I am not hugely disappointing with the delay but I think you have said it very well, it seems odd that they would announce something that they know takes serious time, a month before it should be done and not know at that point if they can pull it off.
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Extremely Disappointed about SuperCharger rollout
- Thread starter Enadler
- Start date
dennis
Model S Plaid
Since Tesla has appeared to move past early adopters with their success in selling the Model S, the new customers will be much less tolerant of Elon's overly optimistic pronouncements and unfulfilled promises . Tesla and Elon will have to mature in order to keep the customers satisfied.
It is fine to have vision. It is not OK to put dates in a press release and miss them.
It is fine to have vision. It is not OK to put dates in a press release and miss them.
I think the core issue in this case is that we're not seeing an announcement whose promises were slightly missed. We had a very specific set of promises, and the first among them was entirely whiffed on.
Triple the # of supercharger stations by the end of June: 9 --> 27. Actual: 9 --> 10. Off by 94%.
Surely there are reasons why some stations aren't online as promised--regulatory delays, contractor delays, bumps in negotiations, etc. But you don't promise 18 new stations to be online in the next 30 days and deliver one unless someone at the heart of the process is either pulling everyone's leg or entirely incompetent. We cut Tesla slack because we're enthusiasts and we believe that Tesla at its core is doing great things and is trying to do right by us. But the long and short of it is that with this and other announcements lately, Tesla is demonstrating an astonishingly poor ability to accurately set expectations and deliver on promises. (Other examples--loaner cars or the relative lack thereof, the initial ham-handed financing program marketing, and the zero-warning 60% hike in extended warranty cost.)
They're still a start-up, they're focusing on worldwide sales expansion, SuperCharger deployment is hard, etc. I get it. Those are good reasons for things to take time (longer than we'd like, for sure). They're not adequate reasons for such off-the-mark announcements. Under-promise and over-deliver. They should have had the majority of those 18 SuperCharger stations just about ready to flip online when they made that 5/30/13 announcement. The fact that many (most?) of them hadn't (still haven't?) even broken ground is crazy.
Again, it doesn't bother me that they're moving slower than we or they would like. What bothers me is the terrible reflection this gives on Tesla's management. Can you imagine Toyota making such a series of botched releases? Tesla's growing up, but they have some growing left to do before they're really ready to be taken at their word. I believe in Elon & Co, and as Tesla expands out of the enthusiast/early adopter crowd to the world at large, I want the rest of the world to believe, too. For that to happen, they need to start being believable.
[Edit - If 17 (or even 10) SuperChargers go live on Sunday, then I retain the right to eat crow.]
Triple the # of supercharger stations by the end of June: 9 --> 27. Actual: 9 --> 10. Off by 94%.
Surely there are reasons why some stations aren't online as promised--regulatory delays, contractor delays, bumps in negotiations, etc. But you don't promise 18 new stations to be online in the next 30 days and deliver one unless someone at the heart of the process is either pulling everyone's leg or entirely incompetent. We cut Tesla slack because we're enthusiasts and we believe that Tesla at its core is doing great things and is trying to do right by us. But the long and short of it is that with this and other announcements lately, Tesla is demonstrating an astonishingly poor ability to accurately set expectations and deliver on promises. (Other examples--loaner cars or the relative lack thereof, the initial ham-handed financing program marketing, and the zero-warning 60% hike in extended warranty cost.)
They're still a start-up, they're focusing on worldwide sales expansion, SuperCharger deployment is hard, etc. I get it. Those are good reasons for things to take time (longer than we'd like, for sure). They're not adequate reasons for such off-the-mark announcements. Under-promise and over-deliver. They should have had the majority of those 18 SuperCharger stations just about ready to flip online when they made that 5/30/13 announcement. The fact that many (most?) of them hadn't (still haven't?) even broken ground is crazy.
