this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
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Listen, I completely agree with most of what you said until the last sentence. Tesla's been around for long enough that they'll survive. If by "matter of time" you mean a few decades or longer, sure, I could see someone buying them. Don't know how long you've been around for, but I've been hearing this same thing since they went public. Yet, here we are.
How do you figure that works, and why couldn't these guys figure it out?
Oldsmobile (1897-2004): Once a popular and innovative brand, Oldsmobile struggled in the later years with uninspiring models and eventually met its demise under General Motors.
Packard (1899-1958): Known for their luxury and craftsmanship, Packard couldn't compete with rising costs and changing consumer preferences in the post-war era.
Studebaker (1902-1966): A pioneer in automotive design, Studebaker faced financial difficulties and ultimately lost market share to bigger players like Ford and GM.
Hudson (1909-1954): Merged with Nash to form American Motors, Hudson was known for its affordable and stylish cars, but ultimately couldn't weather the competitive landscape.
Willys-Overland (1908-1963): Responsible for the iconic Jeep, Willys-Overland struggled with diversifying its offerings and was eventually acquired by Kaiser Industries.
DeSoto (1928-1960): A Chrysler brand known for its mid-range offerings, DeSoto faced declining sales and was eventually phased out in favor of other Chrysler models.
Mercury (1939-2011): Ford's upscale division, Mercury faced competition from its own parent company and other luxury brands, leading to its discontinuation.
Plymouth (1928-2001): Another Chrysler brand, Plymouth offered affordable and practical cars, but couldn't keep up with changing consumer tastes and was eventually discontinued.
AMC (1954-1988): Born from the merger of Hudson and Nash, AMC found success with innovative designs like the Jeep and Gremlin, but ultimately couldn't overcome financial challenges and was acquired by Chrysler.
Saturn (1990-2010): General Motors' attempt at a revolutionary, customer-centric brand, Saturn faced production issues and market challenges, leading to its closure.
Tesla has a market cap of $800 billion.
To put it in perspective… GM is on track to earn that much money over the next one hundred years - they made $9b last year and $6b the year before (that was a low year, supply chain issues).
And even if they somehow found the money, regulators would likely block it.
Tesla, on the other hand, could buy GM if they wanted to. Not sure why they would though, since Tesla is successfully selling EVs (the future) and GM can’t figure out how to repeat that. GM’s EV cars are not profitable yet and they just discontinued their best model (the Bolt).
This place is pro-ev, but very anti-Tesla. So weird. They're naming failed car companies and sure, it does prove their point, but most companies fail. I could literally say the same thing about Ford and Toyota. Who knows what happens in the future. Literally no one knows.
You're the only one claiming to know they'll survive. Other people are claiming nobody should know because your original argument for why they'll survive doesn't make sense. It's funny how you're now claiming to be the one that thinks the future is uncertain.
The thing a lot of people are still ignoring is Tesla isn't just a car company.
Tesla is going to be more like General Electric than any of the traditional automakers and it'll be more and more obvious as the years go on.
They design and build their own batteries. They are about to refine their own lithium. They are designing their own super computers. They sell batteries to consumer and commercial companies with software managed by AI to optimize the usage of those batteries.
They are going to keep coming out with other non car products, such as a residential HVAC system.
And they're doing all this with industry leading margins on everything they do even after all the cuts.
They're way more resistant to problems than some specific car brand that went under. Even if the car side of things falters, they still have everything else to help prop them up.
I don't think anything is guaranteed one way or another, but Tesla is in a much better spot to survive longer term because of all the ways they can use their expertise.
I know most people don't believe the Bot will amount to anything, and maybe they are right, but the very fact they are doing something like that is diversifying the risk they put into their AI division. Now it's not just 1 failure point, they've found another way to benefit from their work.
Edit: and how could I forget the charging network. The whole car business itself could collapse and that's a massive business of its own