'Tesla is still a startup': a look at the company's work from the inside

Now there are a lot of articles that Tesla is in terrible losses, there is no profit, and Ilon Musk is misleading. Entrepreneur Alex Krol interviewed for VC.ru a Russian-speaking architect according to Alexei Ilyashov's Tesla big data.

Фото: Depositphotos

Tesla has no profit?

Tesla on the sale of each machine has a profitability of 19-25% depending on the model and configuration, while the average profitability of the industry 10-11%, and in the luxury segment no more than 15%. Tesla is a startup that is rapidly expanding, and all operating profits are invested in the expansion of production, research and design of new models, the construction of service centers, sales outlets and the development of a network of charging stations.

People do not understand what Tesla is. For example, one wrote here: “Tesla carries equipment from Europe by air. This is insanely expensive. All the right and smart people carry the sea. And then the losses. A person does not understand that we have more losses from a two-month line idle if we are carrying the sea than if we deliver by plane in two days.

The cost of transporting more than 400 thousand cars, if you take the average price for a car of $ 50 thousand, is $ 20 billion. This is the biggest deal for consumer goods in the history of mankind. We need to fix bottlenecks faster.

Why did you mention charging stations?

Now Tesla has already built more than 10 thousands of supercharger stations, where you can charge for 30-40 minutes. For example, in Model 3, the battery capacity of 75 is kWh, and the supercharger gives 120 kWh. That is, the car charges to 80% in a few minutes, and fully in approximately 30-40 minutes.

Charging is enough for 310 miles (500 km). Price for 1 kW - 20 cents. At home, you can charge for 10 cents, but home charging is all night. The plans this year to build more 10 thousands of charging stations. For 2018, Tesla put the 1324 supercharger into operation.

Each station has 10-40 charging posts, which means that if 20 machines come up, the station distributes more than 2 MWh. It is necessary to build such a station, to bring electricity, to obtain permits. At the same time, the owners of the Model S charge for free, and the Model 3 is already charged - this is the cache flow. No other electric vehicle manufacturers have such a network.

Yes, but all parking lots are full of charging sockets.

The average charging power in the parking lot is 9 kWh, which means that the average charge is 10-14 hours, and the price is 40 cents per kW. For comparison, home charging is 10 cents per kW, but 9 hours. Tesla has 30 minutes and 20 cents. Therefore, charging is empty. (I confirm - with an abundance of charges, 90% are empty. Usually, in a parking lot, even a large one, no more than five nipples.)

That is, investors trust?

Let's go from simple. Tesla has a monthly employee rating system. If the results are good, then they offer a premium, which can be taken in three ways - in cash, to receive shares for the same amount or option: the right to buy three times as many shares at a guaranteed current price in the future.

Almost everyone chooses an option, that is, employees believe that the stock price will rise. Why? Because the benefits are immediate. Today they were able to release 500 machines per day. Musk wrote about this on Twitter, the stock price at the time jumped. The employee immediately sees the result of labor.

Important - Tesla shares are given to everyone, not just white-collar workers. It makes everyone interested, and below you will understand how it works.

Another example: workers in meat processing plants usually never eat products because they know how they are made. At Tesla, almost all employees buy cars of their own production.

Фото: Depositphotos

Bloomberg wrote that all electric cars are unprofitable, and Tesla is the biggest divorce.

All electric cars, except Tesla, are unprofitable. As I said before, Tesla 25% has a positive profit margin on each machine sold, but the others do not. Why? Because everyone in America produces the so-called compliance car - in the United States and especially in California there are strict standards for the consumption of gasoline. If a car spends a lot of gas, companies pay huge fines.

To reduce fuel consumption, they need to spend billions to create efficient engines, but they went the other way. They take the chassis, order in LG electric, electronics, batteries, and it turns out some Chevrolet Volt. On such a car, the company loses an average of $ 6000-9000.

Moreover, electric car dealers are terribly unprofitable for car dealers, because all car dealers earn not on car sales, but on service, and the service for electric cars is almost zero. How much refrigerator can you have? 20-30 years without stopping? There are very few moving parts in the electric car. Thus, companies reduce the burden of fines. Therefore, almost everyone who produces electric cars today, except Tesla, is a fake.

In Tesla, the situation is reversed, every year it sells loans under this quota of almost millions of dollars to companies that have problems with it.

All applications of large automakers are PR, because they have neither competences, nor a system, nor a network of charging stations.

What's up with China?

