It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.

Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.

Thank you.

 

Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.

 

Tesla hit-piece - Elon Musk’s Tesla circus is a true ‘bonfire of the vanities’

page: 1
7

log in

join
share:

posted on Apr, 12 2015 @ 10:54 AM
link   
I want a Tesla. Forget the fact that it is all electric, forget the fact that the styling, to me, is leaps and bounds ahead of BMW I series which is trying to bust into the market with a ton of bravado. Just the fact that we have a completely fresh business model for consumers in the auto market is good enough for me to support Tesla.

Some of the old guard do not sound as amused as myself, however.

GLOBE AND MAIL HIT-PIECE





Few seem willing to call out Musk based on facts. When I have, critics call me a dinosaur or much worse. I am, they say, too old and too jaded to appreciate the genius of Tesla and Musk.

Well, I have seen Musk and his ilk before and so has former Reagan budget director David Stockman, who has the financial chops to dissect CEO Musk and Tesla as both company and stock play.

Musk, says Stockman in his Contra Corner blog, is a “circus barker” and Tesla “a crony capitalist con job that has long been insolvent.” Tesla survives not on the merits of the product, but thanks to “fat taxpayer subsidies” and a “free money” monetary policy. I’d add a gullible and ill-informed media as co-conspirators – willing or unknowing – and an analyst community whose evaluations of stocks in general are often suspect.



Did this guy just complain about "fat taxpayer subsidies" going to Tesla? Ummm. What would he call the US/Canadian auto bailout then? Talk about crony capitalist. US auto makers were falling into the abyss, with 3 generations of Hummers about to seal the grave when taxpayers threw them a rope and gave them enough capital to finally compete again. The US nationalized it's big three auto makers, but this author points at subsidies for clean-energy transportation and screams foul?

How about this old dinosaur and Reagan budget director take a hike and let the more educated and much more wise take it from here. I am talking about the consumer. It is going to take a little more than a mouthy 'has-been' columnist putting out an obvious hit piece against Tesla to keep people from buying one.

I don't know what it is about that car. Every time one drives by, I get a surge of energy and this feeling like the shackles are off.

Tesla is coming out soon with an entire line of models short of a pick-up truck. How are the big 3 going to compete when they are only offering 1 or 2 models in full electric. The more we buy them, the cheaper they are going to get. This article reeks of desperation and I cannot think of one scenario other than sabotage that can stop Tesla now.

Apple better grab onto Tesla before they get bought by them.

edit on 12-4-2015 by MALBOSIA because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 12 2015 @ 11:29 AM
link   
a reply to: MALBOSIA

If any of the auto companies, aside from Tesla, want to survive, they will allow companies like Apple and Google to step in and take over their onboard electronic issues (software, onboard computer interfaces, etc.)...which they ALL have. Only Ford was smart enough to save themselves by ditching their software for Microsoft. Which really anst all that smart either, but it saved face and bought them time.

Tesla has it figured out. A standardized system. Not all the BS all the other car makers are spitting out. They essentially toon a page from the aerospace industry and put a multifunction display in the middle console, which does EVERYTHING... And the whole car can be updated while it sits in your garage using WiFi.

I personally can't wait till the Tesla cars become more and more affordable. And they will, just give it time.



posted on Apr, 12 2015 @ 11:41 AM
link   
It seems that the hits do not stop against Tesla.

Here is a story describing how the NY Times flagrantly fouled their review on a Tesla road test.


Broder's review of the Model S had little positive to say about the electric vehicle that has garnered Car of the Year recognition from several leading automobile magazines. According to Broder, the car seriously underperformed in cold weather. His devastating review reported that the battery drained so rapidly that even though he drove excruciatingly slowly and turned off the heat, the car still died before making it to one of Tesla's Supercharger stations. Broder was forced to call a tow truck. - See more at: www.justmeans.com...



