all kinds of horror stories about panels not being joined right and hoods not sitting flush (as well as things falling apart on the interior), so i decided to just wait a while. and then musk started attacking journalists and female scientists on twitter and i think i’ve had enough. i think i’m going to ask for my $1000 back, wait a couple of years, and buy an electric benz or bmw or something along those lines, which should be out in force by that time.
I’ve seen a couple of Model 3s around Seattle. I’ve been less than impressed. I think that regardless of how much Musk wanks about the interior design, having a single touch screen for nearly everything is just a terrible idea.
I was in line to reserve the Model 3 on day one. It was made clear to us, on day one, that more expensive configurations would ship first.
I reserved two, despite being 90% sure I’d only want one, because interest rates are 1% and so who cares if they’re holding on to an extra $1000 of my money for a year or two? Maybe a relative would want one; maybe there’d be an opportunity for profitable resale.
As it happens, I decided to buy a Model S - which is amazing - and took refunds on both reservations. Now articles like this are using me as proof that Tesla is failing. LOL.
You think American’s are skeptical about delivery? Spare a thought for the rest of the world, specifically those that need a right hand drive. Model 3’s aren’t even scheduled to be made with right hand drive until next year. I’ve got an EV (2011 Nissan Leaf) and belong to a few NZ Facebook EV pages. There are NZers with deposits down waiting for the Model 3. I’ll only be able to buy a second hand one, and with the delays this is getting less likely. I’m hearing great things about the Hyundai Ioniq. The BMW i3 is a great car, but small so no good for my family. The 2018 40kWh Nissan Leaf looks great but may suffer the same accelerated battery degradation as the 30kWh model due to no active battery cooling. The Hyundai Kona electric is enticing a lot of people. At least the options are increasing.
I got to ride in a Model X last week and boy was that fun. I just wish my city had charging infrastructure. I live in a row house, no garage, curbside parking. No where to plug the thing in. And yes, that means I should be taking transit in our green future, but the bus doesn’t go to my job in another state, alas.
They are in the sense that Musk as an individual provides a significant amount of funding (currently about 10% of total valuation) to SpaceX, which means the private company is highly dependent on Tesla, the public company. If Tesla goes down SpaceX probably won’t be far behind.
Where does Boring come in ? They’re suppose to be making tunnel systems but I haven’t heard anything concrete yet and what it did sell was flamthrowers
It’s a privately-owned hobby company that’s related to Hyperloop and that shares some SpaceX infrastructure. They have one substantial project in Baltimore, a serious test project in L.A., and are finalists for a high-speed rail project in Chicago. Like SpaceX, its prospects aren’t good if Tesla fails.
I do think Tesla has long-term potential, but it rests in its Powerwall and Solar City solar battery businesses instead of in the car business. It’s one of those cases where the tail will likely end up wagging the dog.
That’s Solar City right ? I thought they did panels ¿
I forget where I read/heard but it was a comment about how Tesla is a bubble because it is highly valued but it doesn’t produce enough cars, top that with the delays, I can see why you say it isn’t long term and that sucks
It’s a subsidiary of Tesla. They do the panels, the Powerwall subsidiary does the batteries.
I do think that the brand and the company’s various automotive products will survive as a business, but more in the sense of cars made by large incumbent manufacturers licensing them under a “Powered By Tesla” brand. I suspect this is the endgame for the automobile company despite Musk’s posturing about the Model 3s.
To be fair to Musk, I don’t think a boring solar panel and batteries business would have received the publicity and IPO money that a sexy car company did. Apparently he feels he needs to keep that rolling a bit longer.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Tesla stays in the ultra-high-end luxury car market with small-batch limited editions. I am also glad that the company disrupted the regional car dealership cartel model and showed that there’s still room for upstarts in an industry that was thought to have impossible barriers to entry.
Oh okay I misunderstood since I didn’t know he had yet another company that specifically made batteries
Yeah it reminds me of Koenigsegg and their achievement with their One:1 Agera model, Chris’ comes out of nowhere and makes that possible, gives me hope that the car industry/market will move towards green cars faster than I originally thought
Those kinds of comments focusing on Tesla only as a car manufacturer are made by speculators who don’t do their homework on a company or by the professional traders who prey on them in order to make a quick buck on arbitrage and fees.
Ah okay, but investing in Tesla isn’t ideal regardless for other reasons ? I use an app to invest into stock and Tesla doesn’t give me yield so I don’t invest in them anyway lol but I would like to own one of their cars one day
