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Tesla takes on $30B in credit as it approaches unprofitability

161 points · 221 comments · ciconia

  1. bpodgursky · · focus · HN ↗
    I'm not convinced Tesla's schizophrenic strategy is any worse than the strategy of the legacy American automakers, which is to sleepwalk directly into a volcano (when Chinese EV manufactures break into the market with $10k SUVs)
    1. lnsru · · focus · HN ↗
      Elon gambled with cybertruck and didn’t won. The winning strategy was to outcompete Chinese with smaller affordable vehicle. I would call it common sense strategy after all.
      1. riffraff · · focus · HN ↗
        The cybertruck was a disaster but I think the main issue is they didn't do any new model after that for almost a decade.

        Also, Musk getting into politics and alienating most of its consumer base, of course.

        1. calgoo · · focus · HN ↗
          That last part is a big thing, especially in Europe where a lot of their sales have almost stopped as no one wants to drive a nazi car.
          1. DaSHacka · · focus · HN ↗
            AfD seems to be doing a little too well across the sea for me to believe that
            1. culi · · focus · HN ↗
              They might see a rebound from last year which was a bad year for them but that's likely driven by some pretty aggressive price cuts.

              China is actually nearly 3x bigger market for them than Europe and we have clearer numbers on how that's going:

                2019:  45,372
                2020: 137,459
                2021: 320,743
                2022: 439,770
                2023: 603,664
                2024: 657,102
                2025: 625,698
              
              2026 so far has been shaping up to be a huge contraction. Only 316,251 were shipped in the first 8 months. (BYD sold 440k units in August alone)
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