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Tesla Motors Turns a Profit For the First Time
d0rp writes with news that Tesla Motors has reported earning a profit for the first time in its six-year history. Sales of the $109,000 Roadster earned the company $20 million in revenue, which settled out to $1 million in profits. "Most of that money rolled in after Tesla delivered cars customers had already placed deposits on. Although the company has, according to spokeswoman Rachel Konrad, seen a 'surge' in orders for the Roadster and the higher-performance Roadster Sport (price: $127,500), it isn't likely to keep rolling cars out so quickly. Konrad says Tesla is 'definitely on pace' to meet its goal of 1,000 to 1,200 cars a year but didn't say when that might happen. Tesla has so far delivered about 609 Roadsters since production started in March, 2008." The company is working on a new 'Model S' sedan, with the help of $465 million in government loans, and has also entered into a partnership with Daimler to help the German auto company produce electric Smart cars.
...year of profits!
I'm just angered by the insinuance that somehow because someone owns something that was granted to them by the government that somehow they have a monopoly over it and the right to shut me out on a whim.
What is hopeful is how Tesla is working with the auto industry to spread their battery and electric vehicle patents in a cooperative way rather than trying to submarine them. I see a profitable road ahead for Tesla if they can keep their IP chest ahead of the curve.
i may never be able to drive one, but good for them.
This should be taken with a bit of skepticism. There's a difference between positive cash flow (more cash coming in than going out), positive net income (what most people think of as 'profit') and positive EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or profit from operations). TFA doesn't mention which Tesla is reporting.
I have been following Tesla for a long time, and certainly have been cheering them on. Mostly because THEY are SINGLY HANDED Responsible for forcing ALL OF THE MAJOR car makers to go to electric. Not a one wanted to go down this path. BUT, tesla has forced it. OTH, they like to claim that they are an American Car builder. Nothing could be further from the truth. Where do the current motors and electronics come from? Taiwan. Where does the processed lithium come from? China. The body and frame CURRENTLY comes from Lotus, but that will be coming shortly from America. If Elon was smart, he would push for motors from America (which DOES have a number of companies that produce these). Likewise, he would consider pushing for Lithium from other sources, rather than solely China. China (and somewhat Taiwan) have a LONG history of out and out stealing IP. It is only a matter of time before any quiet IP will show up in competitors. But if America is loaning him the money for this, I would like to see more of his source come from America. At least from those countries that will honor IP and have their money freely floating against ours and not have trade barriers.
Seriously, I don't know anyone that could just blow $100k on a car. Where are these people getting all this money and why does it seem like there are so many of them?!
How does a company that makes $1,000,000 in profit over 1 full year, get 465 Million dollars in loans from our government?? How will they pay that back in a reasonable time?
This is how a nation leads technology in the world, 20 years from now when petroleum products are rare. This would ensure the nations leadership in the world
I at least feel better about money going towards developing a product that may help out ongoing energy problems
Just because its all electric doesn't mean it will solve our energy problems. It just offloads the burden to another infrastructure. Currently our use of fossil fuels is generating most of our electricity, dump a few million electric cars on the grid and sure you save some gas and emissions (and coal plants have much better filtration and carbon capture than combustion engines) but at the cost of stressing our electric grid. The efficiency of converting gas into kinetic energy is relatively high, as far as energy conversions go. Converting fuels into electricity is far less efficient, not to mention losses from battery storage.
don't get me wrong, i'd love for everyone to drive an electric car instead of a combustion engine, but our grid isn't capable of supporting that dream yet. The change will come, but it will be slow, and driven by economics.
It is quite uderstandable that Tesla turns a profit. After all, their roadster is on parity with other sports cars, has the same performance (at least in a drag race, not so sure about handling on a race track) as a Porsche 911 and makes the owner feel good about him/herself. And, on a more subjective point of view, it's quite nice to look at. If I had $100k to blow on a car, I would buy one.
The problem I see with Tesla is if they can turn what they've done until now into an afordable sedan or they will fade into oblivion. This has much to do with the fact that I'm not quite sure that electric cars are the way to go. After all, in a couple of years hydrogen could be the next big thing. Time will tell.
I noticed a lot of negative comments but the news was amazing. We aren't even talking 18 months after they delivered their first car they showed a profit! I've never heard of that from anyone in recent history. Breaking even for a car maker takes years not months. Yes I know it's not a true profit to the investors but that was always going to take years, probably 5 to 10 years and they all knew it. Ask any investor if they are happy or disappointed and I'll bet you couldn't wipe the grin off their faces. I've seen claims Tesla won't survive 3 years get modded Insightful. I'd mod it shortsighted. Dan hasn't peaked yet so declaring their death is a little premature. They are doing the right thing and expanding their car line to more afordable models. They are partnering up with established companies. They seem to be doing all the right things to not only survive but thrive. People have called the roadster expensive but haven't pointed out that it can beat a car costing twice as much in the straightaway. Once batteries get lighter they'll corner better and they can beat them in the corners as well. People say electrics must be cheaper to be acceptable because of range and recharge limitations. How's half priced for cheaper? Yes they can't make a family car cheaper and they probably never will. The range and recharge will improve over time. You've got to remember a Tesla car is exactly the same as a hydrogen car it just uses batteries instead of a fuel cell. The cars could use fuel cells just as easily. The batteries are the major expense. Electric motors tend to be cheaper than gas engines and they lack all the extra bits like fuel pumps and such to keep them going. How much geekier can you get than an electric car??? Time to celibrate. Also you've got to remember the single biggest point. They did it in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression! Two out of the big three car makers just declared backruptcy!
