Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Electric car manufacturer Tesla has called for people to volunteer their time, to help Tesla hit production targets and prove the “haters” wrong.
Tesla Asks for Model 3 Factory Volunteers to Prove ‘Haters’ Wrong
By Dana Hull
30 March 2018, 01:12 GMT+10 Updated on 30 March 2018, 02:55 GMT+10
Tesla Inc. exhorted its factory workers to disprove the “haters” betting against the company and is letting a small number of volunteers join the effort to ramp up output of the crucial Model 3 line.
In a pair of internal memos last week, the heads of engineering and production spelled out measures to free up workers for the Model 3 line and challenged them to reach production goals. Doug Field, the engineering chief, told staff that if they can exceed 300 Model 3s a day, it would be an “incredible victory” at a time when short-sellers and critics are increasingly doubting the company’s ability to fulfill CEO Elon Musk’s vision of building a mass-production electric-vehicle manufacturer
“I find that personally insulting, and you should too,” Field wrote in the March 23 email. “Let’s make them regret ever betting against us. You will prove a bunch of haters wrong.”
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The “haters” in this case seems to be a reference to shareholders and investors. Tesla has recently seen its share price collapse, in part because of failure to hit production targets. As a result a lot of traders have reportedly shorted Tesla stock in anticipation of further falls in value.
If Tesla collapses, the failure will represent a remarkable destruction of US taxpayer’s funds. In 2015 LA Times reported Tesla had received over $4.6 billion in government subsidies. $4.6 billion of public money which could have been spent repairing roads or helping poor people ended up being used as green corporate welfare for a private company.
So when Tesla Inc. exhorted its factory workers to disprove the “haters” betting against the company and is letting a small number of volunteers join the effort to ramp up output of the crucial Model 3 line, wasn’t that basically an admission that the “haters’ were right? Seems to me that a successful company would never have to say something like that.
It’s dangerous territory to start renaming tax breaks as ‘subsidies’. Tesla is at least producing something that folk want to buy. His difficulty is in meeting demand.
Jasg: It is only “dangerous” to use the term subsidy the way others may use it. I use it to denote “giving others’ money”. The only dangerous way to use subsidy is to denote letting people keep their own money by paying less tax. Tesla would not have much of anything people would want to buy without them being given other people’s money.
Tesla were allowed to keep more of their own money by tax breaks and they were allowed a low interest loan that they paid back. People who buy Teslas are currently allowed to keep more of their own money by tax credits. Yes that stimulates demand – maybe we should all get more tax breaks for all cars. Or maybe you like higher taxes that stifle demand? If you are arguing it may be an unfair playing field for Tesla owners to get tax credits and others don’t then what about the fact that Tesla have natural barriers to entry to the car market and that is unfair too. Every story has two sides to it. GM were rescued by the taxpayer and now they are back at full strength, paid back the loan and are paying taxes. So was that ‘subsidy’ a good idea? By calling tax breaks a subsidy then logically we are all being subsidised because we could be paying more taxes. Were you prevented from buying a GM truck by Tesla getting a tax break? Think about things a bit deeper!
If they sell pollution credits or allowances, it’s a subsidy not a tax break!
JasG: you: I understand that you’re probably not aware that, revenue from ZEV credits per vehicle sold stands at about $6,250 per car sold/ They are given other people’s money. Yes, people also get tax breaks from buying Teslas. The point is without all of the preference given, Tesla would not be in existence. Teslas up to this point have been a rich person’s toy that they would mostly not otherwise buy if the cars were not subsidized by other people’s money.
This is like commissars in Stalinist Russia exhorting the workers to turn out more tractors. Where you got sent to the Gulag for being 15min late.
I have my order in for a Jaguar I-Pace. After I have driven it for six months I will make comment on here (I will be driving it to places in the Australian bush so that should test it. If I go missing at least readers here can alert the authorities as to my intentions and alert them to bring a charger).
How can the man who has revolutionized rocket boosters be so stupid about the automobile? His dream of electric cars totally blinds him to the number of new coal and gas-powered generating stations that would have to be built to support his dream. Having seen a picture of of a five year old boy working in lithium rich soil in Africa with his family will forever stay with me. What will that do to his system as he absorbs that lithium? That blood is on Musk’s hands.
FYI it was cobalt being mined in Africa, not lithium.
Lithium, despite being used as a drug to treat bipolar conditions, is toxic. Indeed, the toxic dose is dangerously close to the theraputic dose.