Founding

Elon Musk Explains How Tesla Started from His Perspective

8 influential moments

Tesla got started 20 years ago.

At the time, it was unclear if the company would ever sell one vehicle.

Last year, it sold more than 1 million.

And this year, Tesla’s revenue may top $100 billion.

Here are 8 influential moments from the past two decades… 👇🧵 pic.twitter.com/NBRWpy4msi

— Jon Erlichman (@JonErlichman) January 22, 2023

Quarterly Results

Q4 2022

27 Jan 2023

From Tesla earnings call yesterday:

• $4 billion profit/quarter now (in only its 3rd year being profitable)

• order book at the highest its ever been

• 2x more orders than production capacity

• more profitability per vehicle than any other car manufacturer.

Lowering prices was as chess move, considering:

• boost from government incentives

• still highest operating margin in industry after price drop

• all vehicles are ready for autonomy, ie potential for $15k pure margin/car in the future

Also, US auto sales last month for reference.

from: https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2022-us-vehicle-sales-figures-by-brand/

The entire market is down - gas & electric.

Tesla at +77%

Electric car interest is not waning.

There is so much negativity misinformation and disinformation about Tesla and it has been going on for YEARS.
Tesla's 2022 results are so impressive - that they can execute so well despite all the noise & the uphill battle they have to fight.
The way I see it, the root of the negativity, mis/disinformation, and FUD is coming from:

• oil & gas lobbying groups are powerful and well-funded. They influence politics & media.
• politics
• media
• non-believers aim to make money by shorting Tesla stock (eg Bill Gates)
• vested interest(s) in alternative solutions

Unfortunately, this leads to shaping false or misguided narratives in the mainstream media that influence how the public at large thinks.

I'm a fan of Technology, Engineering & Innovation - without it, we'd all be still living in caves as hunters/gatherers.

I think as a society we should be celebrating, with a healthy dose of informed constructive criticism - not knee-jerk negativity and FUD based on incomplete or false information.

Most people don't understand just how far ahead Tesla is in terms of technology, innovation, and execution.

Kudos to the Tesla team.

Onward & upwards.

On the call Musk was trying to make the point that FSD is already in the cars, they just have to flip in on when the customer asks for it - instant margin for Tesla

Exactly. That was their plan from day 1. It's a trojan horse strategy.

One analogy could be the printer analogy: sell hardware at low price and maximise margin on consumables.

Except here, Tesla operates with the highest margin in the auto industry on the hardware.. even after lowering their prices 😂

Double bubble :)

Margins

Thoughts

30 Jan 2023

Why is Tesla under so much fire from the media?
A company pioneering new technlogies, disrupting an old industry that needed it, creating new jobs, and florishing ($4B quarterly profits with highest margins in the industry) - yet the media is constantly shining a negative light on it.

Why?

1) negative coverage gets more clicks (even the once-respected New York Times does A/B testing on their headlines I learned recently)
2) Tesla does not advertise, contrary to all other car manufacturers... who pay for ads in the media
3) Tesla is a threat to the oil & gas industry, which is a powerful lobby group that influences politics and media
4) Tesla's owner, Elon Musk, acquired Twitter because in the face of so much media misrepresentations, he wants to empower "citizen journalists". So he has become a target for the media.

10 Mar 2023

I agree the Polestar looks nice.

But one of the dealbreakers for me at this point is the charging network integration with Tesla.

The few experiences I had charging at public stations were.. challenging 😅

It's everyone's guess re gap reduction - the others are catching up, but Tesla continues to progress still in the meantime (esp. self-driving).

Toyota engineers last week said Model Y under the hood was a "work of art".

Plus their manufacturing scaling is unlike anything seen before in the auto industry & product gets improved for affordability (eg. next-gen model's drivetrain cost of $1,000 only)

= further cost reductions.

Better user experience (charging, software updates, autonomous driving), availability to buy & cheaper than competitors will be hard to beat.

09 Nov 2023

"it's in the construction of a new business model where future success is anchored" 💯.. most don't get this, especially not Wall Street.

But even just on the product side, it's like with mobile phones.. there was a time when Nokia & Motorola ruled, with well built products, then Apple entered the ring and redefined the rules. When the product & experience are so good, emerging from first principles thinking and a culture of fast innovation & execution, it leaves legacy manufacturers in the dust.

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