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Elon Musk: Tesla 'Would Be Interested' in Taking Over GM's Closed Factories (cnn.com)
An anonymous reader quotes CNN:
Elon Musk wants electric vehicles to be successful -- even if Tesla goes under trying. In an interview for CBS' "60 Minutes," the Tesla CEO and Silicon Valley billionaire was asked about competition from General Motors (GM), which announced last month it's laying off thousands of workers as the century-old company shifts focus to self-driving and electric vehicles. Musk appeared unconcerned. "If somebody comes and makes a better electric car than Tesla, and it's so much better than ours that we can't sell our cars and we go bankrupt, I still think that's a good thing for the world," Musk told Leslie Stahl during the interview.... "The whole point of Tesla is to accelerate the advent of electric vehicles and sustainable transport," he said. "We're trying to help the environment, we think it's the most serious problem that humanity faces...."
In his 60 Minutes interview, Musk also floated the possibility that Tesla may expand its footprint in the United States. He said Tesla "would be interested" in taking over some of the factory space GM said it will abandon during its restructuring.
The article also cites estimates from Navigant Research that Teslas now account for 20% of all fully-electric vehicles on the road today.
In his 60 Minutes interview, Musk also floated the possibility that Tesla may expand its footprint in the United States. He said Tesla "would be interested" in taking over some of the factory space GM said it will abandon during its restructuring.
The article also cites estimates from Navigant Research that Teslas now account for 20% of all fully-electric vehicles on the road today.
Apparently you consider 20% margins "barely succeeds at selling Teslas at a loss".
Apparently you think nearly a billion dollars in free cash flow, when they're still far from having finished optimizing their production processes, and beating NASDAQ by 30% in the past several months, is a giant "Meh".
How are your investments looking these past couple months, AC? ;)
Seen on a Japanese food processor: "Not to be used for the other use."
Elon did not float the idea. The interviewer asked if Tesla would be interested in buying some of the GM plants that are being closed down. Elon responded with basically a maybe. Exact quote:
“It’s possible that we would be interested if [GM] are going to sell a plant or not use it that we would take it over.”
Worth noting that GM is not planning to actually close or sell those plants as of yet. They've only committed to idling them. And because of contracts with the UAW, I don't think GM can actually close those plants. At least not until they negotiate a new contract next year.
Maybe they'd end up doing some of the development that they had planned for GF1 at a former GM facility instead - who knows. If they do buy a Michigan plant, however, UAW will surely step up their campaign - and most of the local workers would probably be pro-UAW, unlike in California where UAW had basically backstabbed them during the negotiations that led to NUMMI's closing.
There is much more to it than just the empty shell of a factory plant. There are literally thousands of people within commuting distance, who are eagerly seeking jobs and have lots of experience in the car industry.
Massive transfer of shareholder dollars directly into his pocket based on a fraudulent deal.
The two year look back window on that deal just expired two weeks ago. The Shortville was eagerly expecting SEC to file charges. Serious talk about massive fraud. blah blah blah. The deadline for SEC to file charges, reopen the deal, to clawback any fraudulent money passed without a ripple.
You are still repeating their nonsense.
A few months ago Facebook lost 120 billion in market cap on a single day. That is 12 times the value of Tesla shorts. Somebody made huge money shorting Facebook. If your trusted news sources, rumor sites, and whatsapp groups never even hinted you could make massive money shorting facebook, while continually focusing your attention on Tesla, you are being played like a violin.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
bottom is zero in this graph
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Short selling in itself isn't the problem. Stores do this all the time. Take your typical furniture store. You see a couch you like that they price at X, they take your money and promise delivery in 60 to 90 days. Meanwhile they keep selling that same model hoping to get enough orders that they can get a discount price or the manufacture lowers the price. Then just before the deadline they get the best deal they can and pocket the difference, or they take a loss if the model costs more or is delayed.
No, the problem with short selling stock is the stigma that it puts the company under. You don't want to invest in that company because a large share of their stock is held by people who are betting it will loose. I would actually like to see the full list of short sellers, the amount invested, and the terms of those deals. I have a suspicion that quite a bit of that money could be traced back to other auto manufactures, oil companies, car dealerships, repair shops, and anyone else who stand to loose their whole business because of electric cars.
Back to the story though, it would be serendipitous if Tesla took over a GM factory. Ie, Tesla did something GM couldn't do, build cars people want to drive.
The "union system" in the USA must be very strange ... I wonder how much written about it here on /. is pure nonsense and what is true.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
GM never said it was closing the plants. It said it was idling production and pulling programs. It might not seem like it, but those are two *very* different things in the automotive world.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
Would be awesome to help out those workers in Oshawa.
And if the union contract comes along for the ride, all labor intensive setup stuff is going to need at least one or two union workers doing the work, with another one or two watching - so double or quadruple the cost of labor.
I don't know what kind of unions you have in the US, but from a European perspective, that is total nonsense. I've worked in different companies with different closeness or distance to unions in my life, and when it comes down to the actual work, the differences are barely noticeable. The stronger the union, the more signs about safety will be hanging around, I think that sums it up pretty well.
If your above is true, then maybe it's not the unions that are the problem but the way that you guys interpret the word? You know, just like on the other extreme, "stock market" is actually not an idiom of "casino".
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org