Last year, Tesla sold cars for more than $ 2 billion. China reduces the import duty from 25% to 15%. At the same time, Tesla cars were in stock, which were delivered with a duty already paid in 25%. Tesla has announced that it will even sell these cars at a rate of 15%. All the cars from the warehouses are gone for the day. Why does Tesla do that? Because its profitability is 25% per car.

Trump promises to raise import duties for foreign automakers from 2,5% to 15%, and he will do it. This is a blow for everyone who imports cars in the US and does not collect them here.

China usually forces any foreign company that operates on its territory to create enterprises where more than 50% belong to the Chinese. For manufacturers of electric cars this situation is canceled. Now Tesla can build a factory there. Ilon Mask believes that it is necessary to build an average of one gigafafabraka, producing cars and all components to the continent, and in the United States - three or four plants.

China announced that after 2030, all cars on the engine would be banned.

What do Tesla think about changing the profit model in the automotive industry from selling cars to selling services?

Not just thinking, but already implemented. For example, users of Model 3 write that the control system is inconvenient, because the panel does not even have a speedometer, all control is through the screen, the suspension is rigid.

They do not understand. The Model 3 is already designed for a model-service economy, not a holding economy. There is already all the equipment for it. For example, the cabin has an internal camera that removes everything that happens inside the cabin. They are not yet connected, waiting for the update of the operating system of the machine. What for? It's simple.

TeslaNet service sets a rating for each passenger - who normally behaves in the car, who is sick, who cuts the seat. Based on this, his personal credit rating is calculated. This is the same Uber, but without a driver. You leave the house, press the button, and in a few minutes the car with the autopilot will come to you and take you to the right place.

If your credit rating is low, then the tariff for you will be higher, or in general you will receive a message: “Do you want to cut the seats? Buy a car. And now I'm sorry, we're not going to take you. ” By the way, for the car with the autopilot dashboard is not needed. All the preparations for the autonomy of L5 have already been done, it will be implemented within three to four years.

No one has such an asset, because autopilot is not a “smart” algorithm on a machine, but a network of all autopilots in all machines, which is constantly learning. Now only Tesla has such a network and an array of data. This is SkyNet as from the Terminator, and only Tesla has it.

Is there a connection between Tesla and Space X?

Of course. Mask in the coming years will launch its own grouping of low-flying satellites from 4445 in order to distribute the Internet all over the planet. By the way, the first two are already flying. Many people think why the mask needs it.

Now the main traffic on the Internet is M2M. Each Tesla machine constantly exchanges a huge amount of information with the center. Now for this, a SIM-card of a cellular operator is installed in the car, and this traffic is paid by Tesla. Telecoms get money.

And now imagine that in four to five years the diapers, gaskets, not to mention irons and refrigerators, will be connected to the Internet. And Netflix?

Where will they throw this traffic and who will pay for it? Cell phone operators? All this traffic will take grouping Ilona Mask. If you bought a Tesla car, then it is free for you, and if you are not in the Tesla universe, then pay. Cheaper than phones, but still the volume is monstrous.

Musk creates the largest telecom group in history and takes most of the traffic. But that's not all. Musk plans to launch one weekly launch of carriers with a payload of up to 25 tons at the cheapest price on the market. No one on the planet has yet built launches on the conveyor, and Musk does it. Who will the market go to? Why? Because now the booking of launching takes place sometimes in a year and a half.

Is there a connection between Tesla and Solar City (Mask Company for the production and installation of solar panels)?

Musk has signed a contract with Australia for the construction of social housing for 50 thousands of people. What's the point? It will be one big solar power station in which people will live. There are panels, batteries and people. 250 MWth - not for regular generation, but to compensate for peak loads. The state solves the housing problem for the poor and builds a backup battery and a power plant in one bottle.

Imagine electric cars driving around the world. Now the owners buy electricity from generating companies, but after a short time they will generate energy for their electric cars themselves. I do not remember the exact numbers, but the panels installed by Tesla on 20-30% overlap the electricity consumed by all Tesla electric vehicles combined, and the gap is growing. And you say, coal is needed for power plants.

How is Tesla different from large corporations?

Tesla is still a startup. A startup is when anyone can ask anyone, even the main question. A corporation is a mass of barriers, levels, hierarchies. Mask recently published a letter for all employees: “If you have any idea, suggestion, criticism, you need to resolve the issue - go straight to the one who can solve this issue. If suddenly there is a chain like - a report to the manager, then the highest manager, then the vice-president, he wrote down and then down - the entire chain will be dismissed. ”

What is the meaning of Ilona Mask for company employees?

