Now This is significant!

It is a good-news and bad-new situation:

• good-news - an EV has more than an order of magnitude fewer moving parts
• bad-news - batteries and power EV electronics are not trivial

We're looking at early generation EVs that often try to copy the Tesla examples. Regardless, EV engineering remains 'bleeding edge.'

GOOD LUCK!

Bob Wilson

 

Tesla Can't Keep Up
Tesla has a problem, but in some ways, it's a problem like having no place to store your collection of precious gems or being too good-looking. Kirkhorn explained the problem in his earnings call remarks.

Despite these increases in production and generally higher prices, our backlogs are continuing to grow and average customer wait times are extending. The only practical way to address this in the immediate term is to do everything we can to build more cars on our existing production lines, which is where we are focused. Similar dynamics are also playing out on our storage business as we are working to expand Powerwall and Megapack production as quickly as parts and cells allow us to do so. Additionally, we have made good progress on the in-house battery manufacturing program, and we're excited to have expanded the full self-driving beta program to more customers.

Basically, Tesla has more orders than it can fulfill and that runs the risk of creating unhappy customers. That's a problem created by great success but being back-ordered and unable to deliver does leave the company vulnerable to customers turning to rivals like Lucid Motors , which offers a comparably luxurious vehicle targeted at the same audience.

Don't Expect a $25,000 Tesla
Tesla has long promised to deliver a lower-priced vehicle, specifically one that hits the $25,000 price point. Its current production backlog makes that seem unlikely in the next year.

"We don't want to add any new vehicles to our lineup when we're generally in a cell-constrained world," said Vehicle Engineering Vice President Lars Moravy during the call. "While there is still more runway to grow these existing products, we are focused on Model Y expansion in Austin, Berlin, ramping S and X further in Fremont to restore to past levels while also growing 3 and Y production in Fremont and Shanghai. As we've mentioned before, after Model Y in Austin, our next product launch will be Cybertruck."

Basically, until Tesla can meet the demand for its existing (and future) high-end products, it's not going to put money or production effort into delivering a $25,000 version of the Model 3.

The Skinny is its a Close to $75,ooo Auto when you figure out the Services ya got to add for Charging ! U do know its a Plug in just like your Puter, phone or Kids Kindle !

 

I'll wait for the Q4 2021 financial report the end of January 2022. Just one data point about buying my Tesla in 2019:

• $24,000 (including taxes and fees) Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus - traded in a 2017 Prius Prime and got $18,300 off the $41,000 = $22,700

Bob Wilson