Well Tesla has come out with the Medium Range (MR) model. Sadly at first they knocked off $4000 off the original LR RWD model price - which is gone. Now that's only $3000 off as they noted the demand. You still have to pay for a premium interior with glass roof. (which is quite nice BTW) Those people who said Elon would never make the base model appear at least for the moment to be right. This is just like mine except the battery range is 260 miles EPA and a curb weight of 3686 vs my LR RWD at 3814. One hundred and twenty eight pounds lighter presumably due to less battery weight.
Still for those wanting the US tax credit the base car is pretty much the cheapest things can get:
MR 3 in basic black with 18" aero rims delivery & doc - 47200
MD excise tax 2800
Tags 200
Total $50,200 - this is with no Enhanced Autopilot that you can add later.
Then a full tax refund early the next year.... about $43K - pretty good for a new Tesla.
(In Maryland excise tax deductions for electric appears depleted. Should be another $3000 if they get more funding in the summer 2019. So maybe $40K? in Maryland if they fund the program?
Tesla is only guaranteeing the full tax credit for orders placed through Friday Nov 30th because they have to deliver by Dec 31st to make the full tax credit. Orders delivered Jan 1, 2019 to June 30th will get half ($3750) when they file in 2020.
So order now kids for a $40K Tesla not counting your state tax. One day left !!!!
Here's my referral code so you can get free supercharging for six months on top of that:
http://ts.la/david901
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Tesla - US employees fighting for us all
Who is the largest manufacturer in the USA state of California. Tesla. After a four month Cal-OSHA investigation on safety, Tesla was found to have two minor safety reporting issues.
Tesla one-year-in-tesla-update
Remember the NPR/Reveal hit piece on Tesla safety? Tesla sources claimed it was a UAW + a disgruntled employee hit piece. Now I believe that unions have gained many victories for labor - but big unions simply have political agendas. Musk has held off the bad side of unionization by offering great security and rewards for his employees. Now he can offer tremendous safety benefits.
US Jobs, highly compensated and safer. Safest cars in the world.
Profitable company making the cleanest and safest cars in the world. Outcompeting all luxury cars and SUVs, competing (#4) in regular cars, a regular SUV just ahead, and a truck in the wings.
I am not a stock advisor and therefore can't give stock advice, but for me my long Tesla stock purchase is very satisfying. I own a piece of a company trying to save children. Your children. Our future. Not in a greenwash way but in a concrete here and now.
Tesla has many enemies - Oil and gas companies, the Koch brothers, the UAW, parts and maintenance shops, gas stations, auto dealers, and old line auto companies.
This is nothing less then a battle for the survival of our descendants and humankind.
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be rememberèd—
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
The hour seems dark before the US midterms. Foolish men think they can roll back the clock to a smoggy paradise run by the privileged.
Your choice doesn't have to be Tesla which is pricey. A used Volt for $12K can drop your gas use into the basement and involves no compromise. The Bolt is a good electric. If you drive only in the city or local a Leaf can meet short driving needs.
Join us.
Tesla one-year-in-tesla-update
Remember the NPR/Reveal hit piece on Tesla safety? Tesla sources claimed it was a UAW + a disgruntled employee hit piece. Now I believe that unions have gained many victories for labor - but big unions simply have political agendas. Musk has held off the bad side of unionization by offering great security and rewards for his employees. Now he can offer tremendous safety benefits.
US Jobs, highly compensated and safer. Safest cars in the world.
Profitable company making the cleanest and safest cars in the world. Outcompeting all luxury cars and SUVs, competing (#4) in regular cars, a regular SUV just ahead, and a truck in the wings.
I am not a stock advisor and therefore can't give stock advice, but for me my long Tesla stock purchase is very satisfying. I own a piece of a company trying to save children. Your children. Our future. Not in a greenwash way but in a concrete here and now.
Tesla has many enemies - Oil and gas companies, the Koch brothers, the UAW, parts and maintenance shops, gas stations, auto dealers, and old line auto companies.
This is nothing less then a battle for the survival of our descendants and humankind.
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be rememberèd—
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
The hour seems dark before the US midterms. Foolish men think they can roll back the clock to a smoggy paradise run by the privileged.
Your choice doesn't have to be Tesla which is pricey. A used Volt for $12K can drop your gas use into the basement and involves no compromise. The Bolt is a good electric. If you drive only in the city or local a Leaf can meet short driving needs.
Join us.
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
Climate Change - Does anyone have kids?
The dull look I get from 3/4 of people discussing global warming ( screw 'change') show the incredible crime the oil companies and their owners have purposefully committed. A new UN report details time is short by even human civilization's timespan - 22 years to make earth moving change. I believe one day this purposeful genocide will result in a very ugly justice to the fossil fuel barrons involved, their minions, political rulers that went along, and all their descendants. Look at the conservatives rough populist movement and then imagine them without food as the breadbasket of the US bakes in drought. This is in twenty years - not a century.
No amount of science seems to be able move people to leaders who will push renewable energy, carbon taxed economics, smaller families, and sustainable ecological practices. People just can't bring themselves to spend a little more for solar at home or an Electric Vehicle instead of a polluting diesel. One child instead of four. Instead we all paste pictures of our good looking descendents to Facebook. My young men won't be fifty before they are struggling for survival with their families.