Again, it doesn't bother me that they're moving slower than we or they would like. What bothers me is the terrible reflection this gives on Tesla's management. Can you imagine Toyota making such a series of botched releases? Tesla's growing up, but they have some growing left to do before they're really ready to be taken at their word. I believe in Elon & Co, and as Tesla expands out of the enthusiast/early adopter crowd to the world at large, I want the rest of the world to believe, too. For that to happen, they need to start being believable.
[Edit - If 17 (or even 10) SuperChargers go live on Sunday, then I retain the right to eat crow.]
On May 29, at the All Things Digital conference, Elon leaked the announcement scheduled for May 30.
http://allthingsd.com/20130530/tesla-ceo-and-spacex-founder-elon-musk-the-full-d11-interview-video/
See the 20:00 point onwards in the video.
"What we were going to announce tomorrow, is that there is going to be a dramatic acceleration of the Super Charging network and by the end of next month we will have tripled the Super Charger coverage area."
Then the next day the press release came out, along with a telephone conference call where this was spelled out again.
Then on June 4 was the Tesla Shareholders Meeting when Elon mentioned the growing Super Charger network again.
Now, the press release and the conference call and the shareholders meeting all contained the usual language about "forward looking statements" and what it looks like we are now learning is that the announcement of tripling the Super Charger network by end of June was one of these statements.
I just think that if it is really true that they're nowhere near close to their stated goal by June 30, it's a pretty colossal mistake. I would not be surprised if the analysts bring this up during the Q2 conference call in a few weeks. Perhaps by then the Tesla team will have reached the tripling-number and can say yeah it was a little late but we're there now. Let's hope.
UPDATE: Zaxxon's post slipped in ahead of mine. I agree with Zaxxon.
http://allthingsd.com/20130530/tesla-ceo-and-spacex-founder-elon-musk-the-full-d11-interview-video/
See the 20:00 point onwards in the video.
"What we were going to announce tomorrow, is that there is going to be a dramatic acceleration of the Super Charging network and by the end of next month we will have tripled the Super Charger coverage area."
Then the next day the press release came out, along with a telephone conference call where this was spelled out again.
Then on June 4 was the Tesla Shareholders Meeting when Elon mentioned the growing Super Charger network again.
Now, the press release and the conference call and the shareholders meeting all contained the usual language about "forward looking statements" and what it looks like we are now learning is that the announcement of tripling the Super Charger network by end of June was one of these statements.
I just think that if it is really true that they're nowhere near close to their stated goal by June 30, it's a pretty colossal mistake. I would not be surprised if the analysts bring this up during the Q2 conference call in a few weeks. Perhaps by then the Tesla team will have reached the tripling-number and can say yeah it was a little late but we're there now. Let's hope.
UPDATE: Zaxxon's post slipped in ahead of mine. I agree with Zaxxon.
TSLA has now a very high stock value at the stock exchange. Elon needs to hyperbole to keep the stock price there. Tesla messed up many of these announcements including SC, financing and European deliveries of cars.
Anyway they are doing many great things, but communication of issues and delays is not yet a core competency. To gain trust they need to fix this.
Anyway they are doing many great things, but communication of issues and delays is not yet a core competency. To gain trust they need to fix this.
Maybe not quite that bad. Burlington, Centralia, Atascadero, and Buellton are all well under way, and it won't surprise me if a couple of them are ready this weekend. Certainly, they should all be done in the first half of July. For most of the Summer 2013 dots, we don't really know if they have started or not.
jeff_adams
Member
I agree with the statements that the supercharges are complex to install and that there are a lot of aspects of the installation that are out of Tesla's control. Still, while they can't control everything, they can control the press release content and timing. I truly admire Elon's vision and his enthusiasm. Maybe this is just a case of the Marketing Department trying to catch up with one of his announcements. Still, the timing and rough number of new stations was explicit enough to set some high expectations. This isn't the first time this has happened. Much better to under-promise and over-deliver.
sp4rk
Banned
Where did any of us ever see a promise?
I do not ever hear TM ever saying more than this was their plan. And most of the conference calls are preceded with "safe harbor" clauses which makes all this pretty moot.