Unfortunately for Broder and the Times, Tesla kept a data log of the drive, and Broder's story just didn't add up. In a blog post, the billionaire founder of Tesla Motors Elon Musk laid out a series of facts that contradicted Broder's version of events.

First, the Model S battery never ran out of charge at any time, even when Broder called the tow truck. Second, while Broder claimed he set cruise control to 54 mph and was ultimately forced to limp along at a paltry 45 mph, he in fact drove between 65 mph and a speed limit-exceeding 81 mph for most of the trip. When Broder said he turned the temperature down, he in fact turned it up, and enjoyed a toasty average cabin temperate of 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

Even more bizarrely, when he reached Tesla's Milford, Conn. Supercharger station (after driving the car hard and taking an unplanned detour through downtown Manhattan to give his brother a lift), the mileage display said "0 miles remaining." Instead of plugging the vehicle in, Tesla's data log shows that Broder drove in circles for over half a mile in the parking lot, and the car still didn't die


LINK

damn! That was probably more worthy of an OP but I think I remember hearing about that, possibly here on ATS.

I guess S&P know little about a business' potential since a year ago they slapped Tesla with a 'B' rating.


Text Even though it carries a stock market multiple more in line with high-flying tech companies, Tesla Motors is still an automaker in the eyes of ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, which slapped a junk-level rating on the company Tuesday.

S&P’s ratings unit assigned an unsolicited corporate credit rating of B- to Tesla, with a stable outlook. The firm labeled Tesla “vulnerable” with respect to business risks, citing its “narrow product focus [and] concentrated production footprint,” as well as its short track record and limited visibility into future demand for its cars. S&P also noted Tesla’s “small scale relative to its larger automotive peers.”



FORBES

When I said sabotage is the only thing that could get in tje way of Tesla, I might have been wrong. In the year since S&P gave them a B rating, I have seen a second Tesla sales location open here in Vancouver and I am seeing them on the road more often than I remember seeing the Prius besides the fact the prius was all over TV.

Sabotage does not seem to be working. How long till Musk is found in a hotel with a dead prostitute?



posted on Apr, 12 2015 @ 11:47 AM
link   
If they could devise a good 4x4 off road system, maybe one that self charges using high efficiency solar systems in the roof of the vehicle then they will win so long as its durable.
The latest cars are flimsy compact cars big guys BARELY fit into.
edit on 12-4-2015 by cavtrooper7 because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 12 2015 @ 11:51 AM
link   
a reply to: cavtrooper7

The Tesla is a sedan and quite roomy.

While I like the car it is a bit impractical for my uses.



posted on Apr, 12 2015 @ 12:03 PM
link   

originally posted by: Sparkymedic
a reply to: MALBOSIA

If any of the auto companies, aside from Tesla, want to survive, they will allow companies like Apple and Google to step in and take over their onboard electronic issues (software, onboard computer interfaces, etc.)...which they ALL have. Only Ford was smart enough to save themselves by ditching their software for Microsoft. Which really anst all that smart either, but it saved face and bought them time.

Tesla has it figured out. A standardized system. Not all the BS all the other car makers are spitting out. They essentially toon a page from the aerospace industry and put a multifunction display in the middle console, which does EVERYTHING... And the whole car can be updated while it sits in your garage using WiFi.

I personally can't wait till the Tesla cars become more and more affordable. And they will, just give it time.


The problem I see is that everyone is positioning themselves for the era of automated travel. For and Mercedes are spending a lot of money to get a system working because SOMEBODY has to make the cars for this system. Apple, Google, and Microsoft are going to be the only names in vehicle network automation. Tesla does not have the money yet to build and test an automated system, let alone hold back policy and/or change it to suit. What are the chances that any of the available networks are going to certify Tesla as an auto-builder once those systems start becoming available?

The critics are right to some degree. Tesla is nothing new. But they are going ahead with full electric choices ahead of oil dependent manufacturers that need to find new income streams before they can let go of oil.

