25 Unasked Questions On Tesla’s Q2 Earnings Call

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This was a great quarter for Tesla. Record production, record deliveries, tremendous growth, and excellent margins in a difficult operating environment. I felt some opportunities for questions were missed, though.

  1. What’s the status of Model X deliveries this quarter? No one cared about Tesla’s second mass-market product. From the looks of the website, it’s sold out for a few months.
  2. How’s the ramp for the updated Model S coming? It seems Tesla’s first mass-market product wasn’t that popular to discuss either. Annual capacity for the S and X is listed at 100,000 vehicles a year, which is far more than Tesla has been producing because of the revamp and supply issues, but is essentially what the two models combined for a few years ago.
  3. Will we see more partnerships between Tesla Energy and homebuilders? This is a key opportunity to grow the Energy business into another segment.
  4. India is not making it easy to build a factory. After Berlin and Austin are done, where will Tesla build next? This was tangentially mentioned, but not clearly answered.
  5. Elon mentioned he sees annual demand for batteries approaching 1000 to 2000 GWh a year at scale. How many factories will Tesla need by the end of the decade?
  6. When will Elon show up on the next Tesla call? Elon mentioned this will be his last call for a while, while continuing to attend the Annual Shareholders Meeting. He’ll come back on a call if there is some big news to announce — but when? Elon is a product and vision guy, and I can’t imagine these financials calls are how he wants to spend his time.
  7. Will Las Vegas open a betting line for the above question?
  8. How did bitcoin and crypto NOT get invited to the call? There was no mention of bitcoin or crypto anywhere in the question and answer section. The crypto folks on our livestream were crushed.
  9. Not a question, but a cool observation: Elon and team hosted the earnings call from Giga Texas! Tremendous progress in a year.
  10. What’s the significance of Tesla increasing theoretical production to 1 million vehicles a year? The Master of Coin, Zach Kirkhorn, said that the second half of the year will be better than the first. No one asked for more details.
  11. Will an FSD subscription be paired with Tesla Insurance in the future?
  12. How is Tesla Insurance going?
  13. Does FSD subscriptions, Tesla Insurance, and external Supercharging open the way to Tesla creating an internal “software as a service” startup?
  14. What will Tesla do to scale Supercharger and service center growth to match vehicle growth? Elon and team did address the Supercharger portion to an extent. They said more Supercharger access to non-Tesla EVs would accelerate Supercharger growth. The key is keeping wait times reasonable.
  15. If batteries are at a premium, what was the rationale for launching Megapack publicly? I’m in favor of the move. I think this is Tesla moving deeper into the utility space. But that seemed worthy of a question.
  16. Will Tesla ever launch a combined heat pump/AC product for the home?
  17. How is Tesla doing regarding lithium mining?
  18. How’s the progress on battery recycling?
  19. How much is Tesla at risk from a US–China cold war?
  20. What’s going on with the Model 2, mini Cybertruck, an electric van, or a shooting brake Tesla? If we can’t get Cybertruck, Semi, or Roadster out, it seems we may have to wait longer than we’d like on the other 4.
  21. Can we make “whip out a chip fab” a saying?
  22. Was Adam Jonas stolen away from the conference call to prevent weird questions?
  23. If regulatory credits go down and profits go up, will we never have to hear about regulatory credits again?
  24. When Giga Berlin goes live, will there be a huge party on the roof?
  25. When will Tesla go bankrupt? /s (Always have to throw that in to get the haters pumped up.)

Note: I own Tesla shares, $10 of Bitcoin, and other crypto currencies. I have no intention of buying or selling shares or buying or selling crypto in the next 48 hours. Nothing here is investment advice, really!


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