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Tesla Will Supply Free Charging Stations To Office Parking Lots
Tesla has unveiled a new "workplace charging" program today, which offers businesses free Tesla wall connectors and will also cover installation, provided they meet certain qualifications set forth by the California carmaker. "Tesla won't cover the cost of operating the charging stations, and the company says there could be other permitting, construction, zoning, or labor costs," reports The Verge. From the report: The workplace charging stations will be compatible with all Tesla cars, but not with other EVs, and they won't show up on publicly available Tesla charging maps. The wall chargers are 240 volts, or "Level 2," which is capable of topping off a battery pack in a handful of hours, though the company says the charge rate will vary by location depending on the infrastructure available.
Very Smart. Its a sales ploy too, if your business has a charger, and you have been thinking about it....
Tesla's attitude with superchargers is a bit odd to me. They made their intellectual property non-royalty from a patent perspective, but you can't charge a non-Tesla electric vehicle at one of their chargers.
Is Elon Musk's vision for the future really one where there are proprietary fueling stations which only work on certain vehicles?
I'm not taking away from the huge progress he's made for humanity, but sometimes he really makes me wonder...
So to use one you need to drop at least 65k on a car? Yeah, Musk is a 1%er.
Tesla Will Supply Free Charging Stations
Tesla won't cover the cost of operating the charging stations
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it does.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Isn't this just a standard 240V outlet with a proprietary connector? Can't somebody just come up with an adapter for other electric vehicles?
And no where else.
Tesla should have never offered free charging to Model S and Model X owners and instead have charged for their use in the beginning. Now they're stuck with paying electricity costs for these vehicles. "A new “workplace charging” program unveiled today offers businesses free Tesla wall connectors and will also cover installation, provided they meet certain qualifications set forth by the California carmaker. Tesla won’t cover the cost of operating the charging stations, and the company says there could be other permitting, construction, zoning, or labor costs." I wonder what Tesla owns after install. The Supercharger network will be one of the few assets another company will buy when Tesla goes into bankruptcy reorg.
Q3 2016 cash-on-hand: $3,1B
Q4 2016 cash-on-hand: $3,4B
Q1 2017 cash-on-hand: $4,0B
Q2 2017 cash-on-hand: $3,1B
Q3 2017 cash-on-hand: $3,5B
Q4 2017 cash-on-hand: $3,4B
Yep, sure looks like a company on the fast route to bankruptcy. And never you mind that ever-increasing revenue from Model 3 sales, the increasing orders for Powerpacks in the wake of the huge success of the Australian battery project, the fact that the Solar Gigafactory just went online, the fact that Model S and X demand exceeds Panasonic's ability to supply cells... No no no, clearly, they'll run out of cash any day now, just like we've been hearing nonstop for the past decade.
And clearly the bond market has no interest in them! It's not like as though they sold half a billion dollars of bonds a month ago, mostly at a .3% premium to the benchmark swap rate, with the highest possible credit rating, with initial investor orders as much as 14x what the company intended to sell. No no, clearly bankrupt! Tomorrow, maybe the day after, surely!
And hey let's slip into a world that for some reason Tesla did run out of cash and had to sell shares. 1/5th of the volume of TSLA is shorts. That's artificially depressing the stock relative to demand. Now, I'm sure you'd laugh if stock had to be diluted, but that'd be little comfort vs. the steady share price that would result from the cash influx. Don't think that there would be a cash influx? Have you not watched what happens whenever there's any bad news? The share price drops on the news, then a month or two later it's back up to where it was because of all of the people who want to buy low, even slightly low - let alone as low as you'd get from a major dilution.
And why do people want to own Tesla? Because whether you do or not, Tesla is seen by a very large number of people as breaking a path to the future, in a wide range of fields. Again, you personally may not agree, but you have many millions of people to convince otherwise if you want to see your dreams of a bankrupt Tesla realized.
Point of interest. Offering to shoot us might not work so well as an incentive as you might imagine.
That mistake made the car popular to the point of having difficulty fulfilling orders. What you call a mistake, Tesla calls a strategy that has made it one of the most valuable car companies in the industry, and THE most valuable one based on the number of cars produced.
