Q4 profit prediction and factory use speculation

I think some people might be misunderestimating the amount and cost of infrastructure expansion necessary to keep up with the rapid Tesla fleet growth. Additional new chargers and service centers will continue to be needed even long after production has plateaued. Only when the Tesla vehicle retirement rate reaches the sales rate, will infrastructure expansion no longer be necessary.

On the other hand, when Tesla buys GM, they can finance EV infrastructure expansion by selling gas guzzlers.

 

Sure, but they allocate some dollars of each car sale to these things.
The big volume of Model 3's don't get free charging, but instead have to pay for it.
This reduces the need and actually provides some small income over the cost of the power.

Tesla is highly incentivized to make cars that don't require any maintenance. I'm not sure you can say that about ICE cars & dealers...they want to see you often. Of course they need the service centers for warranty work and things that break. And for delivering cars. But they don't store a month of inventory like other dealers do. At least not yet.

Mike