Hehe, yep good old John Petersen.
He has been anti-Tesla as long as I can remember. His lead battery company is the one hanging on by a thread.
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My bad, the article surprisingly enough wasn't from John Petersen.
However, after reading it, I am little more concerned than I was earlier. What the author didn't mention was that Tesla in the first half of the year sold basically no cars and only a few hundred in the third quarter. So it is not surprising their sales were extremely low. Sales of autos in the 4th quarter are 5 to 9 times sales in the first 3 quarters.
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Again, rather than opinions, how about some facts:
A) Tesla is a start up company, and as such, yes it is a risky stock.
B) There is always a chance a start-up company will fail.
C) Tesla, along with a number of other companies took government loans. Tesla has paid their first and second installments of the DOE loan. The second installment wasn't due until March, so they are ahead of schedule.
D) Earlier this month Tesla had their first cash positive week, at the beginning of December they were at about 200 cars/week production. They are now delivering VINs in the upper 2000s with Vins just over 3000 set for delivery by December 31st. This puts them well on their 2500-3000 target by the end of the year.
E) Tesla's annual target for 2013 is 20,000 cars which is 2% of the luxury car market. Few see this as an unreasonable number. To get to this level they need to produce 400 cars per week. Many think they have reached that, or are very very close.
Yes, the car industry is very difficult to break into, and the hurdles are high. But so far, Tesla has done a lot of things many people said they would never do. They have partnerships/investments with Toyota, Panasonic and Diamler.
I think they are well positioned and have as good a shot as any new auto manufacturer.
Is it a sure thing? No, of course not. But the government is getting all its money back from Tesla, which can't be said for some other auto companies