Disappearing Dealers

[Mr. Dazzle]

Selling affordable cars doesn't make you the world's most valuable car company in the same way that selling loads of expensive ones does though.

[Rockburner]

Selling affordable cars doesn't make you the world's most valuable car company in the same way that selling loads of expensive ones does though.

I would imagine that Tesla's 'value' lies in mostly patents (intellectual property), and stock market valuations. Some of that can be pretty ephemeral.

I wouldn't think they're worth that much in terms of physical hardware.

[Mr. Dazzle]

That's true of lots/most car companies though TBF.

AFAIK Tesla don't make a profit or at least don't pay dividends, which makes their stock price even more remarkable.

[Count Steer]

The 'market' valued Purplebricks at £1.3bn. It's just been sold for a quid.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Estate agents in "over valuing" shocker.

[Bigjawa]

Selling affordable cars doesn't make you the world's most valuable car company in the same way that selling loads of expensive ones does though.

So they're a luxury brand then?

That said, I heard that Bugatti, and therefore VAG lost a load on every Veyron they sold and it was the wee grannies buying Ups and Citigos who were keeping the company afloat.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Luxury...I dunno. They're definitely a brand though and one which people aspire to own, pretty much synonymous with EVs. You yourself evoked Tesla to mean "modern EV" right? You can't buy that sort of marketing clout. If people want an EV - and lots of people do - the first thing they're likely to think of is a Tesla, and Tesla charge (no pun intended ) for that.

VAG did indeed lose money on every Veyron in the literal sense, but that's a way more complicated case. The value of a Veyron to VAG is not in the sales price of the car itself, it's in the branding and the tech they develop. It's the SUVs, sold at an inflated price (it costs very little more to make say a Tiguan vs. a Golf on the same platform) which bankrolls the company.

[Couchy]

I don’t think musk made his fortune from Tesla, he invested in spacex and Tesla when he got his big payoff from PayPal. It’s spacex that’s made him the most by far. Tesla though has been great for pushing electric cars. Don’t be fooled though electric cars are only here to keep the car makers selling cars, without that the western economy collapses. They have some environmental benefits but that’s an aside to keeping the economy going.

[Mr. Dazzle]

He made about 200 million dollars off PayPal IIRC, whereas he's got more than 200 billion's worth of Tesla stock i believe. Pretty good return!

SpaceX is not a publically listed company so no-one really knows for sure what they're worth.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... -microsoft

[Cousin Jack]

He made about 200 million dollars off PayPal IIRC, whereas he's got more than 200 billion's worth of Tesla stock i believe. Pretty good return!

SpaceX is not a publically listed company so no-one really knows for sure what they're worth.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... -microsoft

I remember when I worked for Worldcom. Several people I knew were multi-millionaires with Worldcom stock at $60. A few days later they were worth about 2 cents.

Shares are only worth what someone else will pay you for them.

[ZRX61]

They don't follow the rules.

I've been told that traditional car makers tried to make existing models electric and even when they started from scratch there was still decades of ice best practices followed.

Tesla never made ice cars so they didn't have a rule book to follow.

And it shows, the build quality is somewhere between Lada & Yugo.

[The Spin Doctor]

Tesla 5 year stock.jpg (16.69 KiB) Viewed 111 times

Value of Tesla stock has roughly halved since the peak.

Tesla is allegedly sitting on rapidly growing unsold stock - around 10,000 right now in the US - that's up from 1000 in January.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I bought Tesla shares in early 2020 and sold them in summer 22

Anyway I think my original point is made. Bikes moving to EV won't be the death of them. It might be the death of the present generation of owners, but if Tesla are any indication the idea of an aspirational EV is not absurd.

[Wossname]

The OP referred specifically to Honda, and that seemed to be supported by others. My personal view is that H don’t make any bikes which appeal to me at present. That doesn’t apply to other brands - I’d happily consider models in the other Jap ranges, Triumph, Italian, KTM etc. Maybe, as said, they focus on small bikes in other markets to make their profits?

[Couchy]

I bought Tesla shares in early 2020 and sold them in summer 22

Anyway I think my original point is made. Bikes moving to EV won't be the death of them. It might be the death of the present generation of owners, but if Tesla are any indication the idea of an aspirational EV is not absurd.

The EV market is an interesting one, it’s the industry my business is in and we’ve heard from several franchise dealers that they won’t take an EV in part ex and they’ll only sell new what the makers tell them. They say they can’t sell the second hand ones as people are looking at running costs and don’t like what they see for private use. For a company car they make sense but for private when costs matter they’re too expensive to buy and run at the moment.

[Bigjawa]

We looked at an E-Up and the excess mileage charge alone made it a non starter. That's before actually plugging it into the wall.

No free charging in NI either, apart from the one in Belfast that was constantly monopolised by the EV dealers.