Patton Oswalt sounds the alarm better than I:
https://twitter.com/pattonoswalt/status/1049529720503586816
I'm all for human space exploration and even colonization. However even with hundreds of years no other planet exists to make into a paradise - Mars may one day support colonies but it's improbable that it will approach Earth's habitability. So space is great insurance to guard against an asteroid and encouraging a spirit of exploration but don't kid yourself - science has no 'Planet B' for us for centuries if ever. Even a Science Fiction guy can tell you, the vast majority humankind's masses will always be dependent on the good Earth. We stand or fall here.
Apparently we have twenty years to get our shit together. The time for waiting, crying about the cost to business for survival, is over. Grab your pitchforks.
No amount of science seems to be able move people to leaders who will push renewable energy, carbon taxed economics, smaller families, and sustainable ecological practices. People just can't bring themselves to spend a little more for solar at home or an Electric Vehicle instead of a polluting diesel. One child instead of four. Instead we all paste pictures of our good looking descendents to Facebook. My young men won't be fifty before they are struggling for survival with their families.
Patton Oswalt sounds the alarm better than I:
https://twitter.com/pattonoswalt/status/1049529720503586816
Apparently we have twenty years to get our shit together. The time for waiting, crying about the cost to business for survival, is over. Grab your pitchforks.
Monday, October 8, 2018
A nice confirmation from NHTSA - SAFETY !
Hey where was the data on Tesla safety? After all this blog has been big on specs for everything else. I claimed that electrics in general are safer and they are. In particular my latest brand of EV - Tesla.
Basically NHTSA has given the Tesla Model 3 it's best crash rating ever by probability of injury. Electrek and Tesla have the figures below.
electrek.co tesla-model-3-lowest-probability-of-injury-nhtsa
Tesla - Model 3 lowest probability injury...
Now one thing about the best 50 cars NHSTA injury graph shown in the articles is the Y axis for percentage of injuries across the 50 best cars is blown up a bit ranging from best - Tesla Model 3 at ~5.8% up to ~ 8.1 % The mean of the worst 40 in the graph appears to be around 8%. These are the top performers but only Tesla in the top 3 positions for safety is broken out by name. Still a 25% reduction in injury over the pack of safest cars #11-50 is pretty impressive considering the first 3 of the ten are Tesla and then I would guess Volvo + some very high end cars for #4-10.
Now let's look at the figures from Tesla on crashes per mile.
Tesla q3-2018-vehicle-safety-report
Here's the meat:
So 1 (Tesla US) in 4 (All US) crashes for the same mileage. Cool eh? That's WITHOUT autopilot.
With autopilot that goes down further 1 Tesla crash vs 7 general crashes for the same miles driven.
Then if you are in a crash, injury rate is under 6% vs 8% for the safest cars as shown.
My choice of car is an Electric Vehicle rated best for safety on the planet. If my health was half as good.
Basically NHTSA has given the Tesla Model 3 it's best crash rating ever by probability of injury. Electrek and Tesla have the figures below.
electrek.co tesla-model-3-lowest-probability-of-injury-nhtsa
Tesla - Model 3 lowest probability injury...
Now one thing about the best 50 cars NHSTA injury graph shown in the articles is the Y axis for percentage of injuries across the 50 best cars is blown up a bit ranging from best - Tesla Model 3 at ~5.8% up to ~ 8.1 % The mean of the worst 40 in the graph appears to be around 8%. These are the top performers but only Tesla in the top 3 positions for safety is broken out by name. Still a 25% reduction in injury over the pack of safest cars #11-50 is pretty impressive considering the first 3 of the ten are Tesla and then I would guess Volvo + some very high end cars for #4-10.
Now let's look at the figures from Tesla on crashes per mile.
Tesla q3-2018-vehicle-safety-report
Here's the meat:
Here’s a look at the data we’re able to report for Q3:
- Over the past quarter, we’ve registered one accident or crash-like event for every 3.34 million miles driven in which drivers had Autopilot engaged.
- For those driving without Autopilot, we registered one accident or crash-like event for every 1.92 million miles driven. By comparison, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) most recent data shows that in the United States, there is an automobile crash every 492,000 miles. While NHTSA’s data includes accidents that have occurred, our records include accidents as well as near misses (what we are calling crash-like events).
So 1 (Tesla US) in 4 (All US) crashes for the same mileage. Cool eh? That's WITHOUT autopilot.
With autopilot that goes down further 1 Tesla crash vs 7 general crashes for the same miles driven.
Then if you are in a crash, injury rate is under 6% vs 8% for the safest cars as shown.
My choice of car is an Electric Vehicle rated best for safety on the planet. If my health was half as good.
Monday, October 1, 2018
Slippery Tesla
Ok I purposefully made the title sound like a stock shorter's hit piece for a little excitement - I cheated there...
This one is about aerodynamics - which I find fascinating. Again recognizing my betters out there I'm going provide a link to an in depth video way better than my writing can inform you - but first a testimonial.
Many folks care little for efficiency. I care a great deal for it and Circe my Tesla Model 3 has delivered in spades. Having had a Leaf where I labored to get the watt hour per mile metric under 400 for five plus years I really appreciate the TM3 on efficiency these first 10k miles.
This one is about aerodynamics - which I find fascinating. Again recognizing my betters out there I'm going provide a link to an in depth video way better than my writing can inform you - but first a testimonial.
Many folks care little for efficiency. I care a great deal for it and Circe my Tesla Model 3 has delivered in spades. Having had a Leaf where I labored to get the watt hour per mile metric under 400 for five plus years I really appreciate the TM3 on efficiency these first 10k miles.
