Elon Musk: Tesla 'Would Be Interested' in Taking Over GM's Closed Factories (cnn.com) 145
An anonymous reader quotes CNN:
Elon Musk wants electric vehicles to be successful -- even if Tesla goes under trying. In an interview for CBS' "60 Minutes," the Tesla CEO and Silicon Valley billionaire was asked about competition from General Motors (GM), which announced last month it's laying off thousands of workers as the century-old company shifts focus to self-driving and electric vehicles. Musk appeared unconcerned. "If somebody comes and makes a better electric car than Tesla, and it's so much better than ours that we can't sell our cars and we go bankrupt, I still think that's a good thing for the world," Musk told Leslie Stahl during the interview.... "The whole point of Tesla is to accelerate the advent of electric vehicles and sustainable transport," he said. "We're trying to help the environment, we think it's the most serious problem that humanity faces...."
In his 60 Minutes interview, Musk also floated the possibility that Tesla may expand its footprint in the United States. He said Tesla "would be interested" in taking over some of the factory space GM said it will abandon during its restructuring.
The article also cites estimates from Navigant Research that Teslas now account for 20% of all fully-electric vehicles on the road today.
In his 60 Minutes interview, Musk also floated the possibility that Tesla may expand its footprint in the United States. He said Tesla "would be interested" in taking over some of the factory space GM said it will abandon during its restructuring.
The article also cites estimates from Navigant Research that Teslas now account for 20% of all fully-electric vehicles on the road today.
Re: (Score:1)
Musk tried to insinuate that the fact that he wasn't being sued by Unsworth was evidence of guilt. So naturally Unsworth is suing him. If there were evidence Musk would have already shown it and blown the case out.
So there's evidence you either aren't great at reading, or are a liar intentionally. Unless you have actual evidence of Unsworth being a pedo, of course? Do you, Pedo pusher?
Re: (Score:2)
You could also call them "a bundle of wood sticks" [wikipedia.org].
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Elon, before you call me a pedo... (Score:2)
You see a couch you like that they price at X, they take your money and promise delivery in 60 to 90 days.
Wtf kind of stores are you shopping at? Last time I bought a couch it was delivered the next day.
Re: None of you has a clue about shorting (Score:1)
Short selling is incredibly risky. Only professionals who can afford the risk and total fools engage in shorting. I would bet my life, soul and every penny I have there is not a single auto body shop (lolololol) shorting Tesla. You are just showing your complete ignorance.
Shorting does absolutely no harm to a healthy well run company. Shorting a healthy company it utterly moronic.
Shorting a stupidly run company is smart.
The above AC morons who think it should be illegal (omg, you are stupid af), should
Re: (Score:1)
"Shorting does absolutely no harm to a healthy well run company." I think the case can be made that shorting can do harm. That's a bullshit assertion as written.
I maybe agree with some of what you said but that thrust is false. If there are companies that game the system with PR linked to short sales as we've seen, explicitly for the purpose but diffuse enough to get away with it for the 6 months to a year after which investors have moved on and forgotten about it, you can move the market whichever way y
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You know who really hated short sellers? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Opportunity is invisible to the timid.
Sometimes, you have to take the jump to succeed. Or as they say, 'You miss 100% of the shots you don't take'.
So glad he said that. (Score:1)
Sold some stock in the mid-to-upper $370s, and then he dropped the stock price down to the lower $360s, so I turned it immediately around into some Feb '19 calls :) Gotta love having a CEO who doesn't care whether he tanks the stock by saying things like it wouldn't bother him if his company went bankrupt if someone else made a better product ;)
So long as people keep basing their buy and sell decisions based on Elon's off-the-cuff statements, profiting on this stock's volatility will continue to be too eas
Re: (Score:3)
Maybe they'd end up doing some of the development that they had planned for GF1 at a former GM facility instead - who knows. If they do buy a Michigan plant, however, UAW will surely step up their campaign - and most of the local workers would probably be pro-UAW, unlike in California where UAW had basically backstabbed them during the negotiations that led to NUMMI's closing.