Electricity is incredibly cheap especially in the USA, and the realisation was clear from the beginning: The vast majority of owners do not use superchargers even though they are free. Any why would the, they can just top up at home.
Q4 2017 cash-on-hand: $3,4B Yep, sure looks like a company on the fast route to bankruptcy.
Do you know why they were able to show that much cash on hand? For all the supposed smarts on this site, no one seems to be able to read a quarterly result, much less a 10K. Tesla currently has $2.3B in accounts receivable. That's what they owed their suppliers at the end of 2017. There's a reason why one of the first things Musk said on the 4Q conference call was a big thanks to the patience of their suppliers. They also blew out their entire stale inventory of Model S and Model X at a huge discount to help show less cash burn. And they horded all their ZEV credits to be used for 4Q. These are one time events to make things look better than they are. They are at a negative $1.1B of working capital. 1Q results are going to be even worse. Did you check out the 10K that was released Friday? Look at the section on risks. Some read like they belong on The Onion. Their financials are a disaster.
the fact that Model S and X demand exceeds Panasonic's ability to supply cells...
Panasonic has no problem keeping up with cell demand and Tesla is on the hook to buy more cells than they need. Look at the cell costs in the 10K and extrapolate how many cars they need to build to use them all. Model S and Model X demand has plateaued and dropped over the last year. Look at the seasonally adjusted sale numbers. They would have dropped even more drastically without massive discounting involved. Did you even listen to the 4Q conference call? Tesla management said they are reducing production of the Model S and Model X to a total of 100K a year because of demand.
No no no, clearly, they'll run out of cash any day now, just like we've been hearing nonstop for the past decade.
They're going to need a massive cash infusion in Q2. If they can get it it'll probably be a very dilutive equity issue. The bond market is closed off to them(see below).
And clearly the bond market has no interest in them! It's not like as though they sold half a billion dollars of bonds a month ago, mostly at a .3% premium to the benchmark swap rate, with the highest possible credit rating, with initial investor orders as much as 14x what the company intended to sell. No no, clearly bankrupt! Tomorrow, maybe the day after, surely!
Those were auto lease bonds based off the income of their Model S and Model X leases. They gave up future cash flow from those leases to keep the company afloat. A desperate move. The $1.8B junk bond issue last August started trading underwater almost immediately and still is. The initial bond buyers got screwed.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but everywhere I go -- at least in California...there are two separate groups of electric or plugin hybrid cars and two sets of chargers and this seems set to go forward as more and more infrastructure is built out. It doesn't seem efficient.
Tesla chargers for Tesla only (perhaps usable via adapter by other vehicles, but seriously why would someone driving a different manufacturer car want to go to a tesla network).
J1772 chargers via multiple 3rd party commercial/industry groups supporting it -- there is now even a separate backwards compatible form of J1772 plug for DC charging. Manufacturers implementing the newer plug include Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Porsche, and Volkswagen.
Tesla is done the most to build out a national charging infrastructure, but I'm not sure how relevant it is for society. If there is going to be a massive build out of charging stations in the future, I'm currently hoping it is J1772 based.
Tesla has taken it upon itself to build continent wide charging infrastructure. Everybody else decided to let someone else build a network, (really just hoping the government will do it for them.) Of course there are good reasons why no other automakers are bothering, with the possible exception of Nissan, automakers do not want electric cars. They treat them as compliance vehicles to enable them to meet regulations and therefore sell lots and lots of high margin SUV's and Pickups. End result is that the Tesla supercharger network is by far the best way to charge an electric car. It's the fastest, cheapest and most reliable as well as widest reaching EV fast charging network out there and is growing at a phenomenal pace. Tesla has integrated the charging experience into their vehicles in a way no one else can hope to match since they've outsourcing the charging of their vehicles.
Non-Tesla EV drivers would love to access the Tesla network, it would dramatically improve their EV experience. Too bad their manufacturer doesn't want them too. Drivers of other brands of EV vehicles are still stuck with slow, broken, inconvenient, expensive and complicated (not to mention sparse) options. Even though we are finally starting to get some reasonable non-Tesla EV's (Leaf and Bolt) Anyone buying an electric vehicle needs to seriously consider how much value it provides to have access the supercharger network.
