Tesla to cut thousands of jobs as Elon Musk warns the ‘road ahead is very difficult’
- Thread starter petros
- Start date
Interesting, so more Carbon must be expelled to make these machines usable in the Midwest, Prairies, and Northern regions.
Top business stories for 2019: Elon Musk, Disney+, trade wars, IPOs that weren’t, and privacy in peril
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-12-20/year-in-review-business-stories-2019
Who's number one?
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-12-20/year-in-review-business-stories-2019
Who's number one?
Tesla stock (TSLA) reaches Elon Musk’s $420 take-private price
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-tsla-hits-420-per-share-funding-secured/
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-tsla-hits-420-per-share-funding-secured/
View: Tesla is the decade's best-performing auto company
The Model 3 now outsells every vehicle from Germany or Japan in the US luxury entry category, and Musk last month said his company had received more than 200,000 pre-orders three days after unveiling the Cybertruck.
Among the biggest surprises of the past decade was the initial public offering of the Palo Alto company that outperformed every automaker from Detroit to Toyota City to Wolfsburg and is now the undisputed champion of total return, sales growth and long-term shareholder value.
That would be 10-year-old Tesla and its zero-emission, battery electric Model S, X and 3 vehicles.
Co-founder Elon Musk may be the most-ridiculed and penalized chief executive officer since the Securities and Exchange Commission made him pay a $20 million fine for misleading tweets last year. His antics obscure the essential reality that Tesla is gaining confidence among customers and investors because they hold the fossil-free future in their hands, and find it more thrilling and profitable than the latest iteration of hydrocarbon.
The Model 3 now outsells every vehicle from Germany or Japan in the US luxury entry category, and Musk last month said his company had received more than 200,000 pre-orders three days after unveiling the Cybertruck.
Such assurance is the constant element driving Tesla to a record $413 a share this month, or a $73 billion valuation that is greater than all but Toyota ($230 billion) and Volkswagen ($98 billion) among 38 automakers across the globe. Tesla is worth 37 per cent more than General Motors and is almost twice the value of Ford Motor Co. ($37 billion) because nothing gets stock pickers more excited than unprecedented growth. Since the first Model S was purchased in 2012, Tesla sales have increased 52 times while the rest of the industry has averaged 46 per cent.
On Wall Street, most analysts remain unimpressed. Jim Chanos, a frequently cited short seller, told Hedgeye Risk Management last month that his Kynikos Associates “are still bears” and that Tesla is “one of our biggest and our best short positions.” Greenlight Capital, the hedge fund led by David Einhorn, repeatedly insists Tesla's “wheels are falling off.” Einhorn told Bloomberg News in May he will continue his short selling because the electric-car company faces “a stream of unending losses.”
Tesla earned $1.86 a share in the third quarter, exceeding the most optimistic forecast and the consensus estimate for a 24-cent loss.
While Tesla bears get the most attention in media reports -- stories about Tesla that reference Einhorn are at least 10 times more numerous on the Bloomberg terminal than articles on enthusiast Cathie Wood -- stock market bets against Tesla plummeted to the lowest percentage since the company's IPO in 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
People who sell Tesla using borrowed stocks in an arrangement that lets them buy the shares back at lower prices are becoming scarce.
Such Tesla short-selling as a percentage of shares traded is down to 9.2 per cent. The ratio was almost 30 per cent in June and higher than that for any company in the S&P 500 index a year ago.
During the past six months, Tesla appreciated 85 per cent and would be the best performer in the S&P 500 if it was included. It's also No. 1 among its 38 peers in the Bloomberg Intelligence Global Automobile Index.
The prevailing assumption that Tesla is the most volatile auto stock is belied by data showing just the opposite. Tesla gained 22 per cent this year, more than the 14 per cent average for the 10 largest automakers. Tesla was No. 1 last year with a 7 per cent total return (income plus appreciation) when its competitors lost 16 per cent.