Automated travel networks and required infrastructures are going to be the new big oil money. Network access and tolls. Once again, nobody moves till these guys get paid.



posted on Apr, 12 2015 @ 12:09 PM
link   

originally posted by: cavtrooper7
If they could devise a good 4x4 off road system, maybe one that self charges using high efficiency solar systems in the roof of the vehicle then they will win so long as its durable.
The latest cars are flimsy compact cars big guys BARELY fit into.


The only time I bought a flashy car was an '08 Malibu LTZ. Sold it 6 months later. Getting in and out was MOFO.

I bought an equinox. Slip in out real nice. Just needs to be electric.

It says that Tesla is trying to release a cross-over. 32 inches up to the seat is all I ask for



posted on Apr, 12 2015 @ 12:40 PM
link   
a reply to: MALBOSIA

I want a good ol 79 Dodge RAM sized vehilcle with the same durability and capability.



posted on Apr, 12 2015 @ 12:44 PM
link   
Tesla is the future and they won't be in it. That's why they're cross.



posted on Apr, 12 2015 @ 01:06 PM
link   

originally posted by: cavtrooper7
a reply to: MALBOSIA

I want a good ol 79 Dodge RAM sized vehilcle with the same durability and capability.


That could be tough. Pardon the pun.

It all comes down to battery. Your trucks big enough? Toss one of these in back under your roll-bars


Link
You can store your solar energy, brake energy, wind energy and take it with you.



posted on Apr, 12 2015 @ 01:32 PM
link   
We moved to Portland in December and since being hereI have seen a huge amount of Teslas driving around. I think they are beautiful cars but the price being north of $100k is way out of reach. I agree that the prices will come down and Tesla is working on a midsize SUV that will reportedly go for around $40K. If the technology is as good as in the sedan, I might actually consider it.

I think the biggest problem with most electric cars on the market is the very limited mileage range on a charge. Tesla seems to have more or less solved this and getting better with each generation. The other limitation will be the speed in which you can fully charge your EV.

Overall, it's an exciting time and I think the time is near when we will see a huge amount of practical electric vehicles on the road.



posted on Apr, 12 2015 @ 03:28 PM
link   
I didn't know. Thanks!



posted on Apr, 12 2015 @ 06:26 PM
link   
my only objection is the ridiculous market cap this company gets, however everything is overpriced so its a nil. still have to plug it into an electrical grid however.

aside from that, great tech. no more having to pay for gas, just an increase in your electric bill.



posted on Apr, 12 2015 @ 06:46 PM
link   
a reply to: MALBOSIA
I like all the TEsla stuff, but I'm weary of trusting anything which has lots of money or can or might share relations with it.

Now it's good. Tomorrow it makes your kids have autism.

But in life we don't have many choices in this. Just do what you feel is best.
edit on 12-4-2015 by jonnywhite because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 12 2015 @ 08:01 PM
link   

originally posted by: cenpuppie
my only objection is the ridiculous market cap this company gets, however everything is overpriced so its a nil. still have to plug it into an electrical grid however.

aside from that, great tech. no more having to pay for gas, just an increase in your electric bill.


A lot of the people with full electric here are getting free electricity, covered by the buildings strata, most of whom do not own electric cars. Condo buildings were building these charging stations into the building as incentives to buyers. Trouble is, there is no infrastructure that can meter electrical usage in a garage to bill a single unit. The power for the charge station is part of the strata's grid and strata is not allowed to "sell" electricity to users so... strata is covering users electric cars electricity at no cost to the user.

It is a funny loophole right now. If my building had one of those charge stations I would be all over an electric car right now.



posted on Apr, 13 2015 @ 08:35 AM
link   
a reply to: MALBOSIA
Kind of reminds me of Edison saying his DC power was superior over AC power. Those old dinosaurs have to hold on, they seem to hate change...




top topics



 
7

log in

join