I know you can barely see it but my Trip B is for the whole 10K+ miles I have on the car over 6 months and three road trips - 260 wh/mile. Now I like to accelerate fast at least a couple of times per short trip in certain places and as needed on long highway trips. I'm also a steady driver during highway portions when I am not accelerating up to speed so my Trip B down to North Carolina shore - 259 wh/mile.
This is because Tesla has out engineered everyone on coefficient of drag - if you will recall from my statistics blog it's 0.23. That's up there with the slickest vehicles ever made. The hubcap/wheels are particularly amazing which is why when others cry about the aero's not looking like a metallic spider I grin and tell them they are the most beautiful wheels ever made. You can keep all the others.
These wheels in particular are very important for the critical band of 70-75 mph I like on the highway. The Leaf could run this easily but the efficiency dropped like a rock. Sadly I can't give you exact numbers but I can tell I still ran 300+ with a few miles to spare pushing that first leg of a road trip in the seventies and I love making that first supercharger with 3% and getting back that first half at 120kw Supercharging in 15 minutes for 160 miles of range or so. We had stopped for lunch and basically got a full charge but we could have easily pulled out after 20 minutes and made it home.
The whole body/chassis design of the Tesla Model 3 is basically this cleverly aerodynamic but you just don't know it. Yet beautiful too - anyone sees that. Well now you can learn in depth - check out this series of two videos by Youtuber Matt Shumaker at Tech Forum. The first is 23 minutes and the second is 12 minutes. Well worth your time on the fine details of auto aerodynamics and the Model 3:
Tech Forum is really worth a subscribe. I love that Matt mentions the old Honda Insight - a pioneer in efficiency. I really recommend his videos on Tesla. All in all it means I can drive faster and yet be in a fun car that performs way better than the first generation of electrics. So glad Tesla and Franz did such an incredible job!
Friday, September 28, 2018
General EV News for September
National Drive Electric Week (NDEW) was a success in many areas. In Poolsville, MD there were record numbers of Electric Vehicles (EVs) over several days.
I instead went to a small session at a library in Walkersville, MD. I kind of like a small gathering and this one features Jonathan Slade & Novia Campbell who made a PBS special about driving an early Nissan Leaf West to East across Maryland on vacation. I can tell you in 2012 that was an accomplishment.
They are also great spokespeople for EVs. While the audience was only a of couple of people the group was enthusiastic and really knowledgeable about the new wider world of electric transport.
I got to show off my Tesla Model 3, but both a Nissan Leaf and Hyundai Ioniq were there too. I wish we were a bigger group but hopefully this will grow next year with better announcement. Jonathan did a presentation with a lot of behind the scenes details of his journey into electric driving. It was quite amusing as well as interesting. I gave Novia a test drive of the Model after the presentation.
I also got to see the Emmy they earned for their movie - very impressive.
Next September I invite you, consider attending or better yet volunteering for National Drive Electric Week. I think you will learn about many different electric options by next year.
Friday, September 21, 2018
Latest Bob Lutz 2018 inaccuracies analyzed
Bob Lutz 2018 on Tesla - debunked one piece at a time.
( With thanks to Rob Maurer at Tesla Daily Podcast (TDPC) 9/19/18, CNBC, Autoline After Hours & John McElroy, Jack Rickard, Sandy Munroe, Patrick C at Cars with Cords, IIHS, and Bob Lutz himself. )
Lutz recently quoted by Maurer :
"They will never make money on the Model 3, because the cost is way too high. He's (Musk) got 9000 people in that assembly plant producing less than 150,000 cars a year. The whole thing just doesn't compute. It's an automobile company that is headed for the graveyard." (RM TDPC quoting Lutz 2018)
Maurer tears this 150,000 number apart nicely, which I'll document. Let's go deeper on the whole statement. I really want to tear this apart to show how this 'expert' statement is quite under analyzed.
So even using Lutz's inaccurate numbers let's get a ratio per car
Tesla Fremont factory - 150,000 / 9000 factory workers = 16.6 cars per factory worker.
GM Lordstown plant made 51,265 Cruzes in 2nd qtr 2017 so next annualize at the best rate:
GM Lordstown factory 205,060 / 5000 factory workers = 41 cars per US factory worker.
( I can't find a number of employees at the plant but GM website says 2017 was a 250 million payroll. Guessing a average of $25 an hr that's 5000 workers before the 2017-2018 layoffs and slowdown. That's where I'm 'computing' an employee estimate. )
https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/company_info/facilities/assembly/lordstown.html
So indeed if Bob's numbers were accurate (they are not), 16.6 cars per for Tesla seems a problem. Wait just a minute though. The GM Cruze sold for $17,800 including destination - let's spitball round that up to $20000 with a couple of thousand in options. Of course GM is sharing that with the dealer network by wholesale selling and dealer holdouts / incentives. The currently available lowest cost Tesla Model 3 starts at $49K. The performance is $79K. The 1st Qtr 2018 reported production from Tesla's Investor reports of 34,494 with 24,728 S and X models - considerable more expensive. Q2 2018 - 53,339 with 28,578 Model 3 and 24,761 S and X models. In other words a Tesla goes for a price 2.5 times the Cruze on the lowest model and Bob should be able read production reports like any adult. If I multiply 16.6 by 2.5 price adjustment I get *surprise* 41.5. Even that is low, we should correct much higher with S and X's selling at least 80,000 this year - 4 to 5 times the cost of a Cruze.
