Motley Fool should add transcripts to all their videos. These videos take too much time to watch:
(Reuters) - A price war in electric vehicles started by market leader Tesla Inc has made it much more difficult for money-losing U.S. startups like Rivian Automotive Inc and Lucid Group Inc to grab share in an industry competing for shrinking consumer wallets.
Tesla’s move last week to slash prices globally on its EVs by as much as 20% could draw new buyers to electric cars in the industry, but also will force other automakers to respond with lower prices or risk getting left behind, analysts and investors said.
Some startups may not be able to afford lower prices as they struggle with staggering raw material and production costs combined with far lower output than the Elon Musk-led Tesla, which delivered more than 1.3 million vehicles last year.
Tesla’s move will “strengthen their … competitive advantage over other automakers,” CFRA Research analyst Garrett Nelson said.
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Put those three stories together and what isn’t spoken is just how many Liberals have sold their Tesla’s and who will no longer buy another based on Musk’s ignorance about his self-brand-destruction.
Once you get over Musk, you’re like a GQP guy who won’t wear his hat out in public any longer, i.e., you don’t flaunt the Tesla brand any longer. Long on tattoo removal machinery if I can find out the best manufacturer of said products.
How many people will wake up in their 40s and think, “That Nike swoosh on my ankle? Yeah, that’s the mark of the Loser Incel. Why did I ever do that in my 20s?”
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Musk got busy, like Thiel in his crypto selling while pumping what he sold, right before the crash:
Elon Musk Sold Tesla Shares Before Company Acknowledged Weakness
The stock tumbled after the CEO’s sale and fell further on the electric-car maker’s deliveries report
The known knowns, and yet fanbois on Twitter refused to walk out of Cult’s Compound for a breath of fresh air in the fields of reality:
Mr. Musk has sold more than $39 billion of Tesla shares since the stock’s November 2021 peak, including almost $23 billion last year, in part to fund his $44 billion purchase of Twitter Inc. The December sales amounted to 37% of the shares sold in 2022, according to data compiled by Refinitiv, but only 16% of the dollar amount, reflecting the stock’s sharp drop last year, when it fell 65%.
Whether Mr. Musk was aware by mid-December that deliveries would fall short of Tesla’s guidance, signs of demand weakness for Tesla vehicles had been accumulating for weeks. On Oct. 24, news reports said Tesla cut prices in China. On Dec. 1, news reports said Tesla cut prices in the U.S.
On Dec. 5, Bloomberg News reported that Tesla planned to lower production in China. Three days later, Bloomberg reported that Tesla planned to shorten worker shifts at its Shanghai factory. By Dec. 22, eight days after Mr. Musk’s sales ended, news reports said Tesla cut prices again in the U.S. and began offering 10,000 miles of free supercharging for vehicles delivered in December.
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EV stock No. 1 to avoid like the plague in 2023: Tesla
Motley Fool writer, Sean Williams, breaks with the Motley Fool pumps for Tesla and says to avoid $TSLA and $RIVN and to buy $NIO:
The first electric-vehicle manufacturer to actively avoid like the plague in the new year is none other than the world’s largest automaker by market cap, Tesla (TSLA -1.25%).
To add to this point, Tesla has cut the price of its flagship Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV in China twice over the past couple of months, while also reducing the price of these models in the United States. Fast-growing businesses with no demand issues won’t be cutting prices when inflation is well above its historic average. These price cuts are a gigantic clue that Tesla is dealing with an inventory issue that’s unlikely to resolve anytime soon.
However, the biggest issue for Tesla starts at the top. As I’ve stated, Elon Musk is a legal and operating liability for the company he runs. He’s drawn unwanted attention from securities regulators on more than one occasion, and his promises for when new technology will become reality are rarely (if ever) met. Level 5 full self-driving has been promised as being one year away since 2014, and Musk’s call for 1 million robotaxis to be on the road is years late.
These promises are built into Tesla’s valuation, and we’re beginning to see the company’s share price deflate as many of these prognostications go unfulfilled.
As a private company, Twitter will no longer be required to file periodic reports, current reports and information statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It had to allow much more financial transparency as a publicly traded company.
Warren told The Hill that the lack of transparency into Twitter’s financing is a “problem.”
“This is about concentration of power and lack of transparency. Somebody is going to make all the rules about who has access to the marketplace of ideas. It could be a group of people that make very transparent rules or it could be one billionaire off in a dark room by himself,” she said.
First hint that Hertz might have a problem with Tesla channel stuffing. I’ll call Hertz in Key West today and point blank ask them if any Tesla’s are on the lot down there:
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Renting is still good marketing on Tesla’s part. It makes for an extended test drive to see if it fits your needs.
Tesla believes you will like it. But many are not ready yet.
How Germany’s No. 1 Periodical Sees Musk:
Another hurricane warning flag and most $TSLA investors on Twitter refuse to entertain the thought:
Looming Twitter interest payment leaves Elon Musk with unpalatable options
The bill for Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter is coming due, with the billionaire facing unpalatable options on the company’s enormous debt pile, ranging from bankruptcy proceedings to another costly sale of Tesla shares.
