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Tesla Energy
Tesla's SolarCity cut 20 per cent of staff in 2016
In a regulatory filing on Wednesday, SolarCity said it had 12,243 employees at the end of 2016, down 19.8 percent from the 15,273 it reported a year earlier. The cuts affected workers in operations, installations, manufacturing, sales and marketing, according to the filings. The number of people in general and administrative jobs has also fallen since June of last year, the company said. SolarCity had announced job cuts before being acquired by Tesla but did not say how many employees would be laid off.
Model S
Girl, 10, writes letter to Tesla founder Elon Musk for his help with a school project... and gets BRILLIANT response
Dad Steven Loveday tweeted to ask the billionaire if he could help her out with her “school project” just in case he hadn’t spotted her letter. In the typed note, Bria suggested that Musk ran a competition for homemade adverts to promote the luxury electric car brand. She wrote: “So I think that you should run a competition on who can make the best homemade Tesla commercial and the winners will get their commercial aired. The cool part is that you still won’t be taking the time and money to advertise for yourself."
Good for Elon (and Tesla) that Elon wrote back and agreed to run the homemade commercial competition. Can't wait to see the entries.
TSLA
Apple Working With Tesla Is A Fairy Tale
Why Tesla isn't for sale from Gene Munster:
Then why doesn’t Apple just try to buy Tesla outright? It’s important to understand how much Musk loves Tesla. On this week’s earnings call he said “I expect to remain with Tesla essentially forever.” We believe Musk as a very long-term vision for Tesla and money doesn’t motivate him. To that end, while Tesla doesn’t have dual class stock arrangements like some other companies, it does have supermajority voting provisions that protect the company from “unsolicited acquisition attempts and hostile takeover initiatives.” The supermajority provision means an acquirer would need two thirds of shareholders to vote for change of control. Since Musk owns 21% of the company, it would require 83% of the non-Musk shares to vote for the sale, which would be unlikely given shareholder support for Musk and other insiders loyal to Musk. It’s fun to talk about Apple buying Tesla, but we don’t think Tesla is for sale.
Tesla: After the Model 3, the Deluge?
Baird’s Ben Kallo and team dug into Tesla’s 10-K, which was released on Wednesday–for the latest tidbits, and find information on “more products to come.” They explain: More products to come. While we expected TSLA to continue to develop new vehicles, the company has formalized its intention to introduce new products in its 10-K. The company plans to introduce products to address a “broader cross-section of the consumer vehicle market” and also aims to introduce commercial electric vehicles. TSLA previously indicated it plans to grow its consumer segment with the creation of a compact SUV (Model Y) and pickup truck, and build out its commercial segment with a heavy-duty truck and “high passenger-density urban transport” vehicle.
As Model 3 gets closers, investors naturally look toward to the future to see if Tesla can continue its momentum.
Elon Musk
Musk’s SpaceX Plans 2018 Flight Circling Moon With Civilians
Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. plans to send two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year as it continues to work with NASA for a planned crewed mission to the International Space Station. The passengers, who each paid a “significant deposit,” will undergo health and fitness tests and begin initial training later this year, the company said in a blog post Monday. SpaceX didn’t identify the two citizens or say how much they spent to book the trip that will use the Falcon Heavy, a new rocket in development that SpaceX has yet to fly.
Next year will sure be an exciting year for SpaceX.
Bill Gates Imagines His Team Up With Elon Musk
But when Gates took some time this week to participate in his fifth Reddit AMA in conjunction with the release of the Gates Foundation's annual letter, he talked about what a collaboration between the two might look like. A user asked him, “if you could create a new IP and business with Elon Musk, what would you make happen?” Gates replied that he would want to focus on developing green, consistent energy sources. “We need clean, reliable cheap energy -- which we don't have. It is too bad the sun doesn't shine all the time and the wind doesn't blow all the time. ... So we need some invention -- perhaps miracle batteries or super safe nuclear or making sun into gasoline directly.”
That's one of the most exciting things about Tesla's long-term prospects, namely once Model 3 brings in significant revenue they can spend billions of dollars in R&D to find big breakthroughs in energy storage.
Other News
Chinese battery maker signs massive supply contract with NEVS ahead of build out of new Gigafactory-size plant
The company has now signed a supply contract with SAAB successor National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) in order for the electric vehicle maker to deliver on its orders for electric car fleets in China. CATL tripled its lithium-ion battery production last year and plans to reach 50 GWh by 2020, which would make it the second biggest li-ion battery producer in the world behind Tesla/Panasonic if they all manage to deliver on their production goals.