When Tesla releases its first quarter earnings this afternoon, the company’s CEO Elon Musk will field the usual questions about new products, new factories, and progress toward its futuristic vision of self-driving cars and robot workers. But Musk will also face increasingly urgent questions about its current state of affairs — and why everything seems to be going to shit.
Earlier this month, the company reported its first year-over-year sales drop in four years, a sign of rougher waters ahead. Tesla’s stock has fallen more than 40 percent since the start of the year, including a 13 percent drop in the last week. The company laid off over 14,000 employees last week, 10 percent of its global workforce — which could end up being closer to 20 percent when all’s said and done, according to Bloomberg. Today’s earnings report is expected to include Tesla’s lowest profit margins in six years, a sign that rampant price-cutting continues to exact a toll.
I think people just realized that Tesla’s aren’t that great. They’re not build well, simple repairs cost a fortune and for the same price you get better vehicles from other manufacturers, especially from ones in China.
Also, the resale values are…not good.
Really? I looked at prices of used EVs recently and was dissappointed at how expensive they were. I would have liked to be able to afford one as a first car.
Used prices have plummeted in part because new prices have dropped a lot. If new prices stabilize (big if), the resale value should retain itself a bit better going forward.
It’s normal for a 1-year-old car to lose 20% of its value compared to a brand new model. But if you bought a $60,000 model a year ago, and that model dropped to $50,000 new, then your one-year-old car might only be worth $40,000 or so (20% less than a new car, but 33% less than what you paid for it).
You can’t get the Chinese ones in the U.S., so options are more limited. But there are still alternatives.
I love mine. Which BEV lets me have seamless phone key and instant bootup, letting me walk up and get into the car and drive away immediately? I also have my heat/cooling and heated seats on auto and love not having to fiddle with knobs. If another car maker can catch up to them I’d switch but I don’t see it happening soon.
My hood isn’t perfectly flush with the front on one half of the front though, and the FM radio reception is pretty bad, so I do have some complaints.
Every other EV I know has instant boot up, Volvo/polestar, Hyundai, rivian etc. I was under the impression this was pretty Universal for EVs. A huge amount of current model year cars in a similar price range also have remote keyless control functionality, even ICE cars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nABtTMVq8ow&t=46 That is not instant, and all other EVs have that stupid start button taking an extra step.
I’m not talking about controlling remotely via a fob or app, I’m saying if I can have nothing in my pockets besides my phone, have the car unlock automatically, and I can get in and instantly drive, all that happening in less than 3 seconds.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=nABtTMVq8ow
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.