Let's also correct his numbers based just on published numbers that are at least 60 days old and assume no growth (though Bob Lutz should know these too). From Tesla's investor info above the 2018 first half production was 87,833. Double that and an annualized rate of 175,666 would lead to the least rounded estimate of 175,000. That's with no more growth and how likely is that? Still his estimate of 150,000 reeks of either setup or ignorance - neither is pretty. Where did the 25K go Mr. Lutz?
Now let's give it a reasonable ballpark if you've done your homework. Maurer's estimate is of the current annualized rate based on 3Q is 75,000 - that gives 300,000. Doubles the production rate in Lutz's estimate. Heck let's go easy and just look at overall 2018 - we are talking easily 235,000 cars this year. At that point his 2018 car per Tesla worker calculation goes from 16.6 to 26 cars per worker.
Did Lutz do BMW vs GM calculations based on cars per worker? No.
Let's go one further and compare overall company numbers:
Tesla overall - 235,000-300,000 / 30,000 Tesla employees = about 10 cars per worker.
GM sales for 2017 = 9.6 million.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/225326/amount-of-cars-sold-by-general-motors-worldwide/
From Bloomberg auto employee stats for GM
Giant GM 2017 9.6 million car / 180,000 workers. 53.3 cars per worker. Remember in this case we are counting the $3 an hour worker in Mexico but not the worldwide dealership employees - they are separate corporate entities from GM. I also don't have median wholesale price to contrast vehicles for cost or profit.

I just don't think you can successfully get an apples to apples comparison with the worker / car metrics when one company is in sustainable solar energy and home battery backup, large scale industrial batteries, and high end electric cars. Plus Tesla does maintenance and delivery functions in house in the company vs separate dealer corporations.
"Tesla is hemorrhaging cash and due to SEC investigation is not able to raise the capital that they need." (RM TDPC quoting Lutz 2018)
Tesla's losses are clearly headed down this quarter, they have cash on hand, and their gross revenue is skyrocketing. Currently the Model 3 provides more revenue dollars than ANY other car model in US sales. I believe there is an excellent chance the final quarter this year will find the Model 3 in top 4 car makes (or better) in numbers too.
"Tesla has no tech advantage, no software advantage, no battery advantage, no advantages whatsoever." (RM TDPC quoting Lutz 2018)
This really is annoying. All recent comparisons of driver assist have given the Model 3 top marks. Tesla makes all the new safety features like emergency braking available standard - who else does this? They are unifying software across their models on in house platform for navigation and car control. They have their huge suite of sensors and driving computer built in standard on every car. Updates such as improving your braking distance are done Over The Air (OTA) - no other manufacturer does this. Munroe US and at least one German automotive evaluation company have torn the cars apart and estimate they are profitable to make. The examinations of the TM3 battery pack are rating it the most advanced in the business. We have tons of stats showing Tesla batteries with the least degradation of all EV's out there (Teslanomics for more info and stats). As Rob Maurer points out on technology Bob Lutz previously predicted the gull wing doors would never work - ha. Lutz thinks his 'Destino' is cutting edge tech - but only if he can make people interested in ICE kit cars. Unproven so far as there no track record for that business I can find. In fact the only tech Tesla doesn't have is Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) because they are no longer the future.
Finally for the Lutz 'no tech in autonomy' opinion look at this August 2018 IIHS article at the bottom test result chart. The Model 3 is ahead of everyone, including older Teslas, and darned near perfect in the stats. I'd call that a tech lead and they are NOT giving away the code. Article here:
IIHS.org Evaluating Autonomy...
---------------------------------------------------------
If you want to listen to Rob's whole podcast please check him out on itunes or this Stitcher link.
https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/tesla-daily-tesla-news-analysis
He has great counterpoints on all the above quotes and more.
Next rather than rehash Tesla's advantages I'll let Patrick C, blogger at Cars With Cords and panelist on youtube's The Tesla Life explain the Tesla advantages:
Cars With Cords / Moats - Why Tesla can do...
The Tesla Life
------------------------------------------------------------
I want to add some of Bob Lutz's quotes from the Autoline After Hours show #436 9/20/18 on youtube. I believe this went much deeper than the short interviews and I'd like to quote it some.
At first Lutz discusses general car and truck info and seems generally knowable. Oddly he is not as into the details on the Destino as one would think he might be. He mentions he's 87 - I gotta say he looks good for that and converses well. Perhaps age has him stuck on his old positions, but it hasn't slowed down his wit and general knowledge. Clearly loves American muscle cars - which I can't fault. He also acknowledges electric hybrids for racing - for obvious four wheel and 0-60 reasons.
He bemoans the end of vehicle ownership.
VLF - Destino is now instead a Hummer custom producer. He says low flow production will be there for Middle East and China first. I interpret that as nothing happening now and original Fisker model is dead. Not a lot coming from startup business from a Tesla critic. Lutz admits the Tesla design language is compelling aside from being electric. Loves Franz von Holzhausen (so say we all...). Then they all agree Tesla is a disaster as a business. Then Lutz talks about all the future competitors to Tesla - several cases of which John McElroy tears apart. He admits Teslas have a big margin, but claims the competition will come in lower using ICE to undersell Tesla. He admits to Tesla mindshare but then claims 200,000 cars a year is too tiny. However he just got finished calling that rate 150,000 for CNBC. This really tells me there is some sandbagging for the CNBC 150,000 / 9000 ratio going on. A couple phone calls answered. He makes a case that the Germans are running on rep and that some new Caddies and Lincolns are better but can't compete on exclusivity. Lutz also seems to see his Tesla shtick is fading so he again gets into how sad the loss of the real fans of cars are.