I am as keen and anxious as anyone to see the world dotted with them ... but we simply need to exercise patience ... and not hold them to the day of the month that we assumed they would light up?
We'll get there and in 2020, we'll all be looking back to today having a hard time remembering what it was like when we had none.
Even today I have to jog my memory back to the days last year when my local "Showroom" hadn't even seen a Model S.
I do not ever hear TM ever saying more than this was their plan. And most of the conference calls are preceded with "safe harbor" clauses which makes all this pretty moot.
I am as keen and anxious as anyone to see the world dotted with them ... but we simply need to exercise patience ... and not hold them to the day of the month that we assumed they would light up?
We'll get there and in 2020, we'll all be looking back to today having a hard time remembering what it was like when we had none.
Even today I have to jog my memory back to the days last year when my local "Showroom" hadn't even seen a Model S.
dennis
Model S Plaid
From the May 30,2013 press release:
With the accelerated rollout of the Tesla Supercharger network, Model S drivers can expect:
Triple the number of Tesla Supercharger stations by the end of next month, including additional stations in California, coverage of the northwest region from Vancouver to Seattle to Portland, Austin to Dallas in Texas, Illinois and Colorado. There will also be four additional eastern seaboard stations, expanding the density of the network to provide for more convenient stopping points.Certain statements in this press release, including statements regarding future Tesla Supercharger locations, timing and capabilities, are “forward-looking statements” that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations, and as a result of certain risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those projected.
According to this, Management's current expectations 32 days before 6/30 were for triple the number of superchargers, not one or two more. So either their execution and contingency planning are really bad, or they are marketing past the headlights.
The weasel wording may make it moot in your mind, but IMO Tesla needs to stop making public statements it can't deliver on. If not consumers (and investors) will stop believing in them.
lolachampcar
Well-Known Member
A year from now this will not even be remembered. What will be remembered is that Tesla was responsible for doing the infrastructure necessary to actually use electric cars. I'm not excusing anything here; just pointing out how (near) history will view this.
Totally agree, however they will do better as a company, better as a stock, and attract and maintain more customers if they
1) Stop promising things from the top and in writing that they either cannot or do not intend to deliver on.
2) Stop changing major things like pricing, configurations, etc. without at least notifying existing customers or customers with cars on order/reserved.
There have been multiple occurrences over the last few months and I see no sign of improvement really.
I'm very willing to wait for free supercharging for life. IMHO, one month delay or even two month is not a cause for concern for a company like TM who is implementing when others (companies) are only beginning to see how much of a gap has accrued.
As a publication owned company, public statements have meaning and carry responsibility.
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
There's a disclaimer right under that press release that says that there are risks and uncertainties that may make results different.
If Tesla's going to apply the "forward looking statements" excuse whenever it announces anything, then I'm going to apply a big gulp o' skepticism to those announcements.
bollar
Disgruntled Member
Of course there is.
But not being able to forecast 30 days into the future is a big problem, especially when it takes 30-45 days to deploy a Supercharger. Even basic things, like permits do not appear to have been pulled for the Texas locations. To meet the June deadline, the permits really needed to have been pulled before the announcement, so knowing this, it seems like committing to end-of-July or August would make a whole lot more sense, would be completely acceptable to Tesla-owners, and have a higher probability of success.
So, just sayin' -- if you have zero probability of success, don't commit to a date that will fail.
But hey, maybe a whole bunch will light up tomorrow and won't we all be surprised? And I'll happily play the goat.
I'm extremely disappointed in the random negative title of the post. Context would be very helpful in the title.
Otherwise, you invite unscrupulous press and bloggers to use it as fuel for some hatred spew.
Or you tempt people like me to drone on endlessly about my local neighborhood ordinances about fireworks being illegal on the 4th. Or inspectors that take forever to show up to do their job. Or any other thing I'm extremely disappointed about. And it would be completely on-topic, judging by the topic title.
So, "Yes, I'm disappointed in the title of the OP." /endofrant
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Agree.
Disagree.
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