Over the past two years, Tesla is No. 1 with a 31 per cent return when its peers lost 4 per cent. Since 2017, Tesla is No. 1 with a 99 per cent return when the industry gained 24 per cent.
Anyone who purchased Tesla when it went public in 2010 has a bonanza of 1,190 per cent. The auto industry during the past 10 years appreciated 158 per cent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
No automaker can match Tesla's growth. After increasing 10 times since 2014, Tesla revenue will advance an additional 14 per cent in 2019, 21 per cent in 2020 and 18 per cent in 2021, according to 27 analysts contributing their forecasts to Bloomberg.
The average growth for the 10 largest auto makers will be 1 per cent, 4 per cent and 3 per cent for the comparable periods. Yet more analysts recommend selling Tesla than buying its shares, and 481 companies in the S&P 500 have more favorable analyst recommendations than Tesla, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The declining favorable analyst consensus for Tesla since 2011, from 4.3 to 2.78, is similar to projections about another company 10 years after its IPO: Amazon, the sixth-highest rated company in the S&P 500 today. But at the beginning of 2007, Amazon's consensus rating had declined to 2.5, almost half its current 4.86, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The comparison is appropriate, says Cathie Wood, chief executive officer of Ark Investment Management, a Tesla shareholder. Musk faces the same skepticism about his ability to create value that buffeted Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos during Amazon's first decade as a public company.
“The same thing was happening with Amazon for years,” she told CNBC in February. “We were considered crazy, and yet now it seems so obvious. I think the same is going to be true of Tesla.” Wood has a target price of $4,000 a share for Tesla.
https://auto.economictimes.indiatim...decades-best-performing-auto-company/72940137
The Model 3 now outsells every vehicle from Germany or Japan in the US luxury entry category, and Musk last month said his company had received more than 200,000 pre-orders three days after unveiling the Cybertruck.
Among the biggest surprises of the past decade was the initial public offering of the Palo Alto company that outperformed every automaker from Detroit to Toyota City to Wolfsburg and is now the undisputed champion of total return, sales growth and long-term shareholder value.
That would be 10-year-old Tesla and its zero-emission, battery electric Model S, X and 3 vehicles.
Co-founder Elon Musk may be the most-ridiculed and penalized chief executive officer since the Securities and Exchange Commission made him pay a $20 million fine for misleading tweets last year. His antics obscure the essential reality that Tesla is gaining confidence among customers and investors because they hold the fossil-free future in their hands, and find it more thrilling and profitable than the latest iteration of hydrocarbon.
The Model 3 now outsells every vehicle from Germany or Japan in the US luxury entry category, and Musk last month said his company had received more than 200,000 pre-orders three days after unveiling the Cybertruck.
Such assurance is the constant element driving Tesla to a record $413 a share this month, or a $73 billion valuation that is greater than all but Toyota ($230 billion) and Volkswagen ($98 billion) among 38 automakers across the globe. Tesla is worth 37 per cent more than General Motors and is almost twice the value of Ford Motor Co. ($37 billion) because nothing gets stock pickers more excited than unprecedented growth. Since the first Model S was purchased in 2012, Tesla sales have increased 52 times while the rest of the industry has averaged 46 per cent.
On Wall Street, most analysts remain unimpressed. Jim Chanos, a frequently cited short seller, told Hedgeye Risk Management last month that his Kynikos Associates “are still bears” and that Tesla is “one of our biggest and our best short positions.” Greenlight Capital, the hedge fund led by David Einhorn, repeatedly insists Tesla's “wheels are falling off.” Einhorn told Bloomberg News in May he will continue his short selling because the electric-car company faces “a stream of unending losses.”
Tesla earned $1.86 a share in the third quarter, exceeding the most optimistic forecast and the consensus estimate for a 24-cent loss.
