3 ms·

Serious question regarding your 3rd paragraph: Why? Doesn't Tesla have essentially unlimited access to capital? Why don't they just raise some massive amount of

by sfblah 6y ago

Serious question regarding your 3rd paragraph: Why? Doesn't Tesla have essentially unlimited access to capital? Why don't they just raise some massive amount of money, borrow more, and do everything right now?

pjc50 6y ago
Nobody can do everything at once. At some point staffing and training becomes a bottleneck.
- AtlasBarfed 6y ago
  They should probably buy a struggling automaker (Nissan, etc) for access to supply chains and raw amounts of automotive engineers. Nissan should have substantive numbers of EV engineers too. At a minimum that would enable working on a minivan, smaller cars, and other form factors, especially if it is under a different badge. But that assumes that car design is the bottleneck, it may still be battery supply, and nothing matters until that is solved. Given their apparent quality problems, I'd guess it's not all battery issues.
  - chmod775 6y ago
    Nissan is effectively owned by Renault (43%) and is also multiple times larger than Tesla. The price of acquisition would likely exceed anything Tesla could scrape together right now. Then there's also the problem that Nissan is fundamentally a Japanese company. You can't just "acquire-hire" people halfway around the globe and expect that to work out. They might be able to buy part (maybe whatever they own in the west, if there's anything worthwhile) of Nissan though, assuming someone was selling.
    - AtlasBarfed 6y ago
      "is also multiple times larger than Tesla" Um, have you seen Tesla's valuations? Renault et al could be bought out just with Tesla stock swaps. And you don't think Renault wants to cut loose that albatross? "Then there's also the problem that Nissan is fundamentally a Japanese company." Wouldn't the Japanese, at least at the government policy level, want tech exposure to cutting edge EV technology?

3 ms·

Serious question regarding your 3rd paragraph: Why? Doesn't Tesla have essentially unlimited access to capital? Why don't they just raise some massive amount of

by sfblah 6y ago

pjc50 6y ago
Nobody can do everything at once. At some point staffing and training becomes a bottleneck.
- AtlasBarfed 6y ago
  They should probably buy a struggling automaker (Nissan, etc) for access to supply chains and raw amounts of automotive engineers. Nissan should have substantive numbers of EV engineers too. At a minimum that would enable working on a minivan, smaller cars, and other form factors, especially if it is under a different badge. But that assumes that car design is the bottleneck, it may still be battery supply, and nothing matters until that is solved. Given their apparent quality problems, I'd guess it's not all battery issues.
  - chmod775 6y ago
    Nissan is effectively owned by Renault (43%) and is also multiple times larger than Tesla. The price of acquisition would likely exceed anything Tesla could scrape together right now. Then there's also the problem that Nissan is fundamentally a Japanese company. You can't just "acquire-hire" people halfway around the globe and expect that to work out. They might be able to buy part (maybe whatever they own in the west, if there's anything worthwhile) of Nissan though, assuming someone was selling.
    - AtlasBarfed 6y ago
      "is also multiple times larger than Tesla" Um, have you seen Tesla's valuations? Renault et al could be bought out just with Tesla stock swaps. And you don't think Renault wants to cut loose that albatross? "Then there's also the problem that Nissan is fundamentally a Japanese company." Wouldn't the Japanese, at least at the government policy level, want tech exposure to cutting edge EV technology?