Daily Archives: December 10, 2014


If you've been watching the price of Tesla stock for the last couple of weeks you might be getting worried

If you've been watching the price of Tesla stock for the last couple of weeks you might be getting worried

While I've long felt that the share price of +Tesla Motors is the result of irrational exuberance, that doesn't mean the company is in any imminent danger. There is clearly a market for the products the company is offering although it is unlikely to approach the volume of Toyota or Volkswagen anytime in the foreseeable future. 

That said, Tesla should know as well as any company that in the absence of hard data, the internet will speculate and Tesla is a company that was built on the power of the internet "news" machine. I've said previously that the estimation of 3,000 unsold Model S in inventory is probably not a big deal. At the company's sales rate, that's about 5-6 weeks of inventory and for other automakers, 8 weeks (60 days) supply is considered optimal.  

Those vehicles are in-transit to stores, showroom demos and stock for customers that want a car now. What may pose a bigger long-term problem for Tesla is the low price of oil especially as the brand tries to move down-market. In all likelihood, Tesla could probably find itself a sustainable niche at the $100,000+ end of the market and potentially even get truly profitable some day.  Trying do the same in the $35-40K region will be a lot harder.

As Damon says in his +Jalopnik story, if Tesla wants to kill the speculation of trouble, they should just come clean about what's really going on. ?

There’s been a collective freak-out about Tesla’s sales figures for the year. Specifically, there’s a discrepancy between the cars Tesla claims to have delivered and the number of Model S sedans actually registered. Why? Because Tesla refuses to publish sales data like everyone else.


If you've been watching the price of Tesla stock for the last couple of weeks…

If you've been watching the price of Tesla stock for the last couple of weeks you might be getting worried

While I've long felt that the share price of +Tesla Motors is the result of irrational exuberance, that doesn't mean the company is in any imminent danger. There is clearly a market for the products the company is offering although it is unlikely to approach the volume of Toyota or Volkswagen anytime in the foreseeable future. 

That said, Tesla should know as well as any company that in the absence of hard data, the internet will speculate and Tesla is a company that was built on the power of the internet "news" machine. I've said previously that the estimation of 3,000 unsold Model S in inventory is probably not a big deal. At the company's sales rate, that's about 5-6 weeks of inventory and for other automakers, 8 weeks (60 days) supply is considered optimal.  

Those vehicles are in-transit to stores, showroom demos and stock for customers that want a car now. What may pose a bigger long-term problem for Tesla is the low price of oil especially as the brand tries to move down-market. In all likelihood, Tesla could probably find itself a sustainable niche at the $100,000+ end of the market and potentially even get truly profitable some day.  Trying do the same in the $35-40K region will be a lot harder.

As Damon says in his +Jalopnik story, if Tesla wants to kill the speculation of trouble, they should just come clean about what's really going on. ?

Tesla Only Has Tesla To Blame For Confusion Until It Publishes Data
There’s been a collective freak-out about Tesla’s sales figures for the year. Specifically, there’s a discrepancy between the cars Tesla claims to have delivered and the number of Model S sedans actually registered. Why? Because Tesla refuses to publish sales data like everyone else.

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I'm so glad that we gave up on the Newsroom after the second episode of season 1

I'm so glad that we gave up on the Newsroom after the second episode of season 1

I've never liked Aaron Sorkin's work and this show was a particularly egregious example. I'm not sorry to have missed this episode.?

The HBO series The Newsroom began in 2012 as a story about one man’s mission to civilize — starting with the lowest-common-denominator churn of cable news. Like Mad Men, it is a workplace period…