While Tesla bears get the most attention in media reports -- stories about Tesla that reference Einhorn are at least 10 times more numerous on the Bloomberg terminal than articles on enthusiast Cathie Wood -- stock market bets against Tesla plummeted to the lowest percentage since the company's IPO in 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
People who sell Tesla using borrowed stocks in an arrangement that lets them buy the shares back at lower prices are becoming scarce.
Such Tesla short-selling as a percentage of shares traded is down to 9.2 per cent. The ratio was almost 30 per cent in June and higher than that for any company in the S&P 500 index a year ago.
During the past six months, Tesla appreciated 85 per cent and would be the best performer in the S&P 500 if it was included. It's also No. 1 among its 38 peers in the Bloomberg Intelligence Global Automobile Index.
The prevailing assumption that Tesla is the most volatile auto stock is belied by data showing just the opposite. Tesla gained 22 per cent this year, more than the 14 per cent average for the 10 largest automakers. Tesla was No. 1 last year with a 7 per cent total return (income plus appreciation) when its competitors lost 16 per cent.
Over the past two years, Tesla is No. 1 with a 31 per cent return when its peers lost 4 per cent. Since 2017, Tesla is No. 1 with a 99 per cent return when the industry gained 24 per cent.
Anyone who purchased Tesla when it went public in 2010 has a bonanza of 1,190 per cent. The auto industry during the past 10 years appreciated 158 per cent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
No automaker can match Tesla's growth. After increasing 10 times since 2014, Tesla revenue will advance an additional 14 per cent in 2019, 21 per cent in 2020 and 18 per cent in 2021, according to 27 analysts contributing their forecasts to Bloomberg.
The average growth for the 10 largest auto makers will be 1 per cent, 4 per cent and 3 per cent for the comparable periods. Yet more analysts recommend selling Tesla than buying its shares, and 481 companies in the S&P 500 have more favorable analyst recommendations than Tesla, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The declining favorable analyst consensus for Tesla since 2011, from 4.3 to 2.78, is similar to projections about another company 10 years after its IPO: Amazon, the sixth-highest rated company in the S&P 500 today. But at the beginning of 2007, Amazon's consensus rating had declined to 2.5, almost half its current 4.86, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The comparison is appropriate, says Cathie Wood, chief executive officer of Ark Investment Management, a Tesla shareholder. Musk faces the same skepticism about his ability to create value that buffeted Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos during Amazon's first decade as a public company.
“The same thing was happening with Amazon for years,” she told CNBC in February. “We were considered crazy, and yet now it seems so obvious. I think the same is going to be true of Tesla.” Wood has a target price of $4,000 a share for Tesla.
https://auto.economictimes.indiatim...decades-best-performing-auto-company/72940137
I got a target of ten billion for my RRSP. It ain't likely to happen either. Although the odds are better.
As we have explained to you many times Tesla is a speculative stock. I am looking at holding stocks. That is the kind that pays dividends.
To play with speculative stocks takes time which I don't have and frankly I don't have enough interest in the stockmarket to devote my free time to watching it.
To play with speculative stocks takes time which I don't have and frankly I don't have enough interest in the stockmarket to devote my free time to watching it.
Uh oh....
BEIJING — When an idea strikes a chord with national ambition in China, the result can be millions of dollars wasted and a handful of start-ups struggling to survive in a cooling economy.
In the last few years, venture capitalists rushed to pour billions of dollars into the emerging electric vehicle industry backed by the Chinese government.
So far, it's less clear how that bet has paid off. Take a look at the recent headlines:
Shares of U.S.-listed Nio, arguably China's closest competitor with Tesla, are down more than 50% this year to about $2.70 each.
In November, Alibaba-backed XPeng tapped its own Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng for a $400 million investment round, in which electronics company Xiaomi participated as a strategic investor.
Shenzhen-based BYD, which counts Warren Buffett as an investor, said in late October that net profits, ex-items, fell 130.1% in the third quarter. The Hong Kong-listed shares are down 25% for the year so far.