More reminiscing, then back to Tesla. The question is who should acquire Tesla given it's business model is problematic (?) Here we go with again - the quote from Lutz - "I don't know, but, would anybody? The only thing, that they have no technology that nobody else has. Absolutely no technological advantage, not in autonomy, not in batteries, not in control systems, it's just an electric car like everybody else." shtick. John M counters with the Munroe teardown and once again Lutz kinda mumbles. Now we lose sound. Then we are back to reminiscing about Hummers etc.
Mind you that quote was right after Lutz admits how compelling the style and design of Franz von Holzhausen is. Countering the rest of the repeated negative points is spread across this whole article.
Finally because of the tech issues they go over the buying Tesla question again. Henry Payne asks "So Bob, If Tesla's not a viable business proposition on it's own, then, who should buy it?" . Lutz repeats his theme response: "Well ah, First of all you have to ask the counter question 'Why would anyone (buy Tesla)'. and ah.. The only answer I can see is ah.. you'd buy it for the name and reputation. Because I don't think there's any battery technology or autonomous vehicle technology that isn't basically available to everybody else. ah.. So my guess is, if someone were to buy it, it would be to acquire a very valuable brand. Ah.. Would it be GM or Ford? - I doubt that very much. Could be one of the Europeans. Could be an Asian producer. Could be a Chinese producer wanting own a very very powerful and legitimate brand. Or it could even be somebody not in the automotive business like a Google or an Apple or one of the Chinese electronics companies. But that would have the problem that once again it would remain a small car company not embedded in a larger automobile company where you've got shared engineering and shared fixed costs. So it would remain a small vulnerable producer. And, the ownership would be in the hands of people who don't understand the car business, which you know, is always a problem."
John M then asks what he thinks of Powerwalls, Solar City(SC), and the Semi. Lutz then puts down Powerwalls and Solar City/Tesla Solar and calls them "A flop.". He says less than two dozen Americans have Power Walls beside Tesla executives.
I resent that because I own a PowerWall 2 and Tesla Solar and I like it very much and have many other friends with these systems. Yes there are many cheaper solar systems out there but I'm very impressed with the tech in mine acting as both home electric generation and seamless UPS. So again Bob Lutz disparages without presenting facts or stats. I'd love to see them.
Also it's well documented that the battery business is much more than residential. Here's Tesla's Australia 55 million dollar system making 16 million in revenue in 6 months. A flop eh?
Tesla powerpack battery australia...
Then about the Tesla semis then Lutz says quote: "As for the Electric Semi, I think both of those were push mobiles. You know they were elaborate things made out of a wood framework with ah plaster of paris troweled on them. Ah... First of all the total Semi market in the States is so tiny annually that even if you dominated it you're not talking very much volume and secondly every semi manufacturer whether it's Freightliner, (Daimler), Volvo, etc and even Cummins is coming out with a fully electric drivetrain for heavy trucks." (Snip long verbiage saying this is a small and competitive business) " Most Fleet owners tend to stay with the same brand." (Snip - he goes on and moves into issues with Elon with etc. - I find this area subjective and covered above so I'll skip.)
Now I'm frosted again! The semi's are not clay or plaster models. Or course they are prototypes but clearly they are practical enough to drive around the country to and from possible customers. Lutz has to know this if he is at all following electrics. So either he is woefully ignorant of the news on electric freight in the past year and therefore does not know what he is talking about, or he is deliberately false about these development semis. Dozens of articles are documenting months of the Tesla semis crossing the country. Google Electrek and Tesla Semi - it's not hard.
Personally my **guess**, not even having a car background is: Tesla took off the shelf items like axles, suspension, truck wheels, air brakes, etc components. Weld a pair of custom frames and add 2-4 Model 3 battery sleds, high end Model 3 computers, Model 3 steering actuators, and a Model 3 RWD motor for each of 4 of the 6 double wheels. Now add Model 3 AC/Heating steering and screen with custom longer wiring harness again totally based on Model 3 with software tweeks. Add trailer hitch components and lighting/trailer brake hook ups. Finally get some sheet metal guys to make an aerodynamic lightweight body and seating. Lutz the secret sauce is the Model 3 components! The reason Daimler says it can't work is because they, like Lutz is clueless as to how advanced the Model 3 components are. How by pumping out of a giant factory they are becoming the world's most advanced battery sleds at commodity scale and pricing - to Tesla only of course. Why build a special pack? When your off the shelf one in a group can be ganged up to do the job? If you read my previous blogs you know my estimate for the advanced 75 kwh pack in the next two years falls to $10k wholesale within Tesla. $40K for a 300kwh battery with lighting recharge by ganging up 4 Supercharger cords. Not only will it be easy to build 'Truck Superchargers' with your present tech but in a emergency regular SuperCharger stations would be an option.
Does no one have any imagination as to how Tesla would leverage its advantages? Yes they open source their patents but this doesn't give anyone their copyrighted software or manufacturing trade secrets. Just because they are new to trucking is it impossible to add an employee or two with truck experience?
