"HR bloodbath" at Tesla Motors - the free ride is over

[trebuchet03]

Originally Posted by Erdrick

SVOboy is right on. Here is a link to a wikipedia piece on what we might expect from Mitsubishi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIEV

Just to let everyone know the gas-powered version (kei only sold in Japan) that the MIEV will be based on won tons of awards here in Japan. The platform is right, and chances are Mitsubishi had plans to eventually make an EV out of it from the get-go.

I'm sorry..... Just the first time I read that - I was confused because I was thinking about food

[Erdrick]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Did you ever hear about that little prefecture south of tokyo that made an EV mandate last summer? Do you think that had anything to do with the Mitsubishi thing or was it separate stuffs?

I had never heard anything in relation to that. Not sure which prefecture it is that you are talking about, but if it it is close to Tokyo then there might be a link... being that Mitsubishi Motors is located in Tokyo.

The Japanese are excellent at being consumers. The whole shaken system adds to this. They really love having the latest and greatest. It is less a race with the Joneses than America, but this mentality does definitely exist. The whole eco boom is hitting us here as well. sho ene also is quite popular these days. Japanese are early adopters, and if something catches on, it REALLY catches on... though fads fade fast. Virtually overnight.

Anyways, there was a point to this post. There was a series of commercials about the new Mitsubishi electric car. Their biggest claim in the commercial, if I remember correctly, was that it was an emissions-free vehicle. This to me is very dishonest, as the electricity has to come from somewhere. Japan does have nuclear, but the recent problem we had with spillage shows that no energy is perfect.

I keep going off on tangents, so I will end my post here. Mitsubishi is a company to watch if you are interested in an electric vehicle.

[cfg83]

trebuchet03 -

Originally Posted by trebuchet03

I'm sorry..... Just the first time I read that - I was confused because I was thinking about food

Oh yeah, I like CRUNCHY (bad for you) won tons. I don't really dig the gooey (good for you?) won tons.

CarloSW2

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

This may be a new round of layoffs, or it might be an echo chamber?

[MetroMPG]

That's a nasty prognosis.

I wonder if it's just an echo though, of the closing of the Detroit office & layoff of staff.

I find it hard to believe that Musk would let the company fold after stepping into the CEO position. Pretty deep pockets.

[jamesqf]

Humm... 1200 deposits at $5K each = $6 million, $9 million in the bank. What exactly is the problem? Assuming that they're making at least something above cost of materials & labor on each car, of course. So they pull in their horns a bit on new development until the economy improves.

[SuperTrooper]

Aptera deposits are only $500, not $5000.

In September Aptera secured $24M in venture capital for production startup costs, having already blown through $17M in product development money. This is why founder Steve Fambro was demoted; so that investors had a "money" man in charge and not a starry-eyed dreamer.

Just as a point of reference, so far Tesla has gone through almost $140M in venture capital. At least they've actually delivered some cars to customers.

[Sean T.]

I just can't bring myself to trust anything I hear about Tesla anymore... I drove past the Rochester Hills office yesterday... and.... well....

The parking lot was full. One of the shipping/receiving doors was open, and there was loads of stuff inside... they even still have plants next to the lobby doors... It looked like a regular, bustling, business-place.

On top of that, the building is tiny to begin with. They also share the building with another company... and they share the parking lot, which would only hold about 50 cars... MAYBE. There is no way 100 people work there, unless they work in shifts and in tiny cubicles.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by SuperTrooper

Aptera deposits are only $500, not $5000.

Your point? The Aptera's supposed to be selling at around $30K instead of $100K, too.

This is why founder Steve Fambro was demoted; so that investors had a "money" man in charge and not a starry-eyed dreamer.

I'll take issue with that "demoted". I don't pretend to know anything about Aptera's internal management decisions, but I've worked for a few startups. They're generally founded by engineers or scientists, people who know the technology, in other words. In the beginning, they often find themselves wearing management hats too, and usually don't do this very well. (Which is not surprising, IMHO: would anyone expect a manager to do the engineering?) Once the company grows to a certain point, it makes sense to hire real management types to do the management, and let the engineers go back to engineering.

It's a sad commentary on this society's values that going back to engineering should be considered some sort of demotion. Management is where engineers go when they can't hack the engineering any longer.

[SuperTrooper]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Your point? The Aptera's supposed to be selling at around $30K instead of $100K, too.



I'll take issue with that "demoted". I don't pretend to know anything about Aptera's internal management decisions, but I've worked for a few startups. They're generally founded by engineers or scientists, people who know the technology, in other words. In the beginning, they often find themselves wearing management hats too, and usually don't do this very well. (Which is not surprising, IMHO: would anyone expect a manager to do the engineering?) Once the company grows to a certain point, it makes sense to hire real management types to do the management, and let the engineers go back to engineering.

It's a sad commentary on this society's values that going back to engineering should be considered some sort of demotion. Management is where engineers go when they can't hack the engineering any longer.

I wasn't trying to make any kind of point. I just pointed out your error.

As far Fambro being "demoted", I was simply using the language used in the artticles reporting on the situation. You can call it anything you want.