These are some of the handful of survivors from Beijing's efforts over the last decade to accelerate the creation of China's own electric car.
Now, Chinese auto sales are in a slump, consumer subsidies for new energy vehicles are phasing out next year and economic growth is slowing.
Start-ups didn't expect the subsidies to last this long, said Rupert Mitchell, chief strategy officer at Chinese electric car company WM Motor, founded in 2015 by a former Volvo and Geely executive.
“What was not in the business plans was that China would have its first fully blown automotive downturn in Chinese history," he told CNBC in late November.
How it all started
Wan Gang was an engineer for Audi in Germany before he returned to China in the early 2000s. Within 10 years, he became China's minister of Science and Technology, despite not being a member of the Chinese Communist Party.
Wan convinced the central government to roll out a national strategy for developing new energy vehicles and battery technology. Beijing was eager to jump at an opportunity to become a global leader in an emerging technology, which conveniently tied into efforts to combat pollution.
As a result, the central government spent at least 33.4 billion yuan in subsidies between 2009 and 2015, according to the Ministry of Finance.
At the height of the subsidy-driven boom, the number of new energy vehicles sold in 2014 more than quadrupled from the year before, and multiplied by more than four times in 2015 to more than 330,000 vehicles, according to data from China Automotive Industry Association accessed through Wind Information.
In 2016, the Ministry of Finance said it found at least five companies cheated the system of over 1 billion yuan. That year, new energy vehicle sales grew just 53%, data showed.
High levels of subsidy misuse are not uncommon in China.
Between 2001 and 2011, about half of Chinese companies receiving direct grant subsidies for research and development were non-compliant, using the funds for other things such as private consumption and investments with higher returns. That's according to a forthcoming working paper from Philipp Boeing and Bettina Peters, both researchers at the ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research. The study did not cover consumer subsidies.
The research did indicate that misuse of funds declined with time and that the actual effectiveness in Chinese government policy in spurring research and development, if monitored, increased and non-compliance was wiped out, Boeing said in an interview.
But he noted there is little impact on productivity in the long term, which is a core problem for China's economy.
Path to profitability
Some young companies that rode on China's electric vehicle boom, however, are still confident in growth.
XPeng aims to reach breakeven in about two years, with the expectation the company is able to put about 150,000 vehicles on the road, Brian Gu, president and vice chairman of XPeng, said in an interview in late November. That's about 10 times what the company has sold since it began deliveries last December for its first commercially available vehicle.
WM Motor's Mitchell expects the company can break-even in the next 12 months, as the start-up puts greater effort into consumer marketing. The company is in the process of raising $1 billion, which he said would "fully finance" the automaker until a public offering.
Other companies are just starting to bring new electric vehicles to the market.
Aiways, a Shanghai-based start-up that touts its certification to sell to the European Union, announced in December it will begin deliveries of its U5 SUV. Guangzhou-based GAC Nio — a joint venture between the traditional automaker and the start-up — is set to reveal its first all-electric SUV under the Hycan brand on Friday.
Nio wasn't available for comment ahead of the company's annual product launch event on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the first "Made in China" Teslas are set to hit the market early next year at a lower price that vies with Nio.
"Looking at the last 10 years of Chinese government subsidies, we think their effect is more positive than negative," said He Hui, senior researcher on China's new energy policy at The International Council on Clean Transportation.
"We can't say our new energy vehicles are number one," she said. "But our batteries are."
BEIJING — When an idea strikes a chord with national ambition in China, the result can be millions of dollars wasted and a handful of start-ups struggling to survive in a cooling economy.
In the last few years, venture capitalists rushed to pour billions of dollars into the emerging electric vehicle industry backed by the Chinese government.
So far, it's less clear how that bet has paid off. Take a look at the recent headlines:
Shares of U.S.-listed Nio, arguably China's closest competitor with Tesla, are down more than 50% this year to about $2.70 each.