Tesla's 'secret' is they are light years ahead on the battery sled and powerful computer controls - ask battery/electronic expert Jack Rickard and Munroe Automotive.
Rickard on Model 3 Battery Tech
Rickard blog - Tesla model 3 gone battshit
So what's left - yes Tesla may be learning how to build bigger frames and suspensions. Differences in steering, braking, suspension software on a big rig. Reusing all the base software components and refactoring for the new size and physics. A lot of which they have been modeling on a smaller scale for years with their own tools - call it the 'Tesla OS' advantage. Trailer hookups.
You know what isn't an advantage is the new semi business? Diesel motors. Mufflers. 20 gear transmissions. Clutches, Diesel tanks, filters, injectors, etc. Time for a whole generation of employed experts to start drawing early pensions.
So let's look at the next failure of imagination as usual. Lutz in so many words says the market for semi's is small. I would respond that your highest costs are diesel and drivers - not big rigs. The company that cuts your fuel cost in half and allows one driver to lead a fleet of 4 semis across the country using *todays* autonomous highway software with a few tweeks - is Tesla. With that level of advantage you don't just replace this year's worn out semi.
You replace them all. With your already developed, very advanced electric tech.
Even if I disagree with Lutz - and believe me I do, this show is worth watching. The final diatribe starts at 1:22:15 and the sad part is Lutz is a very convincing, well spoken guy - perhaps the advantages we Tesla owners see won't be enough and he'll be right. My money's on Tesla. Get the full answers and context and check it out for yourself:
Autoline AfterHours Lutz interview
Autoline Afterhours is also where you can find Sandy Munroe's analysis of Tesla's computer and battery advantages - I leave finding these as an exercise for the reader.
Enjoy!
( With thanks to Rob Maurer at Tesla Daily Podcast (TDPC) 9/19/18, CNBC, Autoline After Hours & John McElroy, Jack Rickard, Sandy Munroe, Patrick C at Cars with Cords, IIHS, and Bob Lutz himself. )
First the September 2018 CNBC Quotes
Lutz recently quoted by Maurer :
"They will never make money on the Model 3, because the cost is way too high. He's (Musk) got 9000 people in that assembly plant producing less than 150,000 cars a year. The whole thing just doesn't compute. It's an automobile company that is headed for the graveyard." (RM TDPC quoting Lutz 2018)
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| He's been cranky at Tesla for years - October 2015 |
Maurer tears this 150,000 number apart nicely, which I'll document. Let's go deeper on the whole statement. I really want to tear this apart to show how this 'expert' statement is quite under analyzed.
So even using Lutz's inaccurate numbers let's get a ratio per car
Tesla Fremont factory - 150,000 / 9000 factory workers = 16.6 cars per factory worker.
GM Lordstown plant made 51,265 Cruzes in 2nd qtr 2017 so next annualize at the best rate:
GM Lordstown factory 205,060 / 5000 factory workers = 41 cars per US factory worker.
( I can't find a number of employees at the plant but GM website says 2017 was a 250 million payroll. Guessing a average of $25 an hr that's 5000 workers before the 2017-2018 layoffs and slowdown. That's where I'm 'computing' an employee estimate. )
https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/company_info/facilities/assembly/lordstown.html
So indeed if Bob's numbers were accurate (they are not), 16.6 cars per for Tesla seems a problem. Wait just a minute though. The GM Cruze sold for $17,800 including destination - let's spitball round that up to $20000 with a couple of thousand in options. Of course GM is sharing that with the dealer network by wholesale selling and dealer holdouts / incentives. The currently available lowest cost Tesla Model 3 starts at $49K. The performance is $79K. The 1st Qtr 2018 reported production from Tesla's Investor reports of 34,494 with 24,728 S and X models - considerable more expensive. Q2 2018 - 53,339 with 28,578 Model 3 and 24,761 S and X models. In other words a Tesla goes for a price 2.5 times the Cruze on the lowest model and Bob should be able read production reports like any adult. If I multiply 16.6 by 2.5 price adjustment I get *surprise* 41.5. Even that is low, we should correct much higher with S and X's selling at least 80,000 this year - 4 to 5 times the cost of a Cruze.
Let's also correct his numbers based just on published numbers that are at least 60 days old and assume no growth (though Bob Lutz should know these too). From Tesla's investor info above the 2018 first half production was 87,833. Double that and an annualized rate of 175,666 would lead to the least rounded estimate of 175,000. That's with no more growth and how likely is that? Still his estimate of 150,000 reeks of either setup or ignorance - neither is pretty. Where did the 25K go Mr. Lutz?
Now let's give it a reasonable ballpark if you've done your homework. Maurer's estimate is of the current annualized rate based on 3Q is 75,000 - that gives 300,000. Doubles the production rate in Lutz's estimate. Heck let's go easy and just look at overall 2018 - we are talking easily 235,000 cars this year. At that point his 2018 car per Tesla worker calculation goes from 16.6 to 26 cars per worker.
Did Lutz do BMW vs GM calculations based on cars per worker? No.
Let's go one further and compare overall company numbers:
Tesla overall - 235,000-300,000 / 30,000 Tesla employees = about 10 cars per worker.
GM sales for 2017 = 9.6 million.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/225326/amount-of-cars-sold-by-general-motors-worldwide/
From Bloomberg auto employee stats for GM

I just don't think you can successfully get an apples to apples comparison with the worker / car metrics when one company is in sustainable solar energy and home battery backup, large scale industrial batteries, and high end electric cars. Plus Tesla does maintenance and delivery functions in house in the company vs separate dealer corporations.
