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Electronics whiz Elon Musk is now the world's richest person
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VK3DRB:
Don't know about you blokes but I drove a high end Tesla myself and it was one impressive car, especially the acceleration and responsiveness. BUT, it was not mine and I only drove it for a day :D.  I have heard the build quality is generally not that good. I drive a Honda Civic since it was new 12 years ago and it is the most reliable car I have ever owned. Pretty happy with it, despite its relative lack of power. It does not attract the chicks, does not feed my ego and my down-to-earth Australian culture does not require me to drive a something like BMW or Mercedes to save face.
tom66:

--- Quote from: nctnico on January 09, 2021, 11:48:13 am ---The big difference is that VW has the cash on hand and Tesla doesn't. Tesla needs to emit shares in order to get more money to spend. Besides that VW has a production capacity for the ID.3 which rivals Tesla's production capacity for all Tesla's models together. In the end Tesla is a very small car manufacturer with limited resources.

--- End quote ---

VW did a share offering to raise cash after the dieselgate scandal, and has done numerous other offerings.  It's a common procedure as it's often cheaper than borrowing from institutional lenders.

I agree that Tesla is small and I think VW represents the biggest existential threat to them.  If they get ID.3 right and launch an ID.2 to represent the smaller Polo/sub-Golf market and the ID.4 to cover small SUVs, they may well have Europe sealed from an EV perspective.  Getting success in US and China will be harder.  And for VW, their biggest risk is PSA Group and the Chinese manufacturers.

Definitely a good time to be an electric vehicle enthusiast.  Want to change my PHEV Golf GTE for a pure electric soon.
VK3DRB:
I personally don't think Musk is worth even 1% of his so-called net worth. However, the meritocracy system allows some smart people to amass such an obscene amount of wealth and generally pay minimal tax. Worth should be somehow based upon how you help others and mankind. You'd be blind Freddy to think Alice Walton, "worth" $54 BILLION, is not at least just a little bit greedy when Walmart only pays their cashiers a lousy $10.78 per hour. Something is wrong when lowest paid workers can barely afford a decent meal for their kids or transport to get to work, whilst the super-rich are hell-bent on making more money than they know what to do with. Inequality is getting a lot worse in the US and other places (very evident during COVID-19) and I suspect this kind of greed might be a major cause of the civil unrest in the US.

It will not be long before the world has its first trillionaire and my bet is he will make it from the tech sector. However, Gates is working very hard at increasing his "net worth" with most of his investments in the non-tech sectors, including a large investment in Walmart. There might need to be a global movement (or revolution) to limit the amount of wealth a person can accumulate, or at least share wealth more equitably. Easier said than done. History has proven society works better when there is incentive. I would like to see a society where people are rewarded in proportion to their real worth.
BravoV:

--- Quote from: VK3DRB on January 09, 2021, 12:16:26 pm ---There might need to be a global movement (or revolution) to limit the amount of wealth a person can accumulate, or at least share wealth more equitably.

--- End quote ---

Hmmm .. so no more freedom of greed and right for collecting wealth, and if you are rich, your wealth must be distributed among those low life peasants ?  >:D

I guess you are the socialism aficionado ? Any plan to migrate to Rusia or China ?  Be warned though, every and any thing related to China, is evil. :-DD
nctnico:

--- Quote from: tom66 on January 09, 2021, 12:03:22 pm ---
--- Quote from: nctnico on January 09, 2021, 11:48:13 am ---The big difference is that VW has the cash on hand and Tesla doesn't. Tesla needs to emit shares in order to get more money to spend. Besides that VW has a production capacity for the ID.3 which rivals Tesla's production capacity for all Tesla's models together. In the end Tesla is a very small car manufacturer with limited resources.

--- End quote ---

VW did a share offering to raise cash after the dieselgate scandal, and has done numerous other offerings.  It's a common procedure as it's often cheaper than borrowing from institutional lenders.

I agree that Tesla is small and I think VW represents the biggest existential threat to them.  If they get ID.3 right and launch an ID.2 to represent the smaller Polo/sub-Golf market and the ID.4 to cover small SUVs, they may well have Europe sealed from an EV perspective.  Getting success in US and China will be harder.  And for VW, their biggest risk is PSA Group and the Chinese manufacturers.

--- End quote ---
VW is a strong brand in both the US and China. AFAIK the ID.4 will be produced only in China AND the ID.3 alone has outsold all Tesla models combined in some markets already (for example in the Netherlands). But in the end the market for EVs is not that big in Europe so it makes more sense to produce in China and ship whatever is needed to the EU and the US. According to (recent) research from KPMG about 10% of the consumers in the EU is interested in buying an EV in the next 5 years versus 80% in China. The number of people is in the same order of magnitude so it is easy to see it makes sense to concentrate on China where it comes to EVs.
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