There is much more to it than just the empty shell of a factory plant. There are literally thousands of people within commuting distance, who are eagerly seeking jobs and have lots of experience in the car industry.
Re: (Score:1)
There are literally thousands of people within commuting distance, who are eagerly seeking jobs and have lots of experience in the car industry.
All of them used to union decreed levels of productivity. "My job is to move the robot to this point. It can only plugged in by the electrician. Even if the electrician plugs in three robots adjacent to each others, the work load will be calculated for the time taken to walk from his normal station to the robot three times and walk back three times. And you can only hire the niece of the union boss who has gone through the apprenticeship program, not the person who is actually more qualified. "
Wondering if
Re: (Score:2)
Many years ago when I was in grad school, I went to Oak Ridge National Labs to use the Small Angle Neutron Scattering line. When I arrived, the staff scientist had the instrument open (think of a large stainless steel pipe in sections that are bolted together). We made some adjustments to the detector and we needed to bolt everything back together and pump down the system.
The staff scientist said, "let's go for coffee". I had done a lot of electron microscopy and knew it took a while to pump down a such a v
Re: (Score:2)
This sounds like an insurance issue. The risk of having someone who's end of career salary is well in the mid six digits USD getting disabled in reasonably young age will make any insurance premium jump significantly. That payout would be well in seven-eight digits.
Whereas paying base wage to electrician you already have on the roll costs you next to nothing. And if the dumbass scientist decides to do it anyway and gets hurt that's now the problem with the scientist not following the rules, and so he doesn'
Re: (Score:3)
The "union system" in the USA must be very strange ... I wonder how much written about it here on /. is pure nonsense and what is true.
Re: (Score:1)
My first encounter with "union shop" rules was at a trade show in California. We had a local company contracted to bring in a rock-climbing wall for our booth at the event. He was being paid about $8 grand, IIR. When he arrived at the show, the teamsters union told him that the freight elevator was controlled by the union and using the freight elevator was a union job. They said they charged by the pound - so his rock wall would cost $7,500 to move using the elevator.
Now, the thing was completely self-c
Re: (Score:1)
Unions were needed, like 100 to 50 years ago, originally to deal with unsafe work environments, but now with gov workplace standards, OSHA, OHS. they are only dragging down the economy using mob tactics to extort what little influence they have left.
New York is a big union town, looks what it takes to get anything done there,
steel factories, most are gone because unions priced them out the market.
The most profitable auto pants in the US are non union, and have better working conditions than
Re: (Score:2)
Who said anything about making cars. Tesla makes more than cars, for example home power systems, you know, solar panels and batteries as a complete system. A much bigger market, than high end cars, in fact no comparison between the two, at a guess home power system should be worth about ten times as much as high end electric vehicles and probably require ten times as much floor space, being a far more average consumer product, regardless of how much that terrifies the fossil fuellers.
Consider all the ways,
Re: (Score:2)
Tesla makes more than cars, but they do not make more than what is necessary to become a MaaS fleet provider. They are putting together what it takes to provide the vehicles, power for the vehicles, storage for that power, software to guide the vehicles, etc.
Just as they hit the multiple millions of vehicles mark in a few years, they will flip the script and start trying to put themselves and others out of the business of selling vehicles by providing on-demand mileage at a substantially lower cost than the
Re: (Score:2)
TSLA keeps getting the stick end of the short.
Re: (Score:2)
Gotta love having a CEO who doesn't care whether he tanks the stock by saying things like it wouldn't bother him if his company went bankrupt if someone else made a better product ;)
The casual remarks have no effect on the insiders. The fanbois wont sell, though the fanbois shout a lot and show very great support, but usually they are not rich enough to own significant amount of stock. Despite all the shorts painting the picture of fanbois popping up the stock, institutions own 85% of the float. These institutions rely on automated loss limiting programmed sale robots who just scan the head lines and trade. They are the ones who sell on these news. And these robots are being gamed. Yo
Re: (Score:1)
I take it that stupid is yourself?
Re: (Score:2)
People- like the people who were working there until GM shut it down, already building cars? That might go a long way towards fixing their production problems.
