Cyber Truck Delays Likely Due to Steel Prices

hololensful

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This article would explain so much about the production delays on Cybertruck.
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Jhodgesatmb

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Nope. This has been brought up before and I don’t buy it. First, any automobile maker that cannot secure contracts for materials years in advance, based on projected sales, has no business in the business. Second, we already know that a brand new, sparkly stainless steel factory is being built close by and they have already said they will be supplying Tesla with stainless steel. Third, do you see any letup in the construction of starships? Fourth, have you ever seen Elon Musk back down from anything? I can see price changes if the commodity prices go up beyond their contracts, but I doubt it would be much compared to the cost of the vehicle. So I don’t think this, if true, will affect price or schedule enough to worry about.
 

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This article would explain so much about the production delays on Cybertruck.
Even if Tesla is not fully hedged against higher steel prices they have the profit margins to accommodate quite a jump in steel prices. There are things that could delay the Cybertruck but high steel prices are not one of them!

Dumb article from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about.
 


OneLapper

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Dude, I buy steel (and stainless steel) every day for work.

I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary with steel prices. It varies daily, but no spikes recently.

"Production delays"??? Here we go again.

So..... Do you normally link to your own article for your first post? Just asking for your friend, Gordon Johnson.
 
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hololensful

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Great responses. I just had this idea that was bugging me all day and I thought it would be fun to talk about. I appreciate all your comments, especially the one about my article being dumb! It probably was dumb! All good though.
 

TechOps

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Great responses. I just had this idea that was bugging me all day and I thought it would be fun to talk about. I appreciate all your comments, especially the one about my article being dumb! It probably was dumb! All good though.
I think you'd get a better reception if you admitted in your OP that you wrote the "article" and phrased things more as questions than statements. By referring to this post and saying it explains things, you invite scrutiny, since clearly this post has major flaws in terms of how production, pricing, supply and demand, and materials contracts work. If you put it out there as a question, and invited others to explain, it would probably be a much more productive conversation.

There is one kernel of an interesting point in there, which is the fact that Tesla is taking orders for products that could potentially be delayed years beyond the initial estimate due to Elon's optimistic timeline assessments. How does that affect pricing? What if Tesla gets totally upside on BOM costs? (BOM stands for Bill of Materials, by the way.)

With the solar roof project, we did see them vastly underestimate the labor costs of fitting out some complex roofs, which caused them to raise prices on signed contracts, resulting in at least one lawsuit. I'm not saying that's the case here with steel (as noted above, it doesn't seem to be plausible), but it is certainly a risk.

On the upside, with cars, Tesla seems to be very good at predicting how much things will cost. But commodities pricing swings do happen, and the cost of aluminum, steel, and lithium, to name a few, are rising. As can be seen in the rising prices of Model 3/ Model Y right now.
 
 




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