Page 52 - 072817

Groton Daily Independent
Friday, July 28, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 028 ~ 52 of 54
Lisa Gingerich, a Milwaukee-based attorney, reserved a Model 3 within minutes of the order bank’s opening. She doesn’t know when she’ll get to choose from the limited number of options, including color and wheel size, or when her car will arrive. She’s borrowing a friend’s Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid while she waits.
Gingerich thought about getting a Model S, but found it too expensive and ashy for the charities she often works with. She could get an all-electric Chevrolet Bolt, which is the same price as the Model 3 and has more range. But she wants access to Tesla’s fast-charging Supercharger stations, which are strategi- cally placed along U.S. highways.
She also wants to support Musk’s bold vision. Musk, the billionaire founder of PayPal, also runs rocket maker Space Explorations Technologies Corp. and dabbles in arti cial intelligence research and high-speed transportation projects.
“It’s kind of like organic food. The more people buy it, the more it becomes accessible for everybody,” Gingerich says.
But car-making has proved a challenge to Musk. Both the Model S and the Model X SUV were delayed and then plagued with pesky problems, like doors that don’t work and blank screens in their high-tech dashboards.
Tesla’s luxury car owners might overlook those problems because they liked the thrill of being early adopters. But mainstream buyers will be less forgiving.
“This will be their primary vehicle, so they will have high expectations of quality and durability and ex- pect everything to work every time,” said Sam Abuelsamid, a senior researcher with Navigant Research.
The Model 3 was designed to be much simpler to make than Tesla’s previous vehicles. But already it doesn’t appear to be sticking to its schedule. Musk said earlier this month Tesla should be making 20,000 Model 3s per month by December; that’s half the number of his previous estimates.
Musk aims to make 500,000 vehicles next year at Tesla’s Fremont factory, a number that could help Tesla nally make money. The company has only had two pro table quarters since it went public in 2010. But even at that pace, Tesla will remain a small player. Toyota Motor Corp. made more than 10 million vehicles last year.
Abuelsamid said even if it doesn’t meet its ambitious targets, Tesla has done more than anyone to pro- mote electric vehicles.
“A decade ago they were a little more than golf carts. Now all of a sudden, EVs are real, practical vehicles that can be used for anything,” he said.
Asian shares slide as Wall St tech swoon weighs on sentiment By KELVIN CHAN, AP Business Writer
HONG KONG (AP) — Asian shares slid Friday as investors evaluated the latest raft of corporate earnings, including those from tech stocks, which had a poor day on Wall Street and weighed on overall investor sentiment.
KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index sank 0.4 percent to 19,994.54 and South Korea’s Kospi slumped 1.2 percent to 2,414.08. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.5 percent to 26,995.76 while the Shanghai Composite index in mainland China dipped 0.1 percent to 3,245.77. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 tumbled 1.3 percent to 5,709.70. Benchmarks in Southeast Asia were mixed.
EARNINGS SEASON: A swoon in technology stocks on Wall Street was setting the tone for trading in markets more broadly. Twitter plunged 14 percent after it reported no growth in users while Amazon fell 1 percent as pro t missed expectations. Investors were also assessing other earnings reports, including by Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co., which reported trading quarterly pro t dipped 1 percent on rising costs and slowing growth in China.
ECONOMIC OUTLOOK: Orders for long-lasting U.S. factory goods posted their biggest gain in nearly three years last month. The uptick in orders are a good sign for the U.S. economy, though the gures aren’t as impressive as they rst appear because most of the increase comes from a big jump in aircraft orders, which are typically volatile. Looking ahead, markets are expecting the estimate of U.S. second-quarter GDP growth later Friday followed by the latest China and U.S. monthly purchasing managers’ indexes and