Just PR. Wont do it. (Score:2)
Tesla is not able to access capital markets according to the shorts, or does not want to access capital markets according to Tesla. It needs serious capex to do model Y, the Tesla Semi and to expand to 10K model 3 a week to make 35 K model 3 possible. Still it paid down 240 million in Q3 and is going to pay half of 2019 note in cash, another 480 million.
Any normal company would have raised and rolled the bonds, keeping the cash. Next Tes
Re: (Score:2)
It does not have the money to buy anything. If the government makes it essentially free, it would take it. It needs a factory for Y and Semi. But it would not take it, even if it is free, it is bundled with UAW.
Re: (Score:2)
Forgot the punchline
It does not have the money to buy anything. If the government makes it essentially free, it would take it. It needs a factory for Y and Semi. But it would not take it, even if it is free, it is bundled with UAW.
The main cost of the factory isn't the land or building. It's the setup and tooling. You're looking at between $50- and $500,000 per robot, and you need hundreds of them for final assembly. That's not including controls, panels, wiring, error proofing, power distribution, conveyors, nearly all of which are customized to some extent. Then it all needs to be set up, which usually takes a year or two, if you're lucky.
And if the union contract comes along for the ride, all labor intensive setup stuff is going t
Re: (Score:3)
And if the union contract comes along for the ride, all labor intensive setup stuff is going to need at least one or two union workers doing the work, with another one or two watching - so double or quadruple the cost of labor.
I don't know what kind of unions you have in the US, but from a European perspective, that is total nonsense. I've worked in different companies with different closeness or distance to unions in my life, and when it comes down to the actual work, the differences are barely noticeable. The stronger the union, the more signs about safety will be hanging around, I think that sums it up pretty well.
If your above is true, then maybe it's not the unions that are the problem but the way that you guys interpret the
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know what kind of unions you have in the US, but from a European perspective, that is total nonsense. I've worked in different companies with different closeness or distance to unions in my life, and when it comes down to the actual work, the differences are barely noticeable.
I have a family member who works in automotive plants. Changing a light bulb requires a union electrician, a supervisor, and, if a lift is required, another union driver and, possibly, a second supervisor. I'm not kidding. The work rules are a nightmare.
Re: (Score:2)
In such case maybe you should improve your interpretation of "union" instead of throwing out the concept?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Massive transfer of shareholder dollars directly into his pocket based on a fraudulent deal.
The two year look back window on that deal just expired two weeks ago. The Shortville was eagerly expecting SEC to file charges. Serious talk about massive fraud. blah blah blah. The deadline for SEC to file charges, reopen the deal, to clawback any fraudulent money passed without a ripple.
You are still repeating their nonsense.
A few months ago Facebook lost 120 billion in market cap on a single day. That is 12 times the value of Tesla shorts. Somebody made huge money shorting Facebook. If your trusted
Re: (Score:2)
Your trusted news sources and trading idea purveyors kept you in the dark about the shorting potential of Facebook, Twitter etc. shows you are being played like a violin.
Re: (Score:2)
Ya know, I'm fine with that. Virtually all of Musk's money is invested in and enabling ventures that I approve of. His money is in general spent much better than my tax dollars. Any tax dollars that go to his benefit are also well spent IMO.
In general, the fraction of the American mega-billionaires money wasted on personal extravagances is vastly lower than the same money in the hands of a much larger number of millionaires. I'd rather have it this way. Many of them are using their money to enable great wor
Re: (Score:2)
The plant that Tesla took over in Fremont was a former GM/Toyota plan that had been unionized. The UAW building is just across the street, empty now, I think.
The shorts continue to be wrong and they continue to put out negative reports with no regard for truth. They have a huge incentive to lie.
Re: (Score:2)
Meh. The union didn't keep the plant open. Those employees aren't likely to feel very beholden to them at this point. If Tesla came in and said, hey, we'll pay you less than you made before, but more than you made after you took the union dues out of your salary, under the condition that this is a non-union shop, they'd probably get a lot of takers.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
A union cannot "force a vote". A minimum of 30% of employees must express interest in unionizing before a vote is allowed to occur. So yeah, there's a range between 30% and 50% where they could squeak by with such tactics, but if they let things get bad enough that even 30% would be interested in unionizing, then that would mean Tesla had already thoroughly failed to do right by their workers.
