In 2019, before the disruption of COVID-19, Uber generated Revenues of $14.1 billion and had Costs of about $22.6 billion
1. So their Costs were 60% HIGHER than their Revenues
2. If they want to break even on the current Cost and Revenue structure they would need to RAISE THEIR PRICES by +60%
- and that is just to achieve Breakeven
3. It is said that their current pricing is roughly $2 per mile
4. So breakeven pricing should be around $3.20 per mile
5. If Uber's take from the customer's payment is 20%, then that means the Cost of running Uber is about $0.64 per mile
6. Presumably any other network operator performing a similar function to Uber would face that same Cost of $0.64 per mile or even higher if their business was at a smaller scale, because of fixed-cost effects
7. This Cost of $0.64 per mile is incurred even before the vehicles have traveled a single mile
8. And to get the total Cost of running the network we need to add the cost of the vehicles in terms of capital cost and running costs including insurance, fuel, cleaning, maintenance
9. It is easy to see that total cost going above $1.00 per mile
10. But the typical privately-owned ICE vehicle only costs about $0.55 per mile
- and even less for a BEV and on a marginal cost basis
11. So we should be careful not to assume that an electric robotaxi will be cheaper than owning our own BEV in the future
12. And unless something radically changes in Uber's Revenues and Cost structure, holding their shares does not look like a winning bet
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Bill Gates praised Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk's contributions on mitigating climate change in a New York Times podcast this week finance.yahoo.com/news/bill-gate…
What Happened :
"Well, it’s important to say that what Elon did with Tesla is one of the greatest contributions to climate change anyone’s ever made,” the billionaire-philanthropist said on NYT opinion writer Kara Swisher’s twice-weekly podcast “Sway"
“Underestimating Elon is not a good idea,” Gates added.
Why It Matters :
The Microsoft co-founder's comments follow Musk's appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast where he said he had heard that Gates might have had a short position on Tesla stock :
Ford is investing $1 billion in an electric vehicle production facility in Cologne, Germany, with the European arm of the automotive giant committing to go “all-in” on electric vehicles in the years ahead cnbc.com/2021/02/17/for…
In plans announced Wednesday morning, Ford said its entire passenger vehicle range in Europe would be “zero-emissions capable, all-electric or plug-in hybrid” by the middle of 2026, with a “completely all-electric” offering by 2030
The investment in Cologne will see the company update an existing assembly plant, converting it into a facility focused on the production of electric vehicles