Three people close to the entrepreneur’s buyout of Twitter said the first instalment of interest payments related to $13bn of debt he used to fund the takeover could be due as soon as the end of January. That debt means the company must pay about $1.5bn in annual interest payments.
The Tesla and SpaceX chief financed his $44bn deal to take Twitter private in October by securing the huge debt from a syndicate of banks led by Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Barclays and Mitsubishi. The $13bn debt is held by Twitter at a corporate level, with no personal guarantee by Musk.
Customers buying a car now are at risk of going underwater on their car loans, an analysts warn.
Financing costs are rising as car values are declining.
“We are only seeing the tip of the negative equity iceberg,” said Ivan Drury, Edmunds analyst.
If you recently took out a loan to buy a car, especially a Tesla, you’ll likely be paying more for that car than it’s worth soon.
In the final three months of 2022, nearly 16% of consumers who financed a new vehicle and 5.4% who financed a used one committed to monthly payments of at least $1,000, according to Edmunds, which tracks automotive inventory and information. Both figures are record highs, it said.
The higher payments come as vehicle values are dropping, which means consumers are left paying the original balance of their loans – and now at higher interest rates – even if their vehicles aren’t worth as much anymore. Used car prices dropped 2.5% in December from November and new car prices dipped 0.1%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Ignoring all evidence to the contrary in EU and China, here are Sandy Munro’s last, infamous words which would make a swell tombstone:
“(Tesla) will elminate - annihilate - their competition.”
Honda just ran an ad pre-game Kansas City vs. Jacksonville which said, direct quote, “Tons of cars in inventory, no payments until May!”
Sharpest two car ads today:
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New Honda EV Accord
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New Toyota Crown (PHEV) in black and red with Super Bowl entertainer, Rihanna, behind the wheel.
“We’re beginning”???
It’s been cut in half since September.
Just got off the phone with Key West rental agent at Hertz, which is located at our tiny airport. EYW (Key West airport symbol) has never rented any EVs nor do they yet have chargers for any EVs at the airport. (A friend of mine assured me he had seen chargers out there, but, maybe they are under construction. I’ll ask next time I call.)
Marathon airport, which is even smaller than EYW is about mid-way point from mainland to Key West. Tesla superchargers are there.
I will find out who has what. I do know that chargers are coming to two dealerships down here, and neither will bear the Tesla brand. $GM and $TMC/$F doing their own thing soon with partners we’ll know more about when the gear is implanted at the dealers.
According to EYW Hertz, only Fort Lauderdale Airport rents Teslas in Florida? Doesn’t sound right, but this is what they told me. He said Miami doesn’t rent EVs but “you can go right up the road to Fort Lauderdale to rent a Tesla.”
I’m in daytrader/swing trader mode, Ron. I’m watching a critical horizontal support at $100 and with $TSLA at $133 and analysts who handle Musk’s mal-investments are learning they might not get paid, they are now scouring the dregs of pumps for any good news.
September was eons ago for traders.
Not long ago we had our first analyst issue a downgrade to SELL.
January is where Cathie Woods, Ross Gerber, Omar, Black, even Dan Ives, are calling for Tesla recovery. And Musk said last week that all selling of his $TSLA shares will stop for the next two-years. Thrice burned fanbois are back to believing his word.
I don’t see a recovery yet, especially in EU and China. The output at reduced margins is not flooding the showrooms with shoppers as expected.
Compare $TSLA to $TSLQ (and I’ve played both since September for wins) at this moment. One of the charts is threatening a breakout ($TSLQ) which would be very bullish, while the $TSLA chart could go either way, but, if it heads South with earnings this week, we could easily see a new double-digit Tesla share price.
The eggs have hatched Velociraptors who will devour the fanbois craziest air biscuits distributed all over Twitter with 2030 predictions of $5 Trillion market cap for Tesla. There are fanbois touting the Tesla robot (basically a badly put together mannegquin of a robot) over Boston Robot’s latest demo, I kid you not.
Musk’s first robot preview was a skinny human dancing in a robot costume on stage. That’s what I’m talking about: embarrassing moments cascading over cliffs. Tesla goes off a cliff and people survive, “Safest cars in the world.” A Prius goes off a cliff and the lone driver survives, “Yeah, but its a PHEV, Tesla is the safest EV on the road, bar none.”
That’s what I’m talking about.
The beginning of the final act feels close, but with Elon Sparky Musk, traders have got to roll with the air biscuits he’s letting slip out the sphincter of his mind. It’s why I no longer short Tesla with the purchase of puts. Easier to just buy $TSLQ when the stars line up in my mind.
Tesla below $100 seems very doable to me with Musk pulling forth orders in Q1 with all these discounts; however, there are Americans, p.o.ed they bought in December, and there are loads of cancellations of reservations as Tesla refuses to budge on lowering prices for those who ordered in December.
Twitter tells you the tone of novice investors who don’t pay attention to 10-Qs, Insider Sales, Inventory, Goodwill vs. Warranty Maintenance, and all the Jack Welshian moves which Musk employs to take the sting out of admitting, Tesla is the next Saturn car company if the board doesn’t boot him to the curb. And who thinks Musk will ever give up the reins willingly?
2023 - Tesla could scream downward ever more if someone doesn’t smack Ole Sparky upside the head with a couple of dead mullets.