"Tesla is hemorrhaging cash and due to SEC investigation is not able to raise the capital that they need." (RM TDPC quoting Lutz 2018)
Tesla's losses are clearly headed down this quarter, they have cash on hand, and their gross revenue is skyrocketing. Currently the Model 3 provides more revenue dollars than ANY other car model in US sales. I believe there is an excellent chance the final quarter this year will find the Model 3 in top 4 car makes (or better) in numbers too.
"Tesla has no tech advantage, no software advantage, no battery advantage, no advantages whatsoever." (RM TDPC quoting Lutz 2018)
This really is annoying. All recent comparisons of driver assist have given the Model 3 top marks. Tesla makes all the new safety features like emergency braking available standard - who else does this? They are unifying software across their models on in house platform for navigation and car control. They have their huge suite of sensors and driving computer built in standard on every car. Updates such as improving your braking distance are done Over The Air (OTA) - no other manufacturer does this. Munroe US and at least one German automotive evaluation company have torn the cars apart and estimate they are profitable to make. The examinations of the TM3 battery pack are rating it the most advanced in the business. We have tons of stats showing Tesla batteries with the least degradation of all EV's out there (Teslanomics for more info and stats). As Rob Maurer points out on technology Bob Lutz previously predicted the gull wing doors would never work - ha. Lutz thinks his 'Destino' is cutting edge tech - but only if he can make people interested in ICE kit cars. Unproven so far as there no track record for that business I can find. In fact the only tech Tesla doesn't have is Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) because they are no longer the future.
Finally for the Lutz 'no tech in autonomy' opinion look at this August 2018 IIHS article at the bottom test result chart. The Model 3 is ahead of everyone, including older Teslas, and darned near perfect in the stats. I'd call that a tech lead and they are NOT giving away the code. Article here:
IIHS.org Evaluating Autonomy...
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If you want to listen to Rob's whole podcast please check him out on itunes or this Stitcher link.
https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/tesla-daily-tesla-news-analysis
He has great counterpoints on all the above quotes and more.
Next rather than rehash Tesla's advantages I'll let Patrick C, blogger at Cars With Cords and panelist on youtube's The Tesla Life explain the Tesla advantages:
Cars With Cords / Moats - Why Tesla can do...
The Tesla Life
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Next the September 20th Autoline Quotes - Especially the Semi Quotes
I want to add some of Bob Lutz's quotes from the Autoline After Hours show #436 9/20/18 on youtube. I believe this went much deeper than the short interviews and I'd like to quote it some.
At first Lutz discusses general car and truck info and seems generally knowable. Oddly he is not as into the details on the Destino as one would think he might be. He mentions he's 87 - I gotta say he looks good for that and converses well. Perhaps age has him stuck on his old positions, but it hasn't slowed down his wit and general knowledge. Clearly loves American muscle cars - which I can't fault. He also acknowledges electric hybrids for racing - for obvious four wheel and 0-60 reasons.
He bemoans the end of vehicle ownership.
VLF - Destino is now instead a Hummer custom producer. He says low flow production will be there for Middle East and China first. I interpret that as nothing happening now and original Fisker model is dead. Not a lot coming from startup business from a Tesla critic. Lutz admits the Tesla design language is compelling aside from being electric. Loves Franz von Holzhausen (so say we all...). Then they all agree Tesla is a disaster as a business. Then Lutz talks about all the future competitors to Tesla - several cases of which John McElroy tears apart. He admits Teslas have a big margin, but claims the competition will come in lower using ICE to undersell Tesla. He admits to Tesla mindshare but then claims 200,000 cars a year is too tiny. However he just got finished calling that rate 150,000 for CNBC. This really tells me there is some sandbagging for the CNBC 150,000 / 9000 ratio going on. A couple phone calls answered. He makes a case that the Germans are running on rep and that some new Caddies and Lincolns are better but can't compete on exclusivity. Lutz also seems to see his Tesla shtick is fading so he again gets into how sad the loss of the real fans of cars are.
More reminiscing, then back to Tesla. The question is who should acquire Tesla given it's business model is problematic (?) Here we go with again - the quote from Lutz - "I don't know, but, would anybody? The only thing, that they have no technology that nobody else has. Absolutely no technological advantage, not in autonomy, not in batteries, not in control systems, it's just an electric car like everybody else." shtick. John M counters with the Munroe teardown and once again Lutz kinda mumbles. Now we lose sound. Then we are back to reminiscing about Hummers etc.
Mind you that quote was right after Lutz admits how compelling the style and design of Franz von Holzhausen is. Countering the rest of the repeated negative points is spread across this whole article.
Finally because of the tech issues they go over the buying Tesla question again. Henry Payne asks "So Bob, If Tesla's not a viable business proposition on it's own, then, who should buy it?" . Lutz repeats his theme response: "Well ah, First of all you have to ask the counter question 'Why would anyone (buy Tesla)'. and ah.. The only answer I can see is ah.. you'd buy it for the name and reputation. Because I don't think there's any battery technology or autonomous vehicle technology that isn't basically available to everybody else. ah.. So my guess is, if someone were to buy it, it would be to acquire a very valuable brand. Ah.. Would it be GM or Ford? - I doubt that very much. Could be one of the Europeans. Could be an Asian producer. Could be a Chinese producer wanting own a very very powerful and legitimate brand. Or it could even be somebody not in the automotive business like a Google or an Apple or one of the Chinese electronics companies. But that would have the problem that once again it would remain a small car company not embedded in a larger automobile company where you've got shared engineering and shared fixed costs. So it would remain a small vulnerable producer. And, the ownership would be in the hands of people who don't understand the car business, which you know, is always a problem."
