Welcome to Electrified, it's your host Dylan Loomis. So first of all, from yesterday's episode to everybody who called me out for using the lower case M, which is supposed to be for Millie, rather than the upper case M, which is for mega, my sincere apologies. Honestly, just totally slipped to my mind. I got lazy and I just was not thinking. Thank you for the callouts and for keeping me honest. And just so you all know, I did hear all of the feedback about yesterday's video. So once again, as always, keep it coming. I can't promise that I won't make mistakes or step out of bounds every now and then, but I can tell you that over time, I will do my best to become less wrong.
Here's some context from Hallmarks for what you're about to hear. The California Public Employees Retirement System, which is the largest public pension fund in the country, who, by the way, made over a 10x in Tesla stock over the past six years, have decided to vote no for Elon's 2018 compensation plan. The Elon Musk pay package. You have a stake in Tesla. What do you think? So that is one of the proxy proposals that we will take a serious look at. The team is evaluating it. But as of today, minus the conversation that has yet to happen with Tesla, we would not be voting in favor of that proposal. We do not believe that the compensation is commensurate with the performance of the company.
以下是一段来自Hallmarks的背景介绍,方便你理解接下来要听到的内容。美国加州公务员退休基金(California Public Employees Retirement System),这是全美最大的公共退休基金,顺便说一句,在过去六年中他们通过投资特斯拉的股票赚取了超过十倍的回报,现在他们决定对埃隆·马斯克2018年的薪酬计划投反对票。你持有特斯拉的股份,你怎么看?这的确是一个我们将认真考虑的代理提案。团队正在评估它。但截至目前,除了尚未与特斯拉进行的对话外,我们不会投票支持该提案。我们认为这份薪酬不符合公司表现。
Did you vote for it in 2018? I believe we did vote for it in 2018. Okay. This is about long term value. But hold on, hold on. But do you believe you were duped in 2018? No. I believe we used the information we had available and made the best choice. If I told you that you were being paid a certain amount of money in 2018, and then I called you and said, actually, you know what, we're not going to give you that money anymore. What would you do? That's a great question. I would go to my board. I would talk with my board if this was truly a commitment that was made to Mr. Musk by his board, then they should follow through on that commitment. But for us. How can they follow through if. They're non-binding proposals. So they could follow through. They have a choice to follow through on this proposal.
So you believe that the board could still pay you on Musk? I believe the board minus the court issue. So I'm not factoring in the court issue on this. But for us, the reason we do the say on pay is that the company long term value creation of that company cannot be a spike in performance because we've seen spikes in performance at Tesla. This is about long term value creation. And so if the board is supportive, and again, I'm not factoring in this court issue, most of these proposals are non-binding and the board could make it more effective. And I'm not going to make a decision to go ahead and pay.
First of all, the argument she's trying to make is even if the vote goes no, then the board can still decide to overrule that and actually pay Elon his compensation. She, of course, included the massive disclaimer that she's not counting for what's going on in the Delaware court. That's somewhat equivalent to saying, well, Ford and GM are the biggest EV makers in the United States if Tesla didn't exist. Well, Tesla does exist, so that's a ridiculous hypothetical. You would think the CEO of the largest pension fund in the country would be able to make decisions using all of the available information and provide responses for the same.
I'm not a lawyer, but I would definitely question the legality of if Tesla's board were to just pay Elon anyway if this vote were to be a no. Just guessing here, but pretty sure that would not hold up in court, given that a yes vote six years ago did not hold up in court. So to me, that first argument seems ridiculous and irrelevant. And then she decides to bring up how this is all about long-term value creation, implying that Tesla isn't doing that. For Tesla stock, going back 10 years, which for me is a minimum requirement for talking about long-term, keep in mind this was after a significant Tesla stock run up, so not including that. And it includes the recent sideways movement for three to four years. Tesla is still up 1,211% over the past 10 years.
Elon is dumbfounded as well, saying what she's saying makes no sense as all the contractual milestones were met. Calpers is breaking their word. Replying to Hallmar's, Elon said Calpers broke the deal, shame on them, they have no honor. In fairness, Marcy did note they're planning to have a conversation with Tesla, but if the vote was today, that $1.7 billion in Tesla stock that they own would be voting no. Here's how this boils down. Marcy, Calpers, and the roughly 2 million or so employees in this pension fund make over a billion dollars in Tesla stock over the past six years. But now Marcy is saying, you know what, Elon does not deserve to get paid for that value creation. And as we just heard, at least in my opinion, Hoorashinao was a joke.
