There are other options.  Personally, I like to see as much as possible of what is going on around me when I’m driving.  For me, the huge amount of glass in the Model 3 is a big selling point.

Looks like 3 bedroom apartments in Manhattan go for about 9K a month. If I drive in Manhattan I should be able to afford an apartment there. $50 an hour won’t even cover the rent. Drivers deserve a living wage.

How much tofu could a man eat

having to use their factory as collateral for a revolving credit facility is a signal that the company in pinched for liquidity(an implicit signal that their capital investments are not delivering cash flow)

You make a good point. There is a seal around the door. Also they would tend to be open over night for charging. I’m not sure what steps they took to address they edge case.

re: Amazon profitability.

i don’t really see how it is... yet? not to mention TSLA had to pledge the facility as collateral to maintain their credit facility. saying “hey look, they built something!” isn’t saying that they have effectively used capital.

and guess what... now they are? and they didn’t even have to pull their shares out of public exchanges.

OK, how is the Gigafactory and the build-out/expansion of the Fremont factory not effective?

Fair enough.  Can we agree that Amazon was not profitable for a long time?

Are you saying a company with a net cap of 1 Trillion dollars can’t scrounge up 50 billion?

a really strong argument can be made that TSLA is not effectively deploying CAPEX.

I was quoting Forbes from last year:

Amazon (or Apple) could buy Tesla with couch-cushion money. Tesla is already experimenting with free delivery to your door.

Amazon has had only a few profitable quarters, and it works for them. Negative cash flow is meaningless as long as the bills get paid. What matters is why there is negative cash flow. Is it because

Tesla currently has about 2.5 billion in cash. The 700M cash burn per quarter should end this quarter, so they should start being profitable. Tesla wouldn’t be spending 71 BILLION. They have funding. My guess is that Musk found a White Knight (or Knights) that have the cash to buy all outstanding shares. This would…

Oy, pre-covfefe posts are dangerous.

Pritate companies don't have to  answer to the pubic, nor the SEC.  They can do whatever they feel is best for the long-term health of the  company.  Screw quarterly reports and short-term profits.  They can play the long game.

There are like 5 posts and 1 or 2 issues on that thread. Hardly ‘a ton’ on a car with ~60k sold so far.

All in: