Tag: tesla

Uber CEO Talking About Tesla using Camera Vision over LiDAR

Uber CEO on Tesla using Camera Vision over LiDAR: “I think in the near-term it’s going to be very difficult, and

Elon Musk would tell me I’m wrong, and never bet against him, but it’s my instinct — in the near-term it’s going to be very difficult to build a camera only product that has superhuman level of safety. Will it be possible? Quite possibly yes. If you can have instrumentations that include cameras and LiDAR ; the cost of Solid State LiDAR is only $400-$500— WHY NOT include LiDAR as well in order to achieve superhuman safety. So, possible? Yeah it will be — I don’t know when, but is possible the better product? I’m not sure. All of your partners right now are using a combination of camera, Radar and LiDAR, and I personally think that’s the right solution— but I could be proven wrong.”

Full conversation on X here.

NIO’s First Mass Market Brand Coming in September and 10% Cheaper than Tesla!

NIO plans to start selling the first model under a mass-market brand as early as September, according to founder and chief executive William Li. The production cost for these new electric vehicle models would be 10% less than that of Tesla’s Model Y. Li told investors on Tuesday that this would give NIO “better flexibility” in pricing its first model, codenamed Alps, which will feature battery-swapping technology. This advantage is due to China’s well-developed EV supply chain and NIO’s extensive research and development efforts over the years.

Li suggested that the luxury EV manufacturer might adopt a more aggressive pricing strategy to compete with rivals in the segment. The new brand will primarily target Chinese families and prioritize volume sales, while NIO’s original brand will continue to focus on gross margin.

In 2023, the net loss of the Shanghai-based company increased to RMB 20.7 billion ($2.9 billion) from RMB 14.4 billion the previous year, while its revenue grew by approximately 12.9%. NIO’s stock ended the day at $5.48, a 2.8% increase.

Xiaomi EV is Coming Soon and Im Excited

Xiaomi entering the EV market.

I think Xiaomi is one of the most interesting companies in the world. Xiaomi has managed to develop a huge portfolio of products with the aim of selling them with low margins to gain as much market share as possible and then make most of their margins from software based services for these products.

Xiaomi has now announced that they are going to spend $10 billion USD over the next 10 years to manufacturing electric cars, embarking on its biggest-ever overhaul to enter China’s booming EV market.

Xiaomi didn’t specifically state whether they were going to develop the software for these EVs or develop the entire Car (much like Tesla).

I would assume they will go down the Tesla route to market and will develop an amazing EV.

Tesla Shares See Their Biggest Ever Single Day Decline!

Tesla shares have finished the day at 21.06% down. This is the biggest single day share decline for the company in its history.

Why this matters: Tesla is a company going after a big dream. However, it also seems to be the company that is riding a very high valuation based on very little fundamental numbers being it. Revenues have increase 14% in the past 12 months, but the share price has increased 573%.

My views: I love the company and I love what they are trying to achieve, but it seems like they have become the poster child for a heavily overpriced stock market based on poor fundamentals.

Why would a public company want to split it’s stock?

Get share price down, for public companies. Still an issue today. Apple at $1000+ makes each share hard to buy for smaller investors.

Match a typical IPO share price, pre-IPO. Start-ups still like to IPO around $15-20 per share, plus or minus. This gives room for a “pop” and a share price still well under $100. If your private, pre-IPO share price is say $40, then a 2-for-1 forward split will get that down to $20, with the same economics for each shareholder and employee.

Apple and Tesla are both splitting their stock at present. This is to really drive some demand with smaller investors and allows them to have ownership over a great number of full stocks.

Reserve Your Cybertruck Now Live in China on Tesla Website

Tesla Cybertruck orders in China.

Tesla is now officially taking Cybertruck orders in China. You can head to the Tesla website to reserve your Cybertruck.

The Cybertruck has such a unique design I’m sure there will be a lot of upper class Chinese who would love to be driving around in such a car. Really makes a statement.

In what ways is Google Waymo a threat to Tesla and its Self Driving Technology?

Waymo at present has a private valuation that is twice as high as Tesla.

How can this be?

Margins! Tesla is focused on the full production of the car where Waymo is focused purely on the underlying technology with self driving cars. Thus, Waymo will have a Gross Margin that is extremely high in comparison to Tesla.

Eric Schmidt talked about this a lot. How Google and its products always wanted to be focused on providing the technology sub stack instead of the full product as it keeps margins at a high level and thus maximising value.