Investor's Corner
Wired Takes a Tesla Factory Tour with Diarmuid O’Connell
Wired got a tour of the Tesla factory recently in the company of Diarmuid O’Connell, vice president of business development. The tour turned into a discussion of the core values that are the foundation of everything Tesla does.
Wired UK editor Michael Rundle recounts his recent tour of the Tesla factory with Vice President of Business Development, Diarmuid O’Connell. What started off as a jaunt through the factory soon became a deep dive into the philosophy that underpins everything Tesla stands for.
O’Connell was the 50th person hired by Tesla and the first who was not a trained engineer. He is a firm believer in the gospel according to Musk, but he is far from the only one. As reported by Wired UK, one company staffer was overheard during the tour saying the company’s mission is to discomfort “petrodictators.”
O’Connell starts off by telling Rundle that Tesla is not in the business of making automobiles. “Tesla is in the business of inspiring competition. The more electric vehicles the better.” Then he adds, “It would be a fulfillment of our mission if the biggest manufacturer in the US put a mass-market EV on the road. We’re hopeful that they will and frankly that everyone else does.”
He suggests that Tesla is bent on securing the future of “sustainable transport” as a whole, not just making a profit. If it can establish that EVs are viable, more cars, more charging infrastructure, more battery research and development, more greening of the electrical greed, and a reduced dependence on foreign oil will follow, Tesla will make money. But if Tesla loses its bet on the future, not only will it fail, but the environment and the world will lose as well.
For those who criticize the company for being slow to get its products to market, O’Connell has an answer. “If we had been able to produce [the Model S] out of the box 12 years ago, we would have done so. We had no brand, no capital, no manufacturing base and no developed technology,” he says. “This is the classic technology introduction model that has led to the mass market for everything from air travel to cell phones. … This is how you do it if you’re starting from zero.”
Tesla relies too much on government subsidies and the sale of emissions credits, some critics charge. O’Connell has an answer for that too. The oil and gas industries receive “$2 trillion in global subsidies” every year, he points out, but he saves his most severe criticism for “the $25 billion R&D tax credit that Exxon Mobile and some of the other big American gasoline petroleum producers still enjoy 120 years into the development of that technology.” Why doesn’t the press talk about that, he wonders?
Asked about how autonomous cars and ride sharing may affect the environment going forward, he says, “I think what’s important is the emissions profile of any car, whether it’s shared or owned. Big or small. We’re trying to move as quickly as possible where the emissions profile of a vehicle is zero, and the emissions profile of the original electron going into the vehicle is as close to zero as possible.”
As Tesla expands its markets to other countries, it will source as many components as possible from local sources. That includes building more Gigafactories nearby, whether in Europe, China, Japan or any other country. Doing so is only common sense, he argues.
With all the buzz about the Chevy Bolt, new competition from Faraday Future, Atieva, NextEV, BYD and BAIC, O’Connell takes a “What have you done for me lately?” attitude. “The path of getting there — that’s the question. And the promise of doing something two- and three- and four years hence do not impress me,” O’Connell says. “People doing stuff now? That impresses me.”
Finally, O’Connell gets down the bottom line, the real nitty gritty, the foundation Tesla is built on. “[Y]ou also have to put on the table how are we as a society thinking about larger issues, and moving ourselves towards taking other than strictly market oriented actions, to deliver public health benefits,” he says. “Maybe survival [depends] on how you think about carbon intensity and the logical progression of too much carbon in our atmosphere.”
There a lot of people who think a social conscience is not the proper role of business. It’s not the capitalist model they teach in business school. Some would go so far as to say Tesla is foolish for letting such considerations as respect for the earth color its business plans and detract from the quest for profits.
Maybe so, but if you listen to Diarmuid O’Connell, who obviously gets his convictions from Elon Musk himself, someday in the not too distant future, we will find out who is foolish…..and who are really the fools.
Photo credits: Tesla
Tesla received a price target upgrade just on the heels of what was a crazy successful quarter for its automotive business, as the company reported a delivery beat of over 15 percent for Q2.
Jefferies analysts are upping Tesla’s price target (NASDAQ: TSLA) to $400 from $375, while maintaining their “Hold” rating on shares, and the strong automotive deliveries from Q2 is a big reason. However, there are some other catalysts that Jefferies believes position Tesla for a strong position in the second half of the year.
Strong Deliveries
Tesla reported 480,000 deliveries for Q2, while Wall Street was between 395,000 and 405,000, as an overall consensus. It was an incredibly strong quarter from a delivery perspective, and Tesla sold well more than it produced during the three months.
Tesla crushes Wall Street expectations, beats delivery estimates by over 15 percent
While vehicle deliveries are not necessarily looked at in the light that they used to be, Tesla still maintains a lot of advantages for keeping deliveries strong. With the loss of the $7,500 EV Tax Credit last year, Tesla still maintains a strong demand case for its EVs.
Robotaxi Performance
Tesla has been operating Robotaxi for over a year now, as it launched in Austin in mid-2025. That program has expanded to Houston and Dallas, the San Francisco Bay Area, and, most recently, Miami, Florida, the suite’s first appearance in the Sunshine State.
