Originally Posted by GloucesterChief (Post 13554782)

I would like it if Musk would stop sucking at the government teat and see if his business would survive then.

Originally Posted by DaFace (Post 13554816)

Musk actively suggests that people don't invest in Tesla if they are hoping for great returns. Money has never been his driving force.

Originally Posted by listopencil (Post 13554594)

Wait, hold on, I thought Tesla used 18650's (or similar) that were made by other companies?

Originally Posted by Buehler445 (Post 13554599)

Maintainence will be the driver on the trucks. Yeah, fuel is expensive but so is downtime and parts. And quite frankly the amount of torque applied through the system is so much higher to haul 85,000 as opposed to 2000 there is a lot of testing they need to do.

Originally Posted by DaFace (Post 13554604)

Maybe back in the day. They make their own these days (or at least they're working toward that).

Originally Posted by Claysexual (Post 13554737)

Maybe Musk will one day wake up and begin manufacturing products that people want.

Originally Posted by DaFace (Post 13554803)

Once oil subsidies are removed, you might have a point.

Originally Posted by GloucesterChief (Post 13554782)

I would like it if Musk would stop sucking at the government teat and see if his business would survive then.

Originally Posted by vailpass (Post 13554813)

Yes, and true to a certain extent.My point was that from an investor standpoint they don’t always inspire confidence.



May 12, 2018: 1:04 PM ET
The top dog on Tesla's engineering team is taking a leave of absence at a crucial moment for the company and its first mass-market car, the Model 3.
The electric car maker said in a statement that Doug Field, its senior vice president of engineering, "is just taking some time off to recharge and spend time with his family."
"He has not left Tesla," the statement added. A spokesperson could not confirm how long the leave of absence would last or the reason for Field's temporary departure.

The news was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.
Field has been with Tesla since 2013, and he's served as Tesla's engineering chief since September 2016.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet that, sometime in mid-2017, he asked Field to take over both manufacturing and engineering for the Model 3.
But, earlier this year, Musk decided it was "better to divide & conquer."
"My job as CEO is to focus on what's most critical, which is currently Model 3 production," he said. "So I'm back to sleeping at factory. Car biz is hell."
He added that he views Field as "one of the world's most talented engineering execs."


Field's leave of absence comes as Tesla is attempting to assuage investors' fears about the company's ability to ramp up production of the Model 3.
After months of manufacturing issues that have left Tesla repeatedly falling short of its production goals, the company's latest earnings release showed Tesla may finally be getting back on track.
But then a bizarre conference call earlier this month — in which Musk refused to answer questions from two Wall Street analyst and called their quesitons "boring" — appeared to rattle investors.

Shares of Tesla sunk about 5% after the call during off-hours trading.
The company's stock has rebounded slightly over the past five days, but its price remains well below its all-time high of more than $380 per share.

http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/12/tech...l-3/index.html

Originally Posted by vailpass (Post 13554861)

A peculiar stance for someone that accepted $220 million from investors at his IPO. Today’s announcement that the lead Tesla engineer is stepping away for an indeterminate amount of time is just odd.
Space ventures seem to be the arena for which Musk is best suited. At least for now.

Originally Posted by aturnis (Post 13554924)

It's electric. Given ample electricity, torque is not an issue, at all.

Originally Posted by Buehler445 (Post 13555057)

Dude. Have you ever dealt with operating anything ever?

Torque isn’t the problem. Duh. Electricity kicks the **** out of internal combustion all day every day. Getting torque to the asphalt is the problem.

Everything on trucks needs to be heavy duty. Engineering a 2000lb car to run 200,000 miles is not even in the same universe as an 85000 lb truck for 1,000,000. Everything from the kingpin to the lugnuts need intensive testing.

The engineering has to be ****ing right or it just won’t work in a fleet.

It’s way different than engineering a passenger car

Originally Posted by BWillie (Post 13554826)

The day they announced the semi many large companies jumped on the waiting list.

Originally Posted by aturnis (Post 13554921)

18650 only indicates the form factor. 18mmm by 65mmm cylindrical. They've switched to 2170 for the model 3, and possibly the energy storage, Semi and Roadster as well.

The true difference in battery tech is chemistry for both performance and cost.

I honestly don't think anyone will be able to compete. As noted in the call, Tesla has greatly reduced the need for cobalt in their batteries, and see a path to get it to almost nothing. This is HUGE for cost as prices have been trending upward.

If other automakers intend to go 100% electric, which they all do outside out Fiat and Toyota(sorry gearheads), they'll likely be putting prismatic cells in their cars to get the volume they'll need and to save on weight and shove batteries wherever they find space.

Problem is, cars are a terrible place to use prismatic cells. This is typically what traditional OEM's use though. They favor larger cell sizes and less connections. The problem is, they degrade faster, and if a single cell goes out, it can make a HUGE difference to performance/range.

Basically, when you hear the worn out adage of, "you'll have to replace the battery after 10 years, if it makes it that long"!, they are referring to prismatic cells. The vibrations of the road make the bagged chemistry shake itself apart faster. Other problems are losing a single cell is significant, as I said earlier, and they can be easily damaged/punctured in a wreck. Which of course can be dangerous.

This is why I'm not too worried about all other OEM's going electric. It might effect the stock early, but once the public understands the ins and outs, or OEM's have their reputations ruined by going with a poor solution, Tesla should remain out in front.