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Cramer: Elon Musk made a mockery of latest Tesla earnings call

CNBC's Jim Cramer was not impressed with the earnings conference call Tesla hosted last week to explain its 2014 fourth-quarter and annual results, calling CEO Elon Musk's reasons for the company's performance "horrendous," "ridiculous," "a fiasco," and reminiscent of "the rambling John DeLorean." Musk said Tesla met its production target of 35,000 Model S units for the year, but missed out on getting something like 1,400 of those vehicles into customers' hands because of the weather, problems with "actual" ships, and customers being on vacation. Revenue rose to $956.7 million for the year, but the company posted a loss of more than $107 million for the quarter. Tesla saw its third Chinese executive in a year resigned from the company this month, when its VP of communications and chief marketing officer departed. Musk argued that problems in China are "overblown." Part of the trouble in China, Musk argued, has been that the Tesla sales team has been telling customers it's difficult to charge the cars. And the company also dropped two bombshells: Telsa has planned to spend $1.5 billion on capital expenditures planned this year, without borrowing, a statement that a Morgan Stanley analyst called hitting the "insane button." And Musk said Tesla will have a higher market cap than Apple in ten years. Right now, Apple's market cap exceeds $700 billion, Tesla's is about $27 billion; Musk's plan would need 50-percent annual revenue growth for a decade, depending on who you believe. Cramer, who rarely minces words on anything, thinks that's all just plain insane, writing that Musk's explanations "hang himself" and remind him of John DeLorean. Cramer said he loves the car, but he's frustrated with what he calls a "cult stock," which "can't be valued by traditional metrics." It's a sentiment that Musk is in no hurry to change, but he doesn't need to as long as he backs up his braggadocio. For more, check out the call transcript, Q4 Shareholder Letter, and SEC filing. News Source: CNBCImage Credit: AP Photo/Cathleen Allison Earnings/Financials Green Tesla quarterly earnings

Ford GT Mk II at Goodwood, Bentley EXP 100 GT concept EV and driving the Hyundai Veloster N | Autoblog Podcast #588

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski and Associate Editor Joel Stocksdale. To kick things off, they talk about driving the Porsche Cayenne S, Hyundai Veloster N and Nissan Armada. Then they recap the Goodwood Festival of Speed, including the Ford GT Mk II that debuted there. Next up is news: the Bentley EXP 100 GT electric concept car, Ford canceling diesel for the Transit Connect and Elon Musk dismissing talk of a refresh for the Model S and Model X. Finally, they take to Reddit to help pick between a 2016 Audi S3 and a 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia. Autoblog Podcast #588 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars we're driving: 2019 Porsche Cayenne S 2020 Hyundai Veloster N 2019 Nissan Armada Ford GT Mk II debuts at Goodwood, and other impressions from the event Bentley unveils EXP 100 GT electric concept car Ford cancels diesel engine for Transit Connect Tesla Model S and X wonÂ’t get a refresh Spend My Money: Audi or Alfa? Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video:    

Tesla attempting LA-NY Guinness record using Superchargers

Right now, two Tesla Model S EVs are crossing the US from Los Angeles to New York, hoping to be a big deal. Sure, a father-daughter team already claim they've made the cross-country drive, but this time, it's an official Tesla event and the company has its eyes on a Guinness World Record prize. The drivers left the Tesla design studio in Hawthorne, Los Angeles at midnight last night, and the plan is to use the company's just-completed Supercharger network to achieve the "lowest charge time for an electric vehicle traveling across the United States." We didn't know that was a category, either. Tesla now has over 70 Supercharger stations in the US and all of them are free-to-use for Model S drivers, which is why you can follow along on this record attempt via Twitter using the #DriveFree tag. As of early this morning, the teams made it to the Supercharger station in Kingman, AZ and posted this sunrise pic. We wish them safe travels – they will soon reach the snowy northern parts of the country since the current Supercharger route will take them through the upper Midwest on the way to the East Coast.