Business

Elon Musk on Tesla’s Cybertruck

Published

5 years ago

February 5, 2020

Tesla CEO Elon Musk personally thinks the company’s Cybertruck is Tesla’s “best product ever,” but he wasn’t sure many other people would like its futuristic design.

“I wasn’t sure if nobody would buy it or if a lot of people would buy it,” Musk said of the truck’s November debut on a recent Third Row Tesla podcast.

The electric truck’s angular body is based in part on a 1976 Lotus Esprit sports car Musk bought in 2013 for nearly $1 million. The car was used in the 1977 James Bond movie, “The Spy Who Loved Me.”

“I told the team, ‘Listen, if nobody wants to buy this, we could always make one that looks like the other trucks.’ Like ‘OK, that was a weird failure, but now we’ll make one that looks like the others,'” he said on the podcast.

But Musk said there was method behind his design madness.

“A lot of reasons why people buy pickup trucks in the U.S. is because it’s the most bad-ass truck. Which one’s the toughest truck?” he said on the podcast. So “what’s tougher than a truck? A tank. A tank from the future.

“How do you out-tough a truck? You make a futuristic armored personnel carrier. It’s gonna be pretty special and not like other things,” he said.

Musk said his “inspiration board” for the pickup also included the movies “‘Blade Runner,’ ‘Mad Max,’ ‘Back to the Future,’ ‘Aliens’ – that’s why it looks like that.”

“You want to have these things that inspire people and feels different,” Musk said on the podcast. “Everything else is the same, like variations on the same theme.”

Still, the truck did initially receive a mixed response.

At the Cybertruck’s unveiling, Tesla’s chief designer, Franz Von Holzhausen, threw a metal ball at one the Cybertruck’s “bulletproof” windows to prove its durability. The window cracked. A second attempt cracked too.

Tesla stock tanked 6% that day and the truck was “met with mixed reactions on Wall Street as some balked at its unusual design,” CNBC reported at the time.

But according to Musk, the broken window didn’t impact the number of Cybertruck pre-orders – on Nov. 26, the Tesla CEO tweeted that the company received 250,000 pre-orders.

However a Cybertruck pre-order only requires a $100 fee to cover processing costs — it is not considered a deposit, according to the pre-order agreement on Tesla’s website. For pre-orders to turn into sales, customers have to sign a purchase agreement.

It’s unclear what percentage of Tesla vehicle pre-orders end in sales, and Tesla has not released any sales numbers for the Cybertruck.

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Business

Cineplex reports $24.7M Q3 loss on Competition Tribunal penalty

Published

3 hours ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Cineplex Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year ago as it was hit by a fine for deceptive marketing practices imposed by the Competition Tribunal.

The movie theatre company says it lost $24.7 million or 39 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $29.7 million or 40 cents per diluted share a year earlier.

The results in the most recent quarter included a $39.2-million provision related to the Competition Tribunal decision, which Cineplex is appealing.

The Competition Bureau accused the company of misleading theatregoers by not immediately presenting them with the full price of a movie ticket when they purchased seats online, a view the company has rejected.

Revenue for the quarter totalled $395.6 million, down from $414.5 million in the same quarter last year, while theatre attendance totalled 13.3 million for the quarter compared with nearly 15.7 million a year earlier.

Box office revenue per patron in the quarter climbed to $13.19 compared with $12 in the same quarter last year, while concession revenue per patron amounted to $9.85, up from $8.44 a year ago.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CGX)

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Business

Restaurant Brands reports US$357M Q3 net income, down from US$364M a year ago

Published

1 day ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Restaurant Brands International Inc. reported net income of US$357 million for its third quarter, down from US$364 million in the same quarter last year.

The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says its profit amounted to 79 cents US per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with 79 cents US per diluted share a year earlier.

Revenue for the parent company of Tim Hortons, Burger King, Popeyes and Firehouse Subs, totalled US$2.29 billion, up from US$1.84 billion in the same quarter last year.

Consolidated comparable sales were up 0.3 per cent.

On an adjusted basis, Restaurant Brands says it earned 93 cents US per diluted share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 90 cents US per diluted share a year earlier.

The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents US per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:QSR)

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Business

Electric and gas utility Fortis reports $420M Q3 profit, up from $394M a year ago

Published

1 day ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Fortis Inc. reported a third-quarter profit of $420 million, up from $394 million in the same quarter last year.

The electric and gas utility says the profit amounted to 85 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from 81 cents per share a year earlier.

Fortis says the increase was driven by rate base growth across its utilities, and strong earnings in Arizona largely reflecting new customer rates at Tucson Electric Power.

Revenue in the quarter totalled $2.77 billion, up from $2.72 billion in the same quarter last year.

On an adjusted basis, Fortis says it earned 85 cents per share in its latest quarter, up from an adjusted profit of 84 cents per share in the third quarter of 2023.

The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 82 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:FTS)

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