For the past several years analysts have been falling all over themselves to tout +Tesla Motors. However, the company has yet to make more than one model at a time or demonstrate any ability to turn on a consistent profit on the sale of cars.
The one model they sell starts at $70,000 and can quickly go up to well over $100,000. Add to that the increasing wealth gap in this country with a shrinking percentage of the population accumulating an ever larger percentage of the wealth and the fact that expensive premium products are inherently self-limiting in volume, is it any wonder that Model S sales seem to have plateaued?
Any fool with two brain cells to rub together could see this coming and it's a scenario unlikely to change until Tesla introduces a much more affordable car. That will no doubt happen at some point, but whether Tesla can do that and still achieve profitability remains very much unproven.
Reshared post from +Jerry Hirsch
Telsa's U.S. sales slow as analysts question growth prospects http://lat.ms/1knL37Y?
Telsa’s U.S. sales slow as analysts question growth prospects
Sales of Tesla’s Model S electric sports sedan are starting to slow in the U.S.
But dude, the economy is now completely awesome!!!
/facepalm
I once got ripped a new booty hole and learned that you don't speak ill of Tesla on Autoblog Green by saying this:
Tesla's problem isn't that they produce $100k cars. If you stretch a little a base Model S lease is attainable if not incredibly affordable. I think comparisons to Porsche in the 90s maybe not that far off.
Tesla's biggest problem is, unlike Porsche, if they diversify their portfolio, what? Still a bunch of cars with an underdeveloped infrastructure. If I'm going to spend real car money I need real car usability and folks can talk all they want about how "Americans only drive 40 miles a day on average."
Any car turns the 11 hour drive to my in-laws' and turns it into a three day trip is a bad car.
I will get excited about Tesla as soon as there's an infrastructure in place that I can use it like any other car I've owned.
Gah, flu addled brain.
The affordable lease comment should have included a reference to middle management. Also, the $100k lease car is always ripe for the secondary market. Any, honest, salesman working on the used car side of a BMW dealership will tell you that they're the loss leaders for the obscene profits of the service department. Tesla owning that entire chain could profit twice.
+George Jones I got into an argument with a friend about this IRL. He's very smart and tech savvy, but doesn't know anything about cars or the car industry. His take is that Elon Musk is brilliant, he's conquered space and banking and he's going to disrupt the auto industry, we shouldn't bet against him, and I'm a pessimistic who needs to get onboard.
My take is Elon Musk is brilliant and Tesla's business plan is genius, which is go after the high end first. With that said though, Tesla has yet to deliver a product on time, neither their technology nor production technique are revolutionary and they thrive on the
voraciousnessgood will of early adopters. They have supply constraints issues with their batteries which won't be solved until their gigafactory goes online, other players are quickly entering or have already entered the field with deep pockets and Tesla have an infrastructure problem that won't be solved for ten years.He basically told me my "facts" were wrong and that I'm just a pessimist. Later, he posted that the gigafactory was going to built, so all the problems would go away. I stopped arguing with him about him because he has no perspective, i.e. when the gigafactory goes online, it'll produce enough batteries for 500k cars/year. Against 13M cars sold every year in the US alone.
+Mark K , once people put blinders on, it's hopeless.
I didn't realize I had "won" the argument until he posted the link to the gigafactory. I think he felt really vindicated by posting it.