Re: (Score:2)
Tesla is not able to access capital markets according to the shorts,
Who have been saying that Tesla will go under any moment... wait for it... really soon now... almost there.... for a long, long time.
Meanwhile, I'm a happy Tesla stock owner and laughing about the shorts. They've been wrong, I've been right, and I'm looking forward to getting more profit out of my Tesla stocks. Let them talk. Every time they manage to get a big story somewhere and the price dips a little I have an opportunity to buy a few more stocks cheaper than they should be.
Re: (Score:2)
rockets
Maybe he can pick up some old Boeing plants.
Misleading... (Score:5, Informative)
Elon did not float the idea. The interviewer asked if Tesla would be interested in buying some of the GM plants that are being closed down. Elon responded with basically a maybe. Exact quote:
“It’s possible that we would be interested if [GM] are going to sell a plant or not use it that we would take it over.”
Worth noting that GM is not planning to actually close or sell those plants as of yet. They've only committed to idling them. And because of contracts with the UAW, I don't think GM can actually close those plants. At least not until they negotiate a new contract next year.
Re: (Score:2)
They've only committed to idling them. And because of contracts with the UAW, I don't think GM can actually close those plants. At least not until they negotiate a new contract next year.
I might be wrong, but that seems to be a very tenuous difference. GM idles the plants, workers have nothing to do, workers make no money, workers leave to find another job, no more workers, shut down and sell the plant.
Re:Misleading... Not. (Score:1)
Note that the factory Tesla is using right now, is in fact an old GM/Toyota plant. So it was neither an idle question, nor an idle answer.
GM is also building electric cars and the demand also outstrips supply. For that matter, *every* major car manufacturer has an electric car for sale and every one of them has a waiting list. So the writing is on the wall. Petrol cars are doomed.
The people want electric cars and the supply is at present only limited by the availability of batteries.
Reboot the Environment (Score:2)
"We're trying to help the environment, we think it's the most serious problem that humanity faces...."
Actually, Elon wants to initiate a system crash so that the User will reboot the system.
That's right, Elon Musk is actually Megabyte.
PR Stunt (Score:1)
Musk is pretty good at this. Why would he want to take over a GM factory with a whole lot of UAW baggage? GM Management is mostly at fault here but the unions have played a role as well. Is it any wonder that when Toyota, Honda and BMW decided to build plants in the US they chose not to build them in Detroit? They saw all of the union problems the Big 3 have had over the years and did not want to fall into that trap.
Musk is just trying to give the impression that Tesla could be successful in those plants wh
Re: (Score:1)
If trump was smart, he would push to get either Mi or Ohio plants to Tesla, even if they give their first subsidy.
Note that while Mi has blocked Tesla, I suspect that Mi's gov is rethinking things right now. So, should the uaw. They really need to leave Tesla alone.
Elon Musk sure is good (Score:2)
Closing/Idling (Score:3)
GM never said it was closing the plants. It said it was idling production and pulling programs. It might not seem like it, but those are two *very* different things in the automotive world.
Re: (Score:1)
Canadians like Tesla's (Score:2)
Intriguing Idea! (Score:1)
This is what Henry Ford did with HIS Model T; this is what Musk could do.
Ferret
Re: (Score:2)
You expect him to sell a useful electric car for $4,500?
You can barely buy a decent electric bicycle for that much.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
You know, one for each EV delivered.
Quit lying.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: C'mon Elon..tell us what you really want (Score:1)
And the buyer subsidy means the seller can sell for a higher dollar...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Attention Whore Whores (Score:5, Insightful)
Apparently you consider 20% margins "barely succeeds at selling Teslas at a loss".
Apparently you think nearly a billion dollars in free cash flow, when they're still far from having finished optimizing their production processes, and beating NASDAQ by 30% in the past several months, is a giant "Meh".
How are your investments looking these past couple months, AC? ;)
Tesla stock, 5 years (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Thanks. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)