Not OP but regarding sources, there’s a community referred to as “TSLAQ” (Q referring to a letter typically added to bankrupt stock symbols) that’s been critical of TSLA’s accounting practices. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Tesla,_Inc.#Ac…
Comment on Elon Musk demands another huge payday from Tesla
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 1 year agoThey have a direct sales model which is more expensive to operate and exaggerates profit margin.
How would adding a middleman that also has to make profit make the company earn less? Wouldn’t direct sales allow Tesla to sell for a higher price because they can sell at retail instead of a “wholesale” cost normally sold to a dealership?
People who look closely have consistently concluded that Tesla cannot really be making money, or have very narrow profit margins at best.
I’d be interested in reading more on this assertion. Do you have a source you can point me to?
rsuri@lemmy.world 1 year ago
wikibot@lemmy.world [bot] 1 year ago
Here’s the section for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:
= In 2017, a lawsuit alleged Tesla made materially false and misleading statements regarding its preparedness to produce Model 3 cars. The U. S. Department of Justice also began an investigation in 2018 into whether Tesla misled investors and misstated production figures about the Model 3. The lawsuit was dismissed in Tesla’s favor in March 2019.
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Hypx@kbin.social 1 year ago
You have to build the entire system out yourself. That costs a lot of money. The dealership model also costs the manufacturer basically zero dollars, because it really profits on used car sales and maintenance works. You don't make anymore money by having your own dealerships. The whole argument that there's some secret behind Tesla's business smacks of gaslighting, not something that actually holds up to reason.
It's been a long standing issue with Tesla's accounting. No one can really explain how profits are actually being generated, especially considering everyone in the West is losing money on EVs. It's also being ran entirely by sycophants and people with minimal qualifications, with zero accountability anywhere. So it just seems, via Occam's razor, that they're cooking the books.
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The manufacturer also has to pay dealerships for warranty work on vehicles. Company owned services centers wouldn’t.
I’m interested in that source you talked about the “people who looked closely”.
Hypx@kbin.social 1 year ago
You still have to pay out warranty work either way. Someone has to fix it after all.
There are many people who have made the claim that Tesla doesn’t really make money. You can google it up. Just look for stuff like “tesla profits” or “tesla not profitable” and you see it. Also, the only people who do vigorously insistent that Tesla is profitable are the fanboy investors and some of the least credible analysts out there. It screams gaslighting no matter how you look at all.
partial_accumen@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yes, but if you’re paying a dealer, they need to be paid to make it worth their while. Manufacturers using dealers are essentially hiring an outside company for the work. This would contrast very differently with a direct sales company that simply has its own employees doing the work. A direct sales company doesn’t need to “profit” from the effort put into its warranty work.
Again its a public company. You can download the 10-K directly from SEC.gov.
Are you saying Tesla is lying in their public reports? Keep in mind these are also audited by large outside companies. I think Tesla uses PWC.
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