Even Tesla – the wunderkind of device makers – is having trouble selling devices. Global sales are down 2.3 percent and new registrations (synonymous with sales) are down by 7.3 percent in the U.S.
The decline is due to two things. The first being that awareness about the day-to-day realities of living with a device has spread, very much of a piece with the way “hesitancy” about the drugs that were pushed as “vaccines” increased as people came to realize that these drugs stopped the spread of exactly nothing and at the cost of possibly ruining one’s health.
Devices ruin one’s day.
It is necessary to plan ahead for every trip. To be sure you have enough charge to get there – and back. Factoring in the cold – or the heat. To allot time to wait. If you forget to plan, you will have to deal. It gets really old really fast.
At ludicrous speed, you might say.
So also the ludicrous losses. Devices depreciate – lose value – much faster than vehicles, which is another way of saying they cost more, another way. They cost more to buy and they cost more to keep – due to rapid depreciation, which effaces the “savings” on oil and filter changes you often hear device-makers and defenders tout.
The main reason for the daunting depreciation of devices is the now-common-knowledge about the inevitable cost of replacing a device’s battery pack, which can run to $10,000 or more. Maybe you – the original owner of the device – will not have to pay to replace the device’s battery. But the next owner of the device almost certainly will – and he knows it. This has had the same effect on the trade-in/resale value of a device that knowing the used vehicle you’re considering is going to need both a new engine and a new transmission.
And – as an aside – devices also burn up tires about 30 percent faster due to the load (i.e., the weight of the device) and the torque produced by the device’s electric motor(s). A device’s tires also cost more because they are specialty tires made to deal with the weight/load imposed by the device.
Long story short, devices have lost their initial appeal – which was much driven by media hype and social pressure. Very much like the “safe and effective” drugs that people were fooled (and pressured) into taking on that basis.
They have become a harder sell. Even for Tesla.
Solution? Rent devices!
Of course, it’s not called that because “renting” smacks of poorness and devices are pushed on the basis of affluent hipness. So they call it leasing, which has a better mouth feel. It suggests the cash-flush success of the real estate mogul/businessman who always drives the latest thing.
And leasing does enable that – including for those who cannot afford to buy that.
It is tougher nut to make an $800 monthly payment on a device for the next six years than it is to make rental payments that are several hundred bucks lower for three or four years. The catch is you never stop making payments and that is ultimately exactly what device-makers are hoping to engineer. They are almost there.
Almost as if by design.
Step one: Use the regulatory apparat to create a “market” for devices. Tesla was and remains the chief beneficiary of this since it only manufacturers devices. For many years, Tesla had the “market” almost entirely cornered.
Step two: Have the “media” – i.e., the caged birds who sing for their supper – sing the praises of devices and create an aura of futurity and inevitability to promote demand for devices.
Step three: Increase the cost of vehicles generally, via the cost-inflating effect of the forced manufacturing of devices (by vehicle manufacturers, to comply with the edicts of the regulatory apparat) ) that cannot be sold except at a net loss. Those losses made up for via increasing the prices of vehicles that aren’t devices.
Voila! Here we are.
The average cost of a new vehicle is up $15,000 vs. just four years ago, which tracks exactly with the hard-pushing of devices that began around the same time. Many vehicle manufacturers committed whole hog to manufacturing devices exclusively, which is a way of saying they committed to selling Teslas with different badges. Many of these same manufacturers are now teetering on the edge of the abyss called bankruptcy as a result.
Tesla isn’t quite there yet. But it is on the way.
The declining sales figures being the equivalent of those brown spots you see on bananas about to go bad. Tesla thinks renting – whoops, leasing – devices is the answer as it will create the facade of affordability. (Speaking of which, how come Elon’s promise that his devices would sell for less hasn’t materialized? Never mind.)
Instead of monthly payments toward ownership for six or seven years, rental payments that never end.
But there’s a problem – for device makers wanting to rent rather than sell devices: That bit about depreciation discussed above. The cost of that – which, to repeat, is much higher than it is for vehicles that are not devices – has to be folded into the cost of the rental, else the owner of the rental is the one who eats the cost. That would stupid, for the owner of the rented device. Thus, the expected depreciated value of the rented device at the end of the rental period must be factored into the cost of the rental payments.
There is no way out – per the Kevin Costner film of the same name.
The cost of renting a device is going to go up because it must go up, to reflect the losses incurred because of depreciation. And it has become harder to sell devices – because of the general awareness of the facts of life that attend device ownership.
Of course, Tesla – Elon Musk – has already made bank on devices to such an extent that what happens next no longer matters to Elon Musk. Just the same as what happens to Stellantis – and Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram – no longer matters to Carlos Tavares.
Call it the Art of the Grift.
