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Reality Check Tesla, Inc. NASDAQ: TSLA January 7, 2020 Author Aaron Greenspan Disclosures PlainSite affiliates own TSLA put options. Legal Notices Copyright © 2019-2020 Think Computer Corporation. All Rights Reserved. PlainSite is a registered trademark of Think Computer Corporation. This report is not legal or investment advice. Trade at your own risk. About PlainSite® PlainSite is a legal research initiative jointly run by Think Computer Corporation, a for-profit computer software company, and Think Computer Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The PlainSite website at https://www.plainsite.org hosts information regarding over twelve million court dockets, as well as millions of documents and government records from federal and state entities. Think Computer Foundation, which also sponsors activities for individuals with disabilities in the Cleveland area, is funded in part by donations from Think Computer Corporation. Visit the Tesla, Inc. PlainSite profile at https://www.plainsite.org/profiles/tesla-inc/. Read our other Reality Check reports at http://www.plainsite.org/realitycheck/. Contact For PlainSite Pro Investor paid early access to future reports, questions, or comments, contact us by e-mail at [email protected]. Executive Summary Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), a manufacturer of electric vehicles and solar panels, is widely regarded as an American clean energy success story. Its market capitalization has exceeded $80 billion at its peak, and it operates factories in California, Nevada, New York and China. Yet recently released docu- TSLA Price Per Share ments obtained by PlainSite affiliate Think Com- $450.00 puter Foundation reveal that the entire company $400.00 is at this point built on a massive, multi-billion dollar $350.00 fraud orchestrated by its CEO, Elon Musk, who for $300.00 years has gone to extreme lengths to conceal his $250.00 unlawful acts from shareholders. In parallel with $200.00 this core fraud, under Musk’s leadership, Tesla de- $150.00 frauded taxpayers in New York and California out $100.00 of more than 1.2 billion dollars, while producing $50.00 products with serious and sometimes fatal quality $0.00 defects that will likely put the company at risk in a 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 projected 300 new lawsuits in 2020. In 2016, Tesla acquired SolarCity Corporation, a company run by Musk’s cousins, Peter and Lyndon Rive, for $2.6 billion. The acquisition, which made no financial sense for Tesla, was a bailout for Musk and his relatives, whose companies faced near-certain bankruptcy without emergency financing. Since the merger, Tesla has been a financial disaster. In its nearly seventeen years of existence, the company has never turned an annual profit. Even with billions of dol- lars of subsidies from governments worldwide, it has managed to incinerate money at an astounding pace. Despite having the lowest 5-year trailing earnings per share growth of any NASDAQ company worth more than $50 billion, it also has the highest forward price-to-earnings ratio in the class. Tesla’s astounding overvaluation is thanks in large part to a coterie of devoted followers whose television appearances and often fake social media accounts have whipped up a frenzy of hype. Many have also targeted critics and short sellers with vitriol and harassment. While the company’s advocates speak of “moats” that give Tesla a competitive advantage, the truth is that Tesla has virtually no protectable intellectual property and it has pledged to open- source its relatively few patents, besides. Management is in shambles. Meanwhile, the coming decade is certain to feature new competitors in the electric vehicle space. Simply put, Tesla cannot be understood through traditional quantitative metrics be- cause its disclosed numbers are largely fraudulent. Tesla is a broken company, ef- fectively a Ponzi scheme, founded upon the enthusiasm of brilliant hobbyists who unknowingly partnered with a self-described narcissistic “bait and switch[er].” Today, Tesla’s story is Musk’s story. And that story is much different than the PR narrative. i Tesla, Inc. Table of Contents Executive Summary .............................................................................................................................................i Corporate History .............................................................................................................................................1 The Early Days .............................................................................................................................................1 Securing Funding From Uncle Sam ..................................................................................................4 Perceived Market Advantages .....................................................................................................................5 The Charismatic Leader .........................................................................................................................5 Next-Generation Technology ..............................................................................................................5 The Model 3 .................................................................................................................................................6 Battery Production ....................................................................................................................................6 Global Footprint .........................................................................................................................................6 Unrecognized Risks............................................................................................................................................6 A History of Deliberate Deception for Personal Gain ........................................................ 6 Elon’s Pyramid ......................................................................................................................................7 The SolarCity Bailout .......................................................................................................................8 Securities Fraud, False Statements and Unfulfilled Promises ...........................................13 “Funding Secured” ...........................................................................................................................13 October 24, 2018 Q3 2018 Earnings Call ........................................................................15 January 30, 2019 Q4 2018 Earnings Call ...........................................................................17 April 24, 2019 Q1 2019 Earnings Call ................................................................................17 Misleading Vehicle Pricing ............................................................................................................18 Rooftop “Money Printers” ..........................................................................................................19 Autopilot ..............................................................................................................................................22 Full Self-Driving (FSD) ..................................................................................................................26 Robotaxis .............................................................................................................................................28 “Unusually High [Order] Volume” ..........................................................................................29 Selective and Misleading Pre-Order and Reservation Disclosures .....................30 A Tale of Two Morgan Stanleys ................................................................................................31 Other False Statements ...............................................................................................................32 Product Defects ........................................................................................................................................34 VIN Mismatch Issues ......................................................................................................................34 Fires .........................................................................................................................................................34 Project Titan ........................................................................................................................................37 Reality Check ii Vehicle Quality Problems ............................................................................................................37 Sudden Unintended Acceleration ..........................................................................................39 Service Problems .............................................................................................................................40 Charging Station Wait Times and Breakdowns ...............................................................42 A Culture of Secrets, Fear, and Abuse ..........................................................................................42 Preventing Disclosures ..................................................................................................................42 Regulation FD Violations ..............................................................................................................43
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