Mexican officials are doing what they can to keep the momentum going for suppliers and other companies to continue investing in Nuevo, Lyon, and surrounding areas. As part of that push, they're saying Gigamexico is still moving forward. Tesla has already started preliminary construction and attracted a few suppliers to Nuevo, Lyon. The Secretary of Economy confirmed the state maintains a good relationship with Tesla and regularly communicates with the company. Tesla and Nuevo, Lyon, are currently discussing incentives related to Gigamexico. We have not had any change in signal. We also work hand in hand with them. For example, right now in the incentive contract, the communication is very close. We continue working. The only thing I could not say and that's not defined is when Tesla is going to start, but Tesla is coming, Tesla is coming. The incentives they're discussing have to do with highways, bridges around Gigamexico for connectivity, and the infrastructure for treated water from Gigamexico. Lastly, they said Tesla's mass layoffs have not affected Tesla Mexico's preliminary construction. The construction so far isn't really factory related. Again, it's mostly infrastructure related if you're interested in tracking the progress. Adrian CG on YouTube, who I'll link below, is our drone pilot so far for Gigamexico. Honestly, at this point, I'm not expecting a production vehicle to be sold from Gigamexico until sometime in 2027.
After that comment, I'll provide some quick comic relief. Sawyer shared a post from Joe Biden on Facebook saying the future of EVs will be made in America by Union workers. A post like that, you definitely have to check the comments and I came across this one from Nurlnet Neil saying this is what we've got so far, truly inspiring. Well done, Neil. Ed Krasenstein said this post explains the relationship between Elon and Biden, remove by Union workers and Elon would be going to the White House daily for evening tea. To which Elon said Biden cares a lot more about whether Tesla is unionized than whether Tesla is saving the environment. That's really nothing new, but what we have here actually is. Now warning, this is somewhat political, but remember, I'm just the messenger and I actually think this could have pretty big implications for the next few years. The Wall Street Journal is saying that Trump and Elon have discussed a possible advisory role for Elon should Trump actually become president. The role has not been fully hammered out and might not happen, but the two men discussed ways to give Elon formal input and influence over policies related to border security and the economy. Elon, along with billionaire Nelson Peltz, has also briefed Trump on a plan they have developed to invest in a data-driven project to prevent voter fraud. Peltz and Elon also told Trump of an influence campaign in elite circles that's already underway, in which Elon and his political allies host gatherings of business leaders across the country to convince them not to support Biden's re-election campaign. In recent months, Trump and Elon have been developing a friendly rapport and talk on the phone several times a month as the election years. They've talked about immigration, tech and science, and the US Space Force and others will get to momentarily. Trump has told Elon he wants to find a way to get him more involved if he wins in November. As always, Elon is not just interested in writing a check, and Elon said he's motivated by anxieties over the direction of the country. At one of these get-togethers between Elon, Trump and Peltz, they also had their sons in attendance, making this a family affair. Recent talks between Elon and Trump have also been about Tesla, X and SpaceX. They've also discussed the EV industry and EV tax credits.
Despite Elon's friendlier relationship with Trump as of late, Elon is still non-committal on an endorsement for Trump. They're saying the idea is more about emphasizing what Elon and Peltz see as Biden's shortcomings rather than Trumpening Trump himself. Look, I know it's easier said than done, but putting the politics aside, giving Elon an advisory role would clearly have some positive implications for Tesla and the EV movement. And we all know what Trump is saying right now about electric vehicles publicly, but if we could have Elon in his ear to some degree in the years ahead, at the very least, I think it would be a bit better than the adversarial relationship that Elon and Tesla have with the current administration. Obviously, Trump may not win, and this advisory role may not happen even if he does, but it's definitely something to keep in mind and watch unfold.
NHTSA is now seeking records from Tesla for its investigation into Model 3 and Y vehicles over power steering lost reports. It wants these records from Tesla by July 24th about the steering components. The request includes Tesla's process for identifying problems and creating solutions for potential defects. The investigation covers around 334,000 Model 3 and Y cars from 2023 and comes after NHTSA received 115 reports of loss of steering control. The reports include steering or related failures or steering becoming stuck, locked or immovable or requiring high or increased effort. NHTSA said it's aware of over 50 vehicles allegedly towed as a result of the problem. As a reminder, not all NHTSA investigations ultimately result in a recall.
There were 22 undocumented changes in Tesla software update 2024.14 just wanted to share a few. Tesla theater gets a new UI update. When adding a new driver profile, Tesla now encourages the user to do it from the mobile app. That way it makes it a cloud-based profile. That way you can sync your profile across different Tesla vehicles, whether it's a loaner or a rental, etc. There's a new icon for the navigation app which clearly can be pinned to the bottom dock. The pedals and steering menu has seen some changes and it's now called Dynamics. The media player is a bit larger, allowing for more quick controls. The charging display will now have a bit more information and the font size of the speedometer has also been increased.