This is a standard accounting operating procedure for Silicon Valley startups. In fact, compared to the late 90s "boom", this is positively conservative.
Back in the day when I worked in mortgages (more than a quarter of a century ago - yes, I am older than dirt underneath my feet), we didn't have credit scores. We just used common sense. What a concept.
End anonymous moderation and posting on
No need to fight wars for a nuclear, or solar or wind energie or geo-energie.
That is the beauty of the electric grid. it don't give a damn what you hook up to it.
Petrol cars run on petrol.
Electric cars run on anything that pump out juice.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
So far, they sell one nice electric sports car. And they announced to make a sedan for a somewhat wider audience. But Tesla does not have the market share yet to put real pressure on the major car makers.
I think Toyota played a bigger role there:
While only partially electric, their Prius demonstrated that a hybrid can actually sell serious numbers. AFAIK one million worldwide so far.
C - the footgun of programming languages
They've spent far less money than GM spent on the EV-1, and have almost as many cars on the road. About 1100 EV1 cars were produced.
The current version of the Tesla roadster is a reasonably good sports car. Speed is good, acceleration is very good, the range is 200 miles, and it looks good as it whooshes by. It's overpriced, but there's hope of getting that down as volume goes up.
They had some initial problems stemming from trying to make it go fast. First they had motor overheating problems at high revs, so they put in a two-speed transmission. That was a disaster; shifting under load ate up the transmission because the two speeds were too far apart. Then they went back to a simple single speed transmission, but water-cooled the motor, which simplified the mechanics and got them the desired top speed. The current drive train seems to be holding up well. Top speed is only 125MPH, which is low for $100K+ sports cars, but few customers really take their Ferraris to a track anyway.
I see Teslas on the road almost daily. I live near the Silicon Valley dealership and on a road the sales reps use for demos. They change lanes very smoothly, with all that battery mass holding the center of gravity down.
I love these cars... I do... but they make no financial sense.
$109,000???
for $9000 you can get a very very nice gas guzzler that's maybe a year or so old (sticker $18K).
for $100,000 you can get 20,000 gallons of gas at $5/gallon, giving you
200,000 miles at 10MPG
domestic gas guzzlers are cheap to repair, can be maintained anywhere in the US.
Even if I had a billion dollars, I'd rather give a million to a random poor person than spend $109,000 on my insecure ego, and delude myself into thinking I was helping the environment.
The Admin and the Engineer
They don't even manufacture the body of the car they sell.
That's not so unusual. Do you think the big auto makers actually make most of the parts that go into their cars? They don't. In fact it is standard practice to outsource even entire subsystems of the car to the Tier 1 suppliers. The body of the car is just another part which can be purchased from a supplier if desired. It's less common to outsource that part but not unheard of.
They are an IP company through and through.
So are most manufacturers when you get right down to it. Any sophisticated product not covered by patents and trade secrets will be copied quite rapidly these days.
Basic accounting does not consider a loan as profit. The Balance Sheet is defined as Assets = Liabilities + Equity. The loan increases cash(assets) and increases liabilities (obligation to repay). Profit appears on the Income Statement. Profit = revenue from sales less expenses of those sales over a defined time period.
Yes, i know that, and you do, but did they manage to insert the money in there?
Were they loans, or grants that Tesla got?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Another good thing about renting a vehicle for long trips is peace of mind. You aren't adding excessive miles to your own car, plus the rental company is 100% there for any potential breakdowns, etc. In your own vehicle, you could get stuck a thousand miles from home and have to eat expensive repairs, parts and labor. Closer to home, like normal just get a cheap tow in and fix it yourself, save a lot, only pay for parts.
The Nissan Leaf going on sale next year is coming in at 25 grand, all electric, 100 mile range. They get by cheaper by selling the car, but renting the battery pack (don't know what that will cost yet). But eventually the car will get paid off, and when you go to upgrade the battery pack, no doubt it will be cheaper/more power/last longer, etc. I think they will do more to get affordable electrics in the hands of joe working guy more than Tesla will. Tesla is still going to be higher end for quite some time, Nissan is coming in right at almost base entry level. They are also the ones who are partners with the Better Place project, who are developing the fast battery swap out stations and recharge stations all over, to address range issues. They have entire *nations* signed up for this so far, starting with Israel. They are designing the electric charging infrastructure stack, nissan/renault are building the cars.
They are loans at the same rate as a US Treasury of the same maturity.
Are you getting one?
Meselfs, being of the low budget crowd, will have to wait until such a time as they have both electric pickup truck models, and also they are on the cheaper used market. But eventually I'll get one. Combined with my solar panels..having all or most of my transportation needs and costs covered for free eventually is quite an inducement.
AS more people buy electric cars, more places will spring up where you can plug it in to charge it. But the only way that enough people will buy electric cars to make it practical to have places to charge them is if someone makes cars and markets them the way Tesla does.
"Someone" would be Chevrolet, a division of Government Motors. Around this time next year, Chevrolet plans to start selling the Volt to compete with Tesla's products. The Volt operates on a battery but also carries a gasoline generator to keep the battery charged on long trips. Hotels that want to attract travelers driving a Volt or another plug-in hybrid might want to provide convenient charging stations for their customers.
True to the very nature of the man, he is capable to extend his influence beyond the grave, and make money for others, other then himself. Tragic, very tragic!