Huge. Musk often visits factories - and labor productivity jumps. Everyone wants to show how great they are at work. Musk is a huge motivator and is not afraid to go anywhere. His leading role is to constantly break down barriers in communication and provide common sense.

For example, the task is set - the machine must go off the conveyor and immediately go to the client. But unlike all machines in the world, our machine is more a computer than a machine, so from the moment the artificial intelligence of a machine comes to life, it constantly self-tests the state of the machine. And when the final test is launched at the output, the machine issues a list of defects that it found and which should be corrected.

There the light is off, the sensor is not responding there, the bolt is screwed in with the wrong force. And to remove defects, a special department was created, which takes the car after the conveyor, quickly eliminates the defect and sends it to the logistics. And the director of the department, of course, constantly optimizes this process and is proud of himself.

Then Mask comes and says: “What did you do? Why do you optimize the process of eliminating the defect? You have to go to the area where this defect occurs, and force that department to ensure that the defect does not appear. ”

Musk constantly resolve such petty questions?

No, there is a system, but Musk can climb anywhere, anytime, anywhere. As they say - that's what pike is in the sea so that the crucian will not sleep. Up to that, if he is told that somewhere is plugged, he can go to the conveyor and start literally doing what the worker does. Of course, the system of constant optimization is debugged at the plant, but the important point is that anyone can turn to the Mask, with any idea, and Mask answers. And if the question is serious, it will always move it.

And how does the optimization system work?

Many ways. For example, every engineer who has developed something is forced to get up periodically on a conveyor belt and, under the guidance of a hard worker, try to assemble what he has invented. Very setting brains.

And you can even contact through a senior manager?

No problem.

And if the manager will be unhappy and start revenge?

No problems. Immediately a complaint to the HR Department, they open the case and start an investigation. There are so many ways.

Are you fired easily?

Quickly and with a whistle. Whether you're a vice president or a hard worker. Everyone has a perfomance index and monthly reviews by management, colleagues and subordinates. If something goes wrong, then there are three steps:

1. rebel;
2. training;
3. if untrained - on the street.

Nobody stand on ceremony.

There is no irreplaceable?

There is no irreplaceable!

What is the salary?

Lower than the market, but taking into account the shares obtained with dignity.

Why work?

Interesting, prestigious, give shares. In the Valley, this is only a fool does not understand. In rare corporations, shares are given to everyone. Tesla. Ilon Musk.

It is important?

Yes, it is important. Mask - icon star. He creates the future, he is believed. They are afraid, they gnash their teeth sometimes, but they follow him. He is the leader.

No flow?

There is a turnover on the conveyor - the work is routine, mechanical, you have to work, the conveyor is on. Now it has become much better, people are given the opportunity to change jobs often after appropriate training. I have mastered more professions, the qualification has grown - the salary grows as well. Also, robotization takes the routine work itself. Different divisions have different turnover. Mask puts big tasks and hard demands. Not everyone likes it.

All so conscious and motivated?

People are different. When you have a high goal and action, it is very motivating. You think: “Something depends on me. Shares are growing, and I will earn. ” But, of course, people are different. And fools. But while we are in startup mode, we have no negative selection. In general, we are developing very dynamically, and a person with brains can always find himself.

Do you have a Tesla?

Two pieces. My daughter has a gasoline car, I want to change to Tesla.

How are people rated?

There are performance indicators and various reviews of the authorities, colleagues, subordinates. Once a month and once a quarter. If the review is positive, then the salary grows; if negative, it does not grow; and if several months in a row, and you're unteachable - on the way out.

Is it for everyone?

Yes.

How much are you or someone free to choose tools for solving problems?

Absolutely. The only limiting factor is price. If you want to buy some tool or software more expensive than $ 1 million - justify Mask personally. If more than $ 0,5 million, then vice-president, and if some little thing or OS - no problem. For example, at first we had SAP ERP - very expensive. Then, when the processes were realized, they created their own - it became better and much more economical. From SAP refused.

Tesla always prefers to produce everything on its own, within reasonable limits, of course. And it is building the path of transition of humanity to renewable energy sources - from production (solar panels), storage (the best household and industrial batteries for today) and consumption (electric cars).

Why are many masks annoying?

He runs 80 hours a week.

Read also on ForumDaily:

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Through thorns to the stars: Ilona Mask turned 47 years

How to make yourself and your life more efficient: 10 secrets from residents of Silicon Valley

Became known the scale of sabotage in Tesla

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