Carlos Tavares, the CEO of Stellantis, just said they plan to offer a $25,000 all electric Jeep vehicle in the US very soon. In the same way we brought the 20,000 Euro, Citroen EC3, you'll have a $25,000 Jeep very soon. Tavares said he expects the company to achieve cost parity with its full BEVs and traditional combustion vehicles in the next three years max. Regarding Chinese competition, he said it's a very challenging period, very chaotic, very Darwinian. We are in the storm and this storm is going to last a few years. He also said the tariffs like those the US is implementing on Chinese EVs may delay their expansion to the US but it will not completely stop it. Saying yes, time helps but you cannot stop the competition. Putting you behind a protectionist bubble is not going to help you be competitive. If your strategy is to shrink and stay inside of the bubble, it'll buy you time but certainly it will cut your future.
No surprise, you won't hear much about this in the media but over the past few weeks, Stellantis has lost three key top executives. Tavares also highlighted how the EV transition is now a game of severe cost cutting and automotive suppliers have to figure out how to adapt or they risk going under in the next five to ten years. EVs cost 40-50% more to produce than gas powered cars on average. That means Stellantis is not in a race to transition to EVs but in a race to cut costs on EVs. The cost cutting race will be a big big big burden on part suppliers. You can already see in Europe significant tier one suppliers with very well known names that are already in trouble for this specific reason. Stellantis will begin relying even more heavily on part supplied from countries like India, Turkey, Morocco and Mexico, countries where it's possible to have a 30-40% variation on the cost of the same part, the same system with the same specs compared to parts made in the US or Europe.
Fun fact, in an annual survey of suppliers gauging their working relationships with six major North American automakers, the company Stellantis has ranked last for several years. Finally, he said only the companies that are exposed to the harsh competition of the Chinese car makers are going to be the winners if they're able to survive the Chinese competition. The European Commission has been expected to raise its own tariffs on Chinese EVs but these provisional tariffs for now are expected to be announced by June 5th. I'm sure we'll touch on this more if and when they become official but the duties would be imposed from early July but could apply retroactively for the prior three months.
For now, this is just a rumor but we have a South Korean source saying that Genesis is in the final stages of working out a deal to buy electric motors from Lucid. This would be the second deal like this that Lucid has signed, having already signed another deal to supply electric motors to Aston Martin. Genesis also wants to release this ex-convertible concept sometime in 2026. Ford has released a new software update for its mobile app both for combustion vehicles and EVs. EV owners will now have access to one tap vehicle controls, quicker access to the smartphone key and enhanced charge management, including a simplified slider for a target charge. F-150 Lightning owners got a climate control feature that allows them to prepare their cabin for access. So yes, relative to Tesla software these are still very basic. Farley said there are also several improvements to ICE vehicles but they mostly have to do with the UI appearance which also applies to EV owners.
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We got some new information about the upcoming Cadillac optic, which is supposed to be the entry level EV for the Cadillac brand. The 2025 optic starts at $54,000 and a GM exec confirmed it will qualify for the full tax credit. It'll have an 85 kilowatt hour battery pack and the GM estimate for range is currently 300 miles, but that's not from the EPA. The optics wheelbase is about a half foot shorter than the Lyric and the curb weight for the optic is 5,192 pounds, roughly 800 pounds heavier than the Model Y. Inside it has a 33 inch curved display that combines the instrument cluster with the central touch screen in one solid piece of glass.
我们获得了一些关于即将推出的凯迪拉克 "Optic" 的新信息。这款车被定位为凯迪拉克品牌的入门级电动车。2025年款 "Optic" 的起售价为54000美元,一位通用汽车高管确认它有资格获得全额税收抵免。它配备了一个85千瓦时的电池组,通用汽车估计的续航里程目前为300英里,但这并不是美国环保署(EPA)提供的数据。"Optic" 的轴距比 "Lyric" 短大约半英尺,整车重量为5192磅,大约比特斯拉 Model Y 重800磅。车内拥有一个33英寸的曲面显示屏,将仪表盘和中央触摸屏结合为一整块玻璃。
The optic will have Google's built in Android software, but still no apple car play and no Android auto. The optic is set to go on sale late this fall and will be available in two trims, luxury and sport. In addition to the US, this EV is supposed to be available in Europe as well as for other international markets. One of the biggest downsides I'm seeing of this vehicle is it's only capable of 150 kilowatt charging speeds. But as we've said many times on the channel, it's really all about the charging curve and how long the battery pack can sustain those speeds. Another negative, the optic will not have a front trunk, which allowed Cadillac to package peripherals up front so they could optimize the rear half of the vehicle. And all optics will have a dual motor setup with all wheel drive.
