GM and Fiat Chrysler Unmasked as Tesla's Secret Source of Cash.....
Tesla’s Haul
Tesla has generated almost $2 billion in revenue from selling regulatory credits since 2010. Its home state of California has a mandate that requires carmakers to sell zero-emissionvehicles, or ZEVs, in proportion to their share of the state’s auto market, which is the largest in the country.
If manufacturers don’t sell enough non-polluting vehicles, they have to purchase credits from competitors like Tesla to make up the difference. A similar credit system is administered at the federal level by the EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In addition to reporting $216 million in first-quarter revenue from the sale of regulatory credits, the carmaker disclosed in an April filing that it had booked $140 million in deferred revenue related to credit sales.
It’s unclear from the filing whether that revenue relates to the U.S. agreements that Tesla reached with GM and Fiat Chrysler, or the EU deal with Fiat Chrysler. Tesla hasn’t reported deferred revenue of credits in past quarterly or annual financial filings.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-03/tesla-s-secret-source-of-cash-unmasked-as-gm-and-fiat-chrysler
Elon Musk playing chess, while other car makers playing checkers...
Meanwhile the stock is down again.
He booked that income on the one and only quarter Tesla declared a profit. That money, along with billions more, has long since been spent.
He needs to keep share prices up in order to keep attracting more venture capital, loans, issuing bonds, etc. That's not going well, as just today his stock is down by half from its high.
An electric car is fundamentally not hard to manufacture; it's a rolling chassis with an overgrown battery and starter motor. That's it. All the bells and whistles are at best a distraction from that fact.
Those 'checkers players' have been building cars for as much as a century. He's on their turf, not the other way around, and they're coming.
Musk has indeed changed the world and delivered some amazing innovations. That won't save him if he doesn't master the art and science of building cars profitably, and soon.