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Tesla's revenue last quarter was $6.3 billion, so this amazing $25M interest-free loan is the same amount Tesla earns on average in just under 9 hours. There c

Tesla's revenue last quarter was $6.3 billion, so this amazing $25M interest-free loan is the same amount Tesla earns on average in just under 9 hours. There could be any number of reasons why Tesla lowered the deposit amount. Either way, the purpose of a preorder is likely to gauge demand and not to guarantee sales. Of course the conversion rate won't be 100%, but 250k deposits is a much more promising signal to Tesla than 100k or 25k.

tempsy 7y ago
Your revenue figures have little to do with whether a loan is useful to you. They have very few quarters in their history as a public company where they have had positive earnings, which means they are burning cash.
- robbiep 7y ago
  They don’t have a huge number of quarters as a public company (well, they’re 16 years old), and for most of their history they have been in Startup mode. If most people on this forum’s startups went to cash positive in 14 years (which is basically how long it took them to get a positive quarter, and the balance for the last 8 has basically been 50:50) then I’m pretty sure everyone would be cheering
- mlindner 7y ago
  Yes their cash burn is approximately the same as their revenue. So again, $25 million is pretty irrelevant.
- zaroth 7y ago
  You can read their financial statements if you’d like to comment on their financial position. The pre-order deposits are not recognized as revenue and do not improve their cash flow. But in any case, Tesla has had ~$1B of positive cash flow over the last two quarters and has over $5 billion of cash on hand. The $100 deposit is definitely designed to inflate the pre-order numbers versus the $2,500 Model Y deposit, for example. I think reading into the 250k pre-orders is extremely difficult. But the refundable cash itself will sit in escrow earning approximately nothing for Tesla other than the marketing value of the pre-order count.

tempsy 7y ago

Your revenue figures have little to do with whether a loan is useful to you. They have very few quarters in their history as a public company where they have had positive earnings, which means they are burning cash.

robbiep 7y ago
They don’t have a huge number of quarters as a public company (well, they’re 16 years old), and for most of their history they have been in Startup mode. If most people on this forum’s startups went to cash positive in 14 years (which is basically how long it took them to get a positive quarter, and the balance for the last 8 has basically been 50:50) then I’m pretty sure everyone would be cheering
mlindner 7y ago
Yes their cash burn is approximately the same as their revenue. So again, $25 million is pretty irrelevant.
zaroth 7y ago
You can read their financial statements if you’d like to comment on their financial position. The pre-order deposits are not recognized as revenue and do not improve their cash flow. But in any case, Tesla has had ~$1B of positive cash flow over the last two quarters and has over $5 billion of cash on hand. The $100 deposit is definitely designed to inflate the pre-order numbers versus the $2,500 Model Y deposit, for example. I think reading into the 250k pre-orders is extremely difficult. But the refundable cash itself will sit in escrow earning approximately nothing for Tesla other than the marketing value of the pre-order count.