In November, Alibaba-backed XPeng tapped its own Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng for a $400 million investment round, in which electronics company Xiaomi participated as a strategic investor.
Shenzhen-based BYD, which counts Warren Buffett as an investor, said in late October that net profits, ex-items, fell 130.1% in the third quarter. The Hong Kong-listed shares are down 25% for the year so far.
These are some of the handful of survivors from Beijing's efforts over the last decade to accelerate the creation of China's own electric car.
Now, Chinese auto sales are in a slump, consumer subsidies for new energy vehicles are phasing out next year and economic growth is slowing.
Start-ups didn't expect the subsidies to last this long, said Rupert Mitchell, chief strategy officer at Chinese electric car company WM Motor, founded in 2015 by a former Volvo and Geely executive.
“What was not in the business plans was that China would have its first fully blown automotive downturn in Chinese history," he told CNBC in late November.
How it all started
Wan Gang was an engineer for Audi in Germany before he returned to China in the early 2000s. Within 10 years, he became China's minister of Science and Technology, despite not being a member of the Chinese Communist Party.
Wan convinced the central government to roll out a national strategy for developing new energy vehicles and battery technology. Beijing was eager to jump at an opportunity to become a global leader in an emerging technology, which conveniently tied into efforts to combat pollution.
As a result, the central government spent at least 33.4 billion yuan in subsidies between 2009 and 2015, according to the Ministry of Finance.
At the height of the subsidy-driven boom, the number of new energy vehicles sold in 2014 more than quadrupled from the year before, and multiplied by more than four times in 2015 to more than 330,000 vehicles, according to data from China Automotive Industry Association accessed through Wind Information.
In 2016, the Ministry of Finance said it found at least five companies cheated the system of over 1 billion yuan. That year, new energy vehicle sales grew just 53%, data showed.
High levels of subsidy misuse are not uncommon in China.
Between 2001 and 2011, about half of Chinese companies receiving direct grant subsidies for research and development were non-compliant, using the funds for other things such as private consumption and investments with higher returns. That's according to a forthcoming working paper from Philipp Boeing and Bettina Peters, both researchers at the ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research. The study did not cover consumer subsidies.
The research did indicate that misuse of funds declined with time and that the actual effectiveness in Chinese government policy in spurring research and development, if monitored, increased and non-compliance was wiped out, Boeing said in an interview.
But he noted there is little impact on productivity in the long term, which is a core problem for China's economy.
Path to profitability
Some young companies that rode on China's electric vehicle boom, however, are still confident in growth.
XPeng aims to reach breakeven in about two years, with the expectation the company is able to put about 150,000 vehicles on the road, Brian Gu, president and vice chairman of XPeng, said in an interview in late November. That's about 10 times what the company has sold since it began deliveries last December for its first commercially available vehicle.
WM Motor's Mitchell expects the company can break-even in the next 12 months, as the start-up puts greater effort into consumer marketing. The company is in the process of raising $1 billion, which he said would "fully finance" the automaker until a public offering.
Other companies are just starting to bring new electric vehicles to the market.
Aiways, a Shanghai-based start-up that touts its certification to sell to the European Union, announced in December it will begin deliveries of its U5 SUV. Guangzhou-based GAC Nio — a joint venture between the traditional automaker and the start-up — is set to reveal its first all-electric SUV under the Hycan brand on Friday.
Nio wasn't available for comment ahead of the company's annual product launch event on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the first "Made in China" Teslas are set to hit the market early next year at a lower price that vies with Nio.
"Looking at the last 10 years of Chinese government subsidies, we think their effect is more positive than negative," said He Hui, senior researcher on China's new energy policy at The International Council on Clean Transportation.
"We can't say our new energy vehicles are number one," she said. "But our batteries are."
Tesla stock took a sudden nosedive from a mid day high of $425 to close at $419. Prime time to buy before they lose any more value.