While the Robotaxi suite is still in its early phases and Tesla is working through things like fleet size and wait times, the company has been able to undercut the pricing of its competitors and has a great safety record.
Merger Speculation with Tesla and SpaceX
This is perhaps the biggest topic that many are speaking about with Tesla and SpaceX, and it is the one thing that seems to be on the mind of every investor.
Jefferies warns that growing talk of a Tesla-SpaceX merger could cause Tesla stock to trade more like a SpaceX proxy, which may disconnect it from underlying automotive fundamentals. SpaceX has a lot going for it, especially its compute deals that have been widely publicized as of late.
Profitability in New Projects Could Take Some Time
Tesla has a few long-term ventures in the pipeline, most notably the Optimus project and Robotaxi, which is launched but will take several years to expand to a meaningful level that resonates with everyday people.
This is something that investors need to be careful of. Tesla’s projects could take some time to round out, so Jefferies advises that these may carry initial losses, rather than immediate profit. Seasoned Tesla investors have echoed something like this for a long time; they knew going in it would not be an open-and-shut strategy. It was going to take time.
These new projects are no different.
Investor's Corner
NASA taps SpaceX to launch the telescope that could unlock new worlds
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope heads to orbit this August aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy with massive scientific ambitions.
SpaceX is set to play a central role in one of NASA’s most anticipated science missions in years. The company’s Falcon Heavy rocket, currently the most powerful operational launch vehicle in the world, will carry the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope into orbit on August 30 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Roman is now in final preparations inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, where on June 26 technicians used a crane to lift the observatory into a specialized stand for fueling and pre-launch testing.
Roman is named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief of astronomy, whose career helped shape how the agency approaches space science.
NASA chose SpaceX Falcon Heavy because of Roman’s needs to reach a specific orbit far from Earth, well beyond where a standard Falcon 9 can deliver it. The Falcon Heavy, which first flew in 2018, has since become NASA’s go-to option for missions that need serious muscle without the cost and complexity of older launch systems.
Celebrating SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Tesla Roadster launch, seven years later (Op-Ed)
Roman will carry a field of view at least 100 times wider than the Hubble Space Telescope, meaning it can photograph enormous swaths of the universe in a single shot rather than the narrow slices Hubble captures. That difference in scale is significant. While Hubble reshaped our understanding of the cosmos over 30 years, Roman is built to work faster and wider, surveying hundreds of millions of galaxies at once.
One of Roman’s most compelling capabilities is its potential to discover and photograph planets orbiting stars outside our solar system, and with enough precision to directly image planets that would otherwise be lost. That means scientists could study the atmosphere and surface characteristics of distant worlds rather than simply confirming they exist. Combined with Roman’s sweeping field of view, the telescope could detect thousands of exoplanets, and some of those planets may be in habitable zones where liquid water could exist. No telescope currently in operation has this level of power and capability. That capability alone could change what we know about other worlds, and perhaps finally answer the question: are we the only intelligent lifeforms in existence?
What Roman actually finds once it reaches orbit is an open question, and that is exactly what makes this launch worth watching.
Elon Musk
California snubs Tesla in its newly passed EV incentive that favors Rivian and Lucid
California passed a $135 million EV incentive that rewards Rivian and Lucid while sidelining Tesla
California just drew a line in the EV incentive sand to put Tesla on the wrong side of it. The state recently passed a $135 million program offering first-time electric vehicle buyers a direct incentive with no application required, but the rules were written in a way that leaves Tesla at a structural disadvantage compared to Rivian and Lucid.
The program caps eligible vehicles at $50,000 for new EVs and $25,000 for used ones. That pricing threshold rules out a significant portion of Tesla’s lineup, though some lower-priced Model 3 and Model Y configurations would still qualify. California-based automakers are exempt from the price cap entirely, regardless of what their vehicles cost. Rivian, headquartered in Irvine, and Lucid, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, both benefit from that exemption. Rivian’s R2 starts at roughly $45,000 but has versions above the cap. Lucid’s Air and Gravity start at $70,990 and $79,990 respectively, well above any threshold a non-California company would face.
California hits Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi driverless cars with new law
Tesla built its reputation and a significant portion of its early market share in California, where EV adoption has consistently led the nation. The company operates its original factory in Fremont, California, and the state was home to Tesla’s headquarters for most of its existence. That changed in 2021 when Tesla moved its corporate headquarters to Austin, Texas. Since then, the relationship between the company and California Governor Gavin Newsom has been openly adversarial, with Musk and Newsom trading public criticism on multiple occasions.
California’s EV incentive landscape has shifted repeatedly in recent years, and Tesla has previously lost eligibility for state-level programs as its vehicles exceeded income-adjusted price thresholds. The federal $7,500 EV tax credit, which Tesla models have qualified for and lost depending on policy cycles, is no longer available after it expired without renewal, making state-level programs more meaningful to buyers than they have been in years.
The practical impact for buyers is more nuanced than the headline suggests. California residents purchasing a Tesla under $50,000 for the first time can still access the incentive. But the exemption written for California-based manufacturers is a structural advantage that rewards where a company plants its headquarters flag rather than where it builds its products, and Tesla moved that flag to Texas.
Tesla makes the cut on California’s newest EV Rebate program
Tesla Semi enters new Pilot Program with interesting challenge
