Comments on: Tesla’s Commitment To Being Great

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 01 May 2013 14:32:00 +0000

Oh, Drucker. The guy who drove his Porsche with no oil in the crankcase even though the owners manual said to check the oil from time to time.

No, …. He was the guy who parked his Tesla with the batteries flat and went away for a few weeks even though the owners manual said to charge the batteries for not driving the car for an extended period.

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Wed, 01 May 2013 12:15:00 +0000

I haven’t followed much with Fisker vs Tesla, but my impression was that Kisker was simply trying to carve out a piece of the market… unsuccessfully.

Drucker: again, haven’t followed closely, but the issue seems to come down to whether or not Tesla made it very clear to owners that they couldn’t leave the car uncharged for a long period of time.

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Wed, 01 May 2013 12:10:00 +0000

good points by busdriver and Rob Ryan, and also a great add-on by James here. i think that Elon really is setting an expectation, and if he continues to do so, that could stick for a long time.

By: James Hilden-Minton

James Hilden-Minton — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:28:00 +0000

I’m not so sure I buy that. What Musk is doing is building a brand. A brand is promise to be a certain sort of company for the customer. If customers buy into that brand and whatit stands for, then it will last and be profitable.If a company shrinks from a strong brand promise, if it does not deliver on that promise, then it will lose customers and destroy shareholder value. What if Starbucks were to begin to use the cheapest beans they could find? What if Wal-Mart decided not to be the low cost leader? In either case those companies would damage their respective brands and their stocks would suffer for it. So let Musk set a clear expectation for the Tesla brand. Now is the best time to do it. Let’s see if a loyal customer base buys into it.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:27:00 +0000

Being a strong advocate of your ideas doesn’t qualify someone as having a “dark side”, IMO.

Clarkson and Broder were dishonest and damaged Tesla with their dishonesty.

I don’t know the Durcker and Fisker stories except for the fact that Fisker is apparently a car designer who thought he had a better idea about what the ‘guts’ of the Tesla should be. Musk did not want to build a hybrid.

By: arne-nl

arne-nl — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:52:00 +0000

I also see a ‘dark side’ to the Elon person. Someone who is not very humble, but wants to prove himself right and others wrong. In the case of Tesla, he wants to prove that the established car culture is wrong in saying that EV’s aren’t any good. He wants to win (and I very much want him to win!).

How he handled any attacks on his Tesla baby by Max Drucker, Henrik Fisker, Jeremy Clarkson, John Broder was not always very elegant, and I felt a strong desire (sometimes too strong imho) to put them in their place, prove them wrong.

By: Rob Ryan

Rob Ryan — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 01:38:00 +0000

Sadly (speaking as a capitalist but partner in a closely held private corporation), bussdriver78 is right. In today’s environment (taking an extreme example) wait until Carl Icahn buys 5.5% and see how long Musk’s absolutely admirable ethic lasts.

By: bussdriver78

bussdriver78 — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 23:39:00 +0000

The business model and lack of competition in that model created today’s climate. The same underlying model approaches similar results despite having competition. Just look at the bad opinion of car dealers or even dealership services.

Without a middle man dealership their service reflects DIRECTLY upon them; also, the middlemen profit only by the initial sale and the later support – they do not produce any value people…really value.

Telsa makes money on their product and it is added value to provide better service with the money they are saving. As long as they do not become too greedy, they can afford to operate at a slight loss (such expenses are viral marketing) and make all their money from the car sales.

All this can’t realistically last because it is a publicly traded company and someday those 2nd derivative profit rates will guide the company’s decisions, as it does for all the others – that is the bigger model they have in common which will again lead to similar results; just maybe not in our lifetime.