[HN Gopher] Tesla earned $1.6B in the third quarter as car sales...
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       Tesla earned $1.6B in the third quarter as car sales surged
        
       Author : simonebrunozzi
       Score  : 29 points
       Date   : 2021-10-20 21:26 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
        
       | tootie wrote:
       | It's unbelievable that the established auto makers are just
       | falling further and further behind on EVs while Tesla is opening
       | the market wider and wider.
        
         | dlp211 wrote:
         | The Ford F-150 Lightning is about to drop. VW group is making
         | massive investments in EVs. BMWs vision is to be the premier
         | green automaker by 2030. Don't act like these companies are
         | still sitting on their hands.
         | 
         | In < 5 years from now, the best selling EV will be the F-150
         | Lightning.
        
           | dirtypersian wrote:
           | I don't know about that. Sure, the F-150 is a nice option but
           | what is Ford doing in terms of self driving. Tesla is
           | tackling multiple issues at the same time, most car companies
           | playing catch up usually just care about the EV part but not
           | the self driving aspect. In 5 years Tesla will still be the
           | dominant EV imo because feature wise their cars will be so
           | far ahead of everyone else.
        
             | polishdude20 wrote:
             | I think the main goal of EV's is to be more environmentally
             | friendly. Self driving doesn't contribute to that goal and
             | i don't think it's a thing that will make or break these
             | other manufacturer's efforts.
        
             | anonporridge wrote:
             | You also can't discount the Supercharger network, which
             | gives Tesla a huge advantage over every other auto
             | manufacturer.
        
         | poorjohnmacafee wrote:
         | Even so it seems the administration pretends they don't exist
         | [1] or even wants to take their marketshare [2]. The
         | established automakers have a cozier relationship with the
         | established politicians I guess.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-05/biden-
         | snu...
         | 
         | [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/14/tesla-toyota-and-honda-
         | criti...
        
         | garyfirestorm wrote:
         | https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/chrysler/2021/10/19/s...
        
         | mym1990 wrote:
         | Is it though? Tesla had a vision for EVs from the very
         | beginning and most of the industry really didn't believe Tesla
         | would see the light at the end of the tunnel, so they put off
         | becoming competitors. Now Tesla is hitting an incredible stride
         | and the rest of the car manufacturers are scrambling to put
         | something together.
        
         | anonporridge wrote:
         | But, Biden praised GM and Ford for leading the EV revolution!
         | /s
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | nullc wrote:
       | So does that $1.6B include the roughly $1bn their 42,000 Bitcoin
       | has gone up in value this quarter?
        
         | verdverm wrote:
         | They actually accounted for a $51M impairment on Bitcoin
        
         | DarmokJalad1701 wrote:
         | No. They can only count it if they sell it. They actually had
         | to take a $50M "impairment" hit on their bottom-line since the
         | price of BTC dropped below their cost basis again this quarter.
        
           | TameAntelope wrote:
           | Taking an "impairment hit" is a great way to lower
           | performance a smidge so as to not let Wall St. run away with
           | its Q4 projections.
           | 
           | I'm full-blown conspiratorial about how Tesla uses BTC to
           | manipulate its financial reports. I don't think what they're
           | doing is illegal or even all that innovative, other than to
           | use BTC and not some other thing to do this.
        
             | mehrdada wrote:
             | Have you looked at Tesla delivery queue wait times
             | recently? Not need to spin up controversies when the market
             | demand is clear and explains the tailwind. They have been
             | leveraging the demand to increase ASP both by increasing
             | prices and shifting to a more profitable mix (Need the car
             | sooner? Get the higher margin model!)
        
               | TameAntelope wrote:
               | Right, which is why, if you knew about how that sausage
               | was made (as an officer of Tesla), you'd want a way to
               | control investor expectations, because what you just said
               | sounds _really good_ , and if something went wrong, or if
               | it weren't quite as awesome as you just described, I'd be
               | _really mad_ if I were an investor and Tesla missed those
               | lofty projections.
        
               | mehrdada wrote:
               | They report segmented results for each business, along
               | with gross margin of each business, so I am not sure how
               | that would fool any real analyst.
        
         | [deleted]
        
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       (page generated 2021-10-20 23:01 UTC)