[HN Gopher] Tesla's dirty little secret: Its net profit doesn't ...
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       Tesla's dirty little secret: Its net profit doesn't come from
       selling cars
        
       Author : Tomte
       Score  : 14 points
       Date   : 2021-01-31 20:58 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (edition.cnn.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (edition.cnn.com)
        
       | xiphias2 wrote:
       | If the author doesn't care about poor people not getting food and
       | dying from climate change, at least think about the billionaires
       | who bought private islands whose value can lose hundreds of
       | millions of dollars if the climate change continues. They will be
       | the reason CO2 emissions will be taken seriously.
        
       | njarboe wrote:
       | Click-bait. Tesla revenue for 2020 was $31.5 billion. The credits
       | were $1.6 billion. Significant, but only 5% of the total. Plus
       | these credits come from selling cars.
        
         | adamlangsner wrote:
         | You're missing costs in this equation. Without the sale of the
         | credits they would not have been able to post a profit for the
         | quarter. They may have had $31.5B in revenue but the cost of
         | that revenue was greater.
         | 
         | If I sold a $1 can of coke for $0.70. I can report $0.70 of
         | revenue but i still lost $0.30 on the transaction.
        
         | gumby wrote:
         | They are stapling $2500 to every $50,000 car they sell --
         | $2,500 they are only getting through a government subsidy
         | (regulatory requirement rather than direct payment in this
         | case).
         | 
         | This is why the GM announcement is significant: Tesla will have
         | to learn to up the quality and reduce cost so they can survive
         | without the subsidy.
        
       | hedora wrote:
       | I've been trying to buy a tesla roof and powerwalls for over a
       | year. That whole side of the company was missing in action for
       | all of 2020, yet they post record profits. Their reliance on
       | credits explains the discrepancy.
       | 
       | Having said that, sign me up for multiple vehicles once I'm
       | energy independent! I see no problem with them using credits to
       | bootstrap carbon neutral transportation.
        
         | ww520 wrote:
         | What's the general view on the warranty on the solar panel or
         | roof or powerwalls sold by Tesla? Is Tesla still around well
         | capitalized in 25 years to honor the warranty?
        
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       (page generated 2021-01-31 23:02 UTC)