The supercharger network is currently a huge competitive advantage for Tesla and the other automakers simply don't care. On the surface it doesn't make sense until you remember that those automakers do not want to sell any electric vehicles beyond what regulations require. They simply have too much invested in current internal combustion technology. As a result, they pay lip service to electrification while drag their feet and try to slow the adoption of EV's through lobbying. They drag there feet on standards and anywhere else they can while the consumer loses. For the time being they will continue to be top dogs in the automotive world, and quarterly statements will remain strong but a tipping point is coming and when it arrives a good number of traditional automotive companies will be out. It's happened before when Toyota and Honda first entered the market. They were a joke... for a while. We're now watching history repeat.
A good location for solar powered charging stations would be shopping centre car parks. Also providing shaded parking and battery backed up power to the shopping centre. Use a drone to map shading to optimise solar power production. It's a project that wins all round.
Go well
For someone who wants to lecture someone about how to read a quarterly result, you should probably start by learning the difference between accounts payable and accounts receivable.
Secondly, in Q4, accounts payable was $2.390.250k. In Q3 it was $2.385.778k. OMG! SELL SELL SELL! ;)
A company undergoing a major capex spend would be entirely negligent if they didn't move future revenue potential to the present. To the point that if they didn't so, the management ought to be fired. The earnings potential from auto loans is nothing compared to the value of first mover and scale advantages in the (numerous) markets Tesla is rapidly expanding into. You'd have them cut capex in order to profit off of auto loans, and hold onto inventory for future sales. Weren't you shorts bitterly complaining that Tesla had too much inventory? And now that they reduce their inventory, that's another reason to dig into them?
You know, it's amusing that you shorts only ever see the "one time events" after they happen. Where were you last quarter talking about their hoarded credits? Where were you talking about their potential to sell inventory for cash? Where were you talking about their bond offering? Nowhere, that's where. If it contradicts your "imminent doom narrative", it's simply ignored. Like literally half my post above.
You act like that's the first time you've ever seen a 10K. Go check out, say, Ford's or GM's "Risk Factors" section in their 10-K. It's no prettier. "Risk Factors" is by definition supposed to be doom-and-gloom.
Why thank you, Amazing Kreskin.
Better tell the SEC, since that's in direct contradiction to Tesla's statements on the subject. They've repeatedly stated that they're cell constrained on 18650s. And they have no incentive to work with Panasonic on an expansion of their purchase arrangement since they're switching to 2170s.
Tesla's vehicle sales are up 36.4% year-over-year.
I feel like I'm talking with someone who lives in an alternate reality. From the conference call:
Point of interest. Offering to shoot us might not work so well as an incentive as you might imagine.
No, DEALERS are not bothering with electric cars.
Because it cuts into the #1 source of income for the dealer.
Automakers don't care - as long as they're making a profit selling cars, they win.
Dealers make crap all on new car sales, and very little on used car sales. (This does not mean they don't charge above cost - it just means once you take into account overheads, car sales are not a big part of what makes them profitable).
It's service that makes them the most money. All the usual car maintenance and the like - a dealer will charge way more than what an independent garage would charge. (And dealers know it, so they get automakers to purposely withhold specialized tools).
Electric cars though, require very little service. When 90% of the drive train is electronic (and thus, very reliable and self-diagnosing as well), the only mechanical parts are brakes, potentially a single speed transmission (if you don't have to shift gears, these require practically no maintenance at all) and the rotor shaft of the motor. Thus you don't need to pop in 2-3 times a year to change your oil or other matters. At worst, you'd pop in every couple of years for a once-over inspection. So yes, dealers lose out when you buy an electric car. Thus they will not sell electric cars - you are not going to be a recurring source of revenue for them.
Oops, I did mix up AP with AR. Have you heard? Tesla's CAO just left: https://seekingalpha.com/filin... If you own the stock, get out while you can.