You’ll get a charge out of it – in more way than one.
. . .
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BlackRock owns 5.81 percent of Tesla shares. All 178,400,000 plus shares.
BlackRock is a black stain on the stock market, believe me.
I know how they operate and thus are being sued.
So help me, I know.
Tesla & all EVs are a designer item. Designer items have a limited market of the well to do.
Knowing this, the price is high. Money is made on high profit margin, not on volume.
Why did Tesla not concentrate on this end of the product?
Price it into exclusivity. It becomes a status symbol, not a virtue signal.
Then you release the latest & greatest model, special colors, etc and the well heeled will pony up more cash to show they are still in the top 1%.
Trying to bring EVs to the masses ensures the price will have to be lower. Musk ain’t Henry Ford.
Should have had a different business plan and they might have made money. Worked for apple when they made over priced computers for people who were more “special” than the rest of us.
Great piece.
I love the last line. Funny!
Thanks, Stephen!
I need to talk my Office Manager out of getting his wife an EV, they figure it’d be a knock around car for her when I feel they could get a cheap gas car instead.
But naw, he listens to Weasel News (fox) and is jabbed, it ain’t happening
‘Even Tesla – the wunderkind of device makers – is having trouble selling devices.’ — eric
But its stock price doesn’t know it. Gaze upon Tesla’s 3-year stock chart, ye mighty, and despair:
https://tinyurl.com/swecujwj
TSLA is about 5 percent shy of its record closing high of $409.97 reached on Nov. 4, 2021 … and Elon is back in high cotton. Apparently the market assumes that having Trump’s ear, Elon will take over the entire auto market. A chicken in every pot; a Cybertruck in every garage. And a white unicorn sh*tting Skittles for the frolicking children.
US stocks in general, including Tesla, are in the biggest lunatic Superbubble in human history. For pension funds, IRAs, and 401k’s, it’s a gigantic, bulging Hindenburg waiting to plunge from the sky in an incandescent fireball. Who knew that free money was so expensive? 🙁
“US stocks in general, including Tesla, are in the biggest lunatic Superbubble in human history.”
This has been the case since even before the first Trump presidency.
It is what happens when the money supply goes vertical. Same as it was in Zimbabwe or Venezuela.
Alas, as Kyle Bass famously observed, it’s not much of a joy to be a billionaire, if all you can buy with those billions is a couple of eggs.
It is revealing that when converted to gold, the S&P 500 is basically where it was 20 years ago. But fear not, the Fed has said inflation is under control!
https://pricedingold.com/sp-500/
I’ve noticed a funny thing about Teslas (and EVs in general) in my area. In the summer and when the weather is nice, they are as ubiquitous as motorcycles and convertibles with the top down. But once cold weather and inclement weather sets in, they become quite scarce. Right now it’s 44 degrees and raining. I will expect to see very few EVs this afternoon when I go out to run some errands. And I also saw precious few last week when we had a cold snap and the daytime highs barely went above freezing.
So, despite EVs being rather popular in this suburb of Baltimore and DC, even their owners realize that they are indeed only fair weather vehicles.
Heat has always been hard to produce. Resistive elements are about the best way to make pure heat, at close to 100% efficiency. Of course a heat pump is somehow more efficient but it’s still a compressor and that’s a lot of energy consumed.
One cannot roll down a window and get warm.
‘They have become a harder sell. Even for Tesla.’ — eric
Elon should take a clue from what a rich dictator drives:
‘When Islamist rebel forces in Syria marched into Damascus and stormed the palace of Bashar al-Assad on Sunday, they found a massive fleet of high-end cars, including Mercedes, Porsches, Audis and Ferraris. One eagle-eyed commenter pointed to a coveted Mercedes-Benz with gullwing doors.
‘SUVs, motorcycles, ATVs and what appears to be an armored truck also awaited the rebels, who traipsed through the sprawling mansion taking selfies.’
https://tinyurl.com/j9k7ryvc
And not a Tesla among them!
What a heartbreaker to lose that fine fleet of collectible cars. Of course, he did leave in a bit of a hurry, with the barbarians literally at the gate.
Woulda made a great car chase scene, though — Assad fleeing in his Ferrari with a white-knuckled grip on the wheel, as the rebels chased him firing bed-mounted mortars from their Toyota Hiluxi. Vroom, vroom!
Barbarians ?
Israel US and Turkey backed aka
Israeli secret intelligence service.
Stop goofing around. Please.
‘Israel US and Turkey’
Precisely the barbarians I had in mind.
“The decline is due to two things.”
I propose a third. The left despises Musk now after he endorsed Trump. I am willing to bet that sales are declining because he pissed off a large portion of his leftist customer base.