Let me be very clear here, this news item is in no way a recommendation for me about this fund. I'm just saying that ARK Invest and their venture fund now owns a portion of XAI. Not only that, but this fund owns SpaceX as well and they've invested in nearly 50 companies, most of which are private. This fund comes with a sizable management fee of 2.75%. There's only about 54 million dollars in this fund and looking at the top 10 holdings as of the end of April, SpaceX is the largest holding, just shy of 14%. On X, Alex said by constantly shorting Tesla for years, the fund of Jim Chanos has lost 96% of its value from 6 billion in 2008 down to 200 million in November 2023. Elon replied, saying, it's not just that he would short Tesla, he would also push false stories about Tesla in the media, who performed for him like circus poodles.
You may recall late last year, we learned that Jim Chanos had decided to shut down his hedge funds. However, he's not out of the woods as just yesterday, we learned that he's been accused of embezzling company funds for personal use and enriching his girlfriend in the process. He's not guilty yet, but there is a saying out there, he reap what you sow. Drive Tesla Canada is saying the Tesla Semi will be presented at the commercial vehicle exhibition in Hanover, Germany. This is the first time the truck will be shown in Europe. DTC goes on to say that this move may mean Tesla is ready to gain momentum for mass production, but let's slow down a bit and not forget that the new Tesla Semi Factory for mass production is not going to be making semis for customers until early 2026 at the earliest.
你可能还记得去年年底,我们得知吉姆·查诺斯决定关闭他的对冲基金。然而,他并没有完全摆脱麻烦,因为就在昨天,我们听说他被指控挪用公司资金供个人使用,并且在此过程中让他的女朋友受益。他目前还未被判有罪,但有句话说,种瓜得瓜,种豆得豆。
Drive Tesla Canada 表示,特斯拉半挂卡车将在德国汉诺威的商用车展览会上亮相。这是这款卡车首次在欧洲展示。DTC 进一步表示,这一举动可能意味着特斯拉准备在大规模生产方面取得进展,但我们应该冷静点,不要忘记大规模生产的特斯拉半挂卡车新工厂要到最早2026年初才能开始为客户生产卡车。
However, we know that Tesla is slowly increasing production at the prototype facility, we'll call it at Giganovada currently. More US customers are set to take deliveries of the Tesla Semi later this year, so could a European customer sneak into that group. Even if not this year, maybe sometime in 2025, opening up the Tesla Semi to an entirely new market, where Tesla executives have said they see big potential for the Tesla Semi and Elon did say at some point he plans to build the Tesla Semi. Currently, Tesla is flooding the internet with different documents and letters and proposals and requests to Tesla shareholders for the upcoming votes.
I'll include this 28 page PDF below, which is a Tesla presentation to investors and as you can see, they talk about how different Tesla is as a company from 2018 to now. Quick numbers in 2018, Tesla's revenues were $11.8 billion, they delivered 103.1 thousand vehicles in 2017 and lost $2.2 billion. Present day, Tesla's revenues are $96.8 billion, they delivered 1.8 million vehicles last year and made $15 billion in profit. Can somebody make sure our friend Marcy sees this chart?
I'm not going to go through every page here because a lot of this information isn't new, they're just presenting it in a new package. The good news with all of this though, one thing is for sure, there is no way a judge will be able to argue that shareholders were not fully informed this time around. They also called out Texas is expected to provide more certainty for innovative big ticket business decisions. Delaware courts are increasingly second guessing boards and stockholders reasoned decisions and limiting their freedom to act decisively to create extraordinary shareholder value.
They laid out with some pretty bar charts how ambitious that 2018 compensation plan actually was. Example from Tesla's fiscal year 2017 actual adjusted EBITDA to the highest milestone award, that was good for a 22x. Perhaps my favorite chart of them all is this right here, the 2018 award did what it was supposed to do, they showed revenue growth, adjusted EBITDA growth and stockholder return from 2017 to 2023, showing Tesla leading the way beating companies like Nvidia, Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and others. Again, we've been over a lot of that data, but I'll have the full report linked below.
Then also, we just got a new multi-page report where Tesla is defending themselves about some of the complaints Glass Lewis just raised over the weekend. Tesla said Glass Lewis omits key considerations, uses faulty logic and relies on speculation and hypotheticals. What is not hypothetical and is conspicuously absent from the Glass Lewis report is the over $735 billion in value, the award incentivized Elon to help create for shareholders.
