Tesla Talk

So many cameras on the Tesla…

New Tesla buyer "I see I get a free towbar"

Dealer "Yes, that's for the washer bottle"

I'll get me coat…

To be fair, both the ID3 and Tesla are new cars. New cars don’t require maintenance. You would have only spent €150 on a minor service for the equivalent petrol or diesel car.

Realistically the maintenance costs for ICE vs EV are basically the same for the first 3 years, especially considering both cars are under manufacturers warranty.

I’m seeing a lot of folks over on the EV owners page on FB servicing their EV’s every year to uphold their warranty. Is this a requirement for all EV manufacturers?

For Hyundai Kona it is 15k km or 1 year whichever comes first. And the cost kept creeping up every time. 85/135/150/170.

A friend made an appointment on their website for a service and this is what they got back. I told them to walk which they did but still ended paying around 300.

Tell my missus that, her over two year old Ioniq 5 required a 'service' last feb and she got some shock when Waterford Hyundai quoted €425. Of course she told them where to go and got the same service in Kilkenny less than half that.

It's not true when it comes to accident repairs, which are so expensive low millage Y's are routinely written off for minor accidents.

Ive been unfortunate of being involved in doing the same on an M3 a while ago.

To replace the filters, Tesla themselves were one of the cheaper suppliers I found (~25e). This is about the same price as other car manufacturers cabin filters. However, they are half the size of regular cabin filters, and you have to use two of them. So you are looking at double the cost of other car manufacturers.

Its great that Tesla give manuals for these operations themselves. https://service.tesla.com/docs/Public/diy/model3/en_us/GUID-DB0A1E3C-926E-498C-A2FD-A27B8421A471.html Unfortunately, they are for left-hand driving cars, not right. So the access for the cabin filters is through the cramped drivers footwell rather than the passengers footwell.

The same panels come out as described in the Tesla, but the steering column and pedals are giving you alot less room to do it. One of the T20 screws is high up on the filter, and has very little clearance around it. I had to use a ratchet with a T20 bit and adapter inserted, all while crawling in on my back through the drivers door. There are two (three?) panels that you have to remove and cables that you have to unclip and move out of the way. Then alot of wiggling of the filters tabs to take them out of their enclosure. Then you have to do it all over again in reverse to put everything back together.

I have had to do an Audi lately that was a dream in comparison. Two clips in the passengers footwell. Replace filter, put two clips back. Done.

Tesla Q1 financials were awful, which was well expected and priced in. unconvincing for the SP at these levels, but this isn’t a stock that ever trades on its fundamentala.

Interestingly, the SP popped 10% in the after hours, which seems to be based solely on Musk selling the dream all over again.

all the non-car projects got a mention in the call - and it’s clear now that the model 2 is dead, so who knows what ‘cheaper cars’ means in terms of robotaxis or the old Y and 3. Reuters aren’t lying it seems.
No time frames or flesh on the bones on any of the projects - musk said that if you don’t believe Tesla can successfully do AI, robots and FSD, that you shouldn’t hold the stock - so I guess all the believers piled in

Will be interesting to see what the institutions do on the opening today.

I’m curious as to people’s views here. I see an overvalued company with an aging product line for the most part and no clear direction forward. The competitive advantage the supercharger network gave is being whittled away and the self driving/ai stuff is no longer credible.

I doubt they will fail, but what are the chances we will see a them being acquired by GM or such?

ICE vehicles are going to go the same way as the cigarettes. We will be mostly grateful when they are gone and wonder how we put up with them in the first place. Tesla, as an EV car company, is well placed to exploit this opening market. There will be hiccups on the way, like the current slow down in EV adoption, but overall I expect them to grow with it.

Much of this will be down to how Elon behaves himself. Elon can be good at buying or starting disruptive companies companies with high growth potential like Tesla, Space X or Starlink. But he needs to concentrate on leading these companies and not do stupid stuff like buying Twitter for ideological reasons or give public opinions on subjects far outside his expertise. Making himself a guru like this probably pumps up his share price by those easily led. But it polarises potential customers that Tesla need to grow.

Teslas share price was also ridiculously overpriced. It didn’t make sense for a car company to be valued more that the next 6 car companies combined. Even now, after losing half its value, it’s probably valued more than its worth.

It’s good for the company that Elon is concentrating on Tesla again. He cancelled a trip to China due to the current difficulty that they are in. He is doing the right thing by not being afraid to make big decisions. Due to its success so far, they have built up a massive cash reserve of 25B. They had the ability to slash prices of the vehicles to stave off the threat from Chinese companies like BYD. These companies are feeling the pinch as a result. I believe that if they can get one of these companies to collapse, Tesla will be in a much stronger position longer term as the Chinese government will be wary in investing in another one again.

I am not sure about their decision to axe the Super Charger network leadership. I also really have my doubts about canceling the Model 2. Although self driving will become a reality, I don’t think it will be as fast as he promised for his Robotaxis and the story was a smokescreen for the other negative stories. 

So to answer your question, I doubt that they will be sold to GM anytime soon. 

Not a car company yet car sales make up roughly 85% of Teslas revenue…?