‘Devices ruin one’s day.’ — eric
Yet the brown rain of fresh electric dogshit continues falling on our heads:
‘Sony Honda Mobility’s Afeela, blending Sony’s tech expertise with Honda’s automotive strengths, aims to compete by prioritizing software and entertainment.
‘The prototype, featuring 45 cameras and sensors, AI-driven features, and updateable software, emphasizes self-parking and driver-assistance tools. Entertainment-focused elements include panoramic screens, noise-canceling audio, and rear-seat displays.
‘Nikkei Asia said experts believe Afeela’s success hinges on its software, not hardware, and aligns with consumer preferences for connected services, navigation, and advanced driver-assistance systems.
https://tinyurl.com/5n6u4m84
NO-O-O-O! Y’all just don’t get it. Updateable software?? I HATE that shit. I hate it on phones; I hate it on laptops. I will NOT put up with it in a car. Nor will I tolerate 45 cameras and screens, self-parking, an AI nanny, and driver assistance tools. That stuff belongs in an intelligent wheelchair for Worthless Joe Biden, not in my vehicle.
If the ‘Afeela’ [named after a groping TSA agent] represents Honda’s philosophy, then Honda should go out of business. Founder Soichiro Honda would burn that crap with a flamethrower.
‘The Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan lists [Honda’s] Type A motorized bicycle and his Type D motorcycle as two of their 240 Landmarks of Japanese Automotive Technology, says Wikipedia. It is a gross sacrilege to sully Honda’s good name with a software-defined p.o.s. device. I PROTEST.
JimH quoted, “experts believe Afeela’s success hinges on its software, not hardware, and aligns with consumer preferences for connected services”
And I bet they just looooove the new taste of Soylent Green
Jus what murca needs most electric motors to destroy bicycles so fatfuck is forced to run uphill or carry its clubs around 18.
Yah thats gonna happen
Sonys current noise cancelling headphones. Touch controlled with
Two uprocessors with 8 dedicated sensor mics.
Wont be tryin or Buyin Sony now, thanx for heads up.
Gotta love the name Afeeeeeeeela, ah feel a desire to have it self drive over a cliff.
The push for people to rent cars instead of actually buying one sounds like one of the things pushed in a video that the World Economic Forum put out in (I think) 2016. Has anyone here ever seen it? It was cleverly disguised as BENEFITING humanity & the planet, but it also had creepy sounding background music. It promised things like (paraphrasing) “You’ll own nothing and be happy”, “Whatever you want, You’ll rent, and it will be delivered by drone”, “Fossil fuels will be history, as there’ll be carbon taxes” (disguised as stopping climate change), “You’ll eat much less meat” (because CARBON), “Human organs will be printed, eliminating the need for transplants”, etc. And to think there are politicians in the U.S. who are ALL IN with that sinister agenda. I’m convinced that many of the things that have been pushed by the Biden-Harris regime the past 4 years were from those billionaire sociopaths at WEF.
One problem of never owning a vehicle is that it’s like never owning your own home. The monthly outlay is a lot higher and in the end you have nothing to show for it. But it’s just another version of Eric’s “Social Insecurity” article. You’re just a cash cow whether you know it or not.
Moo.
Tesla’s are wholly impactable for the long, dark, and cold Winters in these parts. They are also worthless for hunting, snow machining (hauling machines), or dog mushing (packing the heavy, dog boxes). Who wants to get stuck in BFE because the charge died? As for the bananas, Eric, when they go brown, they are delicious when used in banana bread. I have one such recipe that calls for a stick of cream cheese in it: Truly scrumptious. Keep the bananas, throw away the Tesla.
Aren’t electronic devices supposed to get cheaper over time? Not depreciation of the old models, but the actual tech (all tech actually) is supposed to be cheaper to produce as companies get better at it. Teslas have not budged on price at all. Of course the cars really haven’t changed much since introduction either, mostly software updates. The 2024 model X is the same as the 2021 Model X is the same as the 2016 Model X. Are we to believe the Model X is perfection on wheels and therefore cannot be improved? Or perhaps Saint Elon hasn’t made back his investment in tooling and so he can’t roll out new models?
With respect to Tesla, the only thing I admired is when Musk tried to get rid of the dealer model and do factory direct sales. But that got beaten down by dealership lobbies.
Otherwise, the Tesla is wholly impractical for my lifestyle.
“It is necessary to plan ahead for every trip.”
I don’t plan trips to the grocery store and back. I do plan it they’re more than a few hours from home, tho. That’s just my OCD and a now 25-year-old Sierra. That plan includes checking oil, tires, belts before I leave. Making sure I have a jug of coolant a quart of oil in the back. Make sure the spare is aired up.
Keep an extra alternator and starter in a 25-year old truck on those long trips, too.