[akmiller]

1. I'd like to see your source for this.

As far as ICE companies competing, most of what we've seen so far is fairly limited and there is good reason for this. Their whole profit model is built on the dealership model and serious investment into electric cars is going to, essentially, nullify that model of doing business. Moving to electric cars is not just an incremental changes for current large automobile companies but an entire paradigm shift in how they do business.

[ra7]

The source is Tesla's balance sheet. If you remove the credits, they're losing money. But of course, they're spending a lot for things like building factories and scaling up.

[dragontamer]

> they're spending a lot for things like building factories

Building factories is CapEx. CapEx does NOT affect profits, only cash flow.

Factories indirectly hurt profits through depreciation. But its a very round-about way of doing things. The important thing is that profits / loss is a forward looking statement implicitly.

[andrewmcwatters]

> CapEx does NOT affect profits

Yeah, yeah, and paying a mortgage doesn't affect my savings rate.

[dragontamer]

What?

"Savings rate" is defined as monthly disposable income. Your mortgage absolutely lowers your savings rate.

Your mortgage would also affect your cash flow. If we're talking about profit/loss, the interest-portion of your mortgage absolutely affects your profit/loss.

Only the principle portion of your mortgage statement is "free" from a profit/loss perspective. Which it is: you can always leverage the principle into a HELOC or other financial instrument if you need emergency cash.

[perl4ever]

Their balance sheet? Or their earnings statement?

[xkjkls]

> Their whole profit model is built on the dealership model

The US is not the only country that makes cars, and auto manufacturers in other countries often have many different models on how to sell cars. The European companies have been producing many compelling EV models, which is why Tesla has been declining in market share in Europe for more than a year.

[ryathal]

Electric cars will still need service, and if Tesla is any indication they will need a lot of it. Sure they don't need oil changes, but that's not really a big deal overall. Dealerships still make logistics easier when you pump out cars at the big three level.