There are quite a few versions of this story out there - some are overly glowing of other CEOs I feel are praised for subpar performance, but this one seems pretty accurate from what I heard:

No, I’m not. That helped narrow the gap from ~30% to 64%. It still doesn’t bring them ANYWHERE close to covering the costs of road construction and maintenance.

Reminds me of the stories when Mulally arrived at Ford - first new product review they reported everything was going well and he called them out on the bullshit - when someone spoke up and told him their problem and he didn’t berate them but got them whatever help they needed, then people realized things were…

Toyota once owned a couple percent, but sold out last year.

Currently, the brand value for Tesla is estimated at $4 billion. If they can split of profitable portions of the business, they can sell off those chunks for more, but without fixing their auto business, they’re really only worth that brand value plus a small…

They’re also bleeding cash so fast and pulling such heavy losses that absurd valuation is liable to evaporate in an instant. At current share prices, it would never happen... but give it a few more quarters and...

“While I broadly agree that the federal government shouldn’t try to push tax credits for specific things (EVs vs Gas/Petrol vehicles, renting vs mortgages, having children and being married vs single with no children - the one that really gets me), “

Agree somewhat, but it is always easy to make a counterargument, too:

S…

The credit is already designed to phase itself out. Once you hit 200k in sales they phase out over 6 quarters for that manufacturer.

As of a year ago, here are the estimated dates at which the phase out would begin by manufacturer:

Tesla: Q2 2018
GM : Q2 2018
Nissan : Q1 2019
Ford : Q4 2019
Toyota : Q1 2020
BMW : Q1 2020

In…

So exempt them from the tax only if they lack power seats, power windows, a/c, dvd entertainment,etc...

Oh, and they have to come with black vinyl seats. Make those suckers burn in the summer. Only true work trucks would be sold with those combinations of (lack of) features.

Gas taxes, registration fees, tolls, and the like only cover ~64% of what the state and local governments in California spend each year on road construction and maintenance. Raising these fees only brings the revenue more in-line with the cost. You can’t complain that they’re putting money into the general fund when…

Except that getting these vehicles into production allows them to gain experience and fund breakthroughs that ARE making them more competitive.

When the Volt first came out, GM lost a fortune on each one sold. Within 2 years, they had cut the price significantly and were making a small profit.

Free market lovers often…

“So news of an automaker planning a new factory in the Detroit-area—the first in more than 25 years—is noteworthy”

Really?

Dearborn Truck opened in 2004, 13 years ago - did you forget that?
Woodhaven Forging opened in 1995, 22 years ago
Wixom performance opened in 2004, 13 years ago.
Romulus Transmission opened in 1995, 22…

My disgust of Elon Musk grows by the day.

Ok, he has some ideas that I would LOVE to see succeed. But he’s an egotistical prick. Unfortunately, I think we’ve got a lot of this nonsense to deal with in the next few years as Tesla struggles and, IMO, likely fails. Cash burns as obscene as they’ve been seeing are…

I’d buy one of those lease-return sedans.

But the GOP just proposed raising my taxes by more than a car payment per month, so....

MUCH, MUCH larger. EV subsidies are a tiny drop in the bucket. It’s simple math. ~159,000 EVs were sold last year in the US. Even at the full credit value (not everyone would have received that), you’re looking at $1.193 billion. That’s TINY compared to how much we subsidize oil companies. And remember, because…

“just about anything is on the table for Republicans, who’re angling to significantly cut taxes across the board”

Except that isn’t what they’re doing at all. Their plan raises taxes on many in the middle class, gives a scrap or two to the poor, and gives huge cuts for the wealthy.

I’ve run the numbers for my family -…

What the hell do you think the losses for transmission, charging, and discharging are? They’re nowhere near as high as you imply.

They’re generally warrantied for 10 years. With warranties that long, it is safe to assume most will last considerably longer. After which, they’re recycled (you don’t throw away valuable metals).

And tech is improving rapidly. Toshiba’s new demonstration cells for EV use show less than 10% degradation after the…

And case in point - about 15 years ago, Ohio got over 90% of electricity from coal. Today coal makes up about 58% of electric supply, and is rapidly shrinking. That 44 mpg threshold is rising VERY quickly.

Am I the only one who finds Elon Musk and Henry Ford seem to have a lot in common?

10.

Civil cases don’t require a unanimous jury - in this case, 10 of 12 jurors agreed and that met the minimum requirements.