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>It's the same with Tesla. Can you show you get this from? I see it repeated on these boards, ad nauseum, that Tesla is spending their "profits" on R&D and bu

>It's the same with Tesla. Can you show you get this from? I see it repeated on these boards, ad nauseum, that Tesla is spending their "profits" on R&D and building infrastructure. But in reality, you can see from their financial statements that Tesla's CAPEX spending is embarrassingly small for an auto company, and shrinking. They spent $2BB in 2018 and are on pace to spend half that in 2019. As a sibling comments states, their spending doesn't even cover depreciation of assets. For comparison, Ford spent almost $10BB on CAPEX last year, GM spent $10.8BB, VW spent over $12BB. >If they wanted a profit, they could have one. They just don't want one right now. You can't honestly believe this, can you? What are they waiting for? Why do they keep raising funds? Where is the money going?

AgloeDreams 7y ago
Exactly. This was true of Tesla back when they made only the S & X and blew their R&D dollars on Model 3/AP/Batteries but the Model 3's margins are incredibly bad with sky-high ops costs while they are digging a hole like a car stuck in mud. They are promising FSD (to paid customers), Semi & Roadster (To reserved customers), and a Model Y that will surely eat into Model X sales, meanwhile they are clearly reducing spend in these departments. Without a Model S/X Refresh (That Elon is repeatedly saying will never ever happen) or dramatic reduction in BOM / assembly (which, maybe the Model Y is supposed to bring? maybe? Pigs can fly?) There is no route to profitability.
- navigatesol 7y ago
  I agree, but want to emphasize that it's not necessarily sinister: they simply have no money to do the things they've promised. That's best case. Worst case is sinister.
  - AgloeDreams 7y ago
    I agree, for the most part, FSD seems simply outlandish and by this point they already had promised coast-to-coast. There really wasn't any real path to their promises.
coolspot 7y ago
It’s B not BB.
- navigatesol 7y ago
  Thanks. Bad habit to hammer that key twice.

AgloeDreams 7y ago

Exactly. This was true of Tesla back when they made only the S & X and blew their R&D dollars on Model 3/AP/Batteries but the Model 3's margins are incredibly bad with sky-high ops costs while they are digging a hole like a car stuck in mud. They are promising FSD (to paid customers), Semi & Roadster (To reserved customers), and a Model Y that will surely eat into Model X sales, meanwhile they are clearly reducing spend in these departments. Without a Model S/X Refresh (That Elon is repeatedly saying will never ever happen) or dramatic reduction in BOM / assembly (which, maybe the Model Y is supposed to bring? maybe? Pigs can fly?) There is no route to profitability.

navigatesol 7y ago
I agree, but want to emphasize that it's not necessarily sinister: they simply have no money to do the things they've promised. That's best case. Worst case is sinister.
- AgloeDreams 7y ago
  I agree, for the most part, FSD seems simply outlandish and by this point they already had promised coast-to-coast. There really wasn't any real path to their promises.

coolspot 7y ago

It’s B not BB.

navigatesol 7y ago
Thanks. Bad habit to hammer that key twice.