And how about this, they said Glass Lewis is on record as recommending four three other recent re-incorporations from Delaware to Texas. Example in 2022, in most respects the corporate statutes in Delaware and Texas are comparable. The other proxy firm ISS said the same in 2022. With that context, this now feels a bit like Tesla is being targeted. How about this, Glass Lewis says, resending the award and paying Elon nothing is acceptable because it was always possible that the award would result in no payout if performance targets were not achieved. So, Elon and the company should have anticipated that he might work for no compensation for six years.
他们说,Glass Lewis 之前曾建议将最近从特拉华州重新注册到德克萨斯州的四个公司中的三家公司重新注册到德克萨斯州。举个例子,2022年,特拉华州和德克萨斯州的公司法规在大多数方面是相似的。另一家代理公司 ISS 在2022年也说了同样的话。在这种背景下,现在感觉特斯拉有点像是被针对了。再说一个例子,Glass Lewis 表示,撤销奖励并不给埃隆任何报酬是可以接受的,因为如果未达成业绩目标,奖励本来就有可能不发放。因此,埃隆和公司应该预见到他可能会在六年内无偿工作。
At this point, I hope everybody out there can see the type of people and the type of thinking that we're dealing with. And as Tesla should, they said the fact is this is absurd. That Tesla and Elon agreed on a compensation plan that was fundamentally based on a risk-verse-reward framework simply cannot be basis for renegging on the reward after the fact. Elon hit the targets that were anticipated and did create extraordinary growth in stockholder returns, receiving no compensation whatsoever in return for achieving exceptional results for Tesla and its stockholders was never part of the deal.
To me, it truly is ridiculous that Tesla has to take the time to make statements to refute statements like this. Glass Lewis said it wasn't sure if the grant date value of the award needed to be as high as it was. Tesla said the fact is this is pure speculation. Glass Lewis may speculate some other compensation arrangement may have been available and may have achieved a similar result, but the fact is that the award as designed was the one that the board determined and stockholders agreed was appropriate to accomplish its objectives. Speculation in hindsight about other compensation structures does nothing to help Tesla or its stockholders with the current problem.
Glass Lewis does not even mention once, in its 71-page report, the tremendous value created for Tesla stockholders. Glass Lewis says other considerations regarding Elon's time commitments to Tesla may continue to warrant consideration in the current moment and highlight weakness in the award at achieving adequate levels of executive focus. Tesla said the fact is that simply ignores the facts. Glass Lewis may believe Elon should have done so with more focus, but the fact is that Tesla's performance speaks for itself. Forget the Tom Brady roast, I think we need a Tesla roast of Glass Lewis and ISS and for that matter, all of legacy media sometime in the future as the next Netflix special. Honestly, good for Tesla for standing up for itself and fighting back against some of this nonsense that is being shared around by Glass Lewis.
I'll leave you guys with an awesome video from Chamath PolyHappatia on Tesla from 2019, but as you'll see, it's very prescient and Elon thinks so as well. Don't forget, check out AG1 linked below if you're interested. Hope you guys have a wonderful day. Please like the video if you did. You can find me on X linked below and a huge thank you to all of my Patreon supporters. If you're an investor in Tesla, you're 100% comfortable with the way he is a CEO. Yeah. None of the actions that he's done over the last year or so give you pause at all. What do you mean? Meaning the Model 3 is an incredible car. I just bought one. It's incredible. I bought it. The way that it was secured, I mean, what was that? Okay, maybe he stepped out of bounds. My point is you're getting caught up in the window dressing. I'm focusing on the main course.
The main course is on the table. The choice for you as a buyer or seller of that stock is do you want to eat it? If you get caught up in all of the stuff around the edges, maybe he may mistweet from time to time. My point is who cares? Your job as a smart investor is to separate the facts and the news from the fiction and the noise. And all of that stuff doesn't matter. It does not change the fact that tens of thousands of consumers are buying that car faster than they can get their hands on it. It doesn't change that the minute you sit inside that car, your definition of what is expected is altered forever. And you wonder why every other car around you that you ever step in that you may buy doesn't have the same things that that car offers. So at the end of the day, whether you like his style or not, his substance is irrefutable. If you take a five-year step back and say, what is he promised in 2014 to what is he doing in 2019, you'd be ecstatic. Similarly, if you take a step back and say from 2019 to 2024, let the man do his job. Will we be better or worse off as a planet, as a species, as humanity, as consumers? We will be better off.