John M then asks what he thinks of Powerwalls, Solar City(SC), and the Semi. Lutz then puts down Powerwalls and Solar City/Tesla Solar and calls them "A flop.". He says less than two dozen Americans have Power Walls beside Tesla executives.
I resent that because I own a PowerWall 2 and Tesla Solar and I like it very much and have many other friends with these systems. Yes there are many cheaper solar systems out there but I'm very impressed with the tech in mine acting as both home electric generation and seamless UPS. So again Bob Lutz disparages without presenting facts or stats. I'd love to see them.
Also it's well documented that the battery business is much more than residential. Here's Tesla's Australia 55 million dollar system making 16 million in revenue in 6 months. A flop eh?
Tesla powerpack battery australia...
Then about the Tesla semis then Lutz says quote: "As for the Electric Semi, I think both of those were push mobiles. You know they were elaborate things made out of a wood framework with ah plaster of paris troweled on them. Ah... First of all the total Semi market in the States is so tiny annually that even if you dominated it you're not talking very much volume and secondly every semi manufacturer whether it's Freightliner, (Daimler), Volvo, etc and even Cummins is coming out with a fully electric drivetrain for heavy trucks." (Snip long verbiage saying this is a small and competitive business) " Most Fleet owners tend to stay with the same brand." (Snip - he goes on and moves into issues with Elon with etc. - I find this area subjective and covered above so I'll skip.)
Now I'm frosted again! The semi's are not clay or plaster models. Or course they are prototypes but clearly they are practical enough to drive around the country to and from possible customers. Lutz has to know this if he is at all following electrics. So either he is woefully ignorant of the news on electric freight in the past year and therefore does not know what he is talking about, or he is deliberately false about these development semis. Dozens of articles are documenting months of the Tesla semis crossing the country. Google Electrek and Tesla Semi - it's not hard.
Personally my **guess**, not even having a car background is: Tesla took off the shelf items like axles, suspension, truck wheels, air brakes, etc components. Weld a pair of custom frames and add 2-4 Model 3 battery sleds, high end Model 3 computers, Model 3 steering actuators, and a Model 3 RWD motor for each of 4 of the 6 double wheels. Now add Model 3 AC/Heating steering and screen with custom longer wiring harness again totally based on Model 3 with software tweeks. Add trailer hitch components and lighting/trailer brake hook ups. Finally get some sheet metal guys to make an aerodynamic lightweight body and seating. Lutz the secret sauce is the Model 3 components! The reason Daimler says it can't work is because they, like Lutz is clueless as to how advanced the Model 3 components are. How by pumping out of a giant factory they are becoming the world's most advanced battery sleds at commodity scale and pricing - to Tesla only of course. Why build a special pack? When your off the shelf one in a group can be ganged up to do the job? If you read my previous blogs you know my estimate for the advanced 75 kwh pack in the next two years falls to $10k wholesale within Tesla. $40K for a 300kwh battery with lighting recharge by ganging up 4 Supercharger cords. Not only will it be easy to build 'Truck Superchargers' with your present tech but in a emergency regular SuperCharger stations would be an option.
Does no one have any imagination as to how Tesla would leverage its advantages? Yes they open source their patents but this doesn't give anyone their copyrighted software or manufacturing trade secrets. Just because they are new to trucking is it impossible to add an employee or two with truck experience?
Tesla's 'secret' is they are light years ahead on the battery sled and powerful computer controls - ask battery/electronic expert Jack Rickard and Munroe Automotive.
Rickard on Model 3 Battery Tech
Rickard blog - Tesla model 3 gone battshit
So what's left - yes Tesla may be learning how to build bigger frames and suspensions. Differences in steering, braking, suspension software on a big rig. Reusing all the base software components and refactoring for the new size and physics. A lot of which they have been modeling on a smaller scale for years with their own tools - call it the 'Tesla OS' advantage. Trailer hookups.
You know what isn't an advantage is the new semi business? Diesel motors. Mufflers. 20 gear transmissions. Clutches, Diesel tanks, filters, injectors, etc. Time for a whole generation of employed experts to start drawing early pensions.
So let's look at the next failure of imagination as usual. Lutz in so many words says the market for semi's is small. I would respond that your highest costs are diesel and drivers - not big rigs. The company that cuts your fuel cost in half and allows one driver to lead a fleet of 4 semis across the country using *todays* autonomous highway software with a few tweeks - is Tesla. With that level of advantage you don't just replace this year's worn out semi.
You replace them all. With your already developed, very advanced electric tech.
Even if I disagree with Lutz - and believe me I do, this show is worth watching. The final diatribe starts at 1:22:15 and the sad part is Lutz is a very convincing, well spoken guy - perhaps the advantages we Tesla owners see won't be enough and he'll be right. My money's on Tesla. Get the full answers and context and check it out for yourself:
Autoline AfterHours Lutz interview
Autoline Afterhours is also where you can find Sandy Munroe's analysis of Tesla's computer and battery advantages - I leave finding these as an exercise for the reader.
Enjoy!
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