Tesla, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, General Motors.

We’ve all heard of the tech companies that make up the FAANG stocks. Now I want to introduce you to the TAGMAN stocks. The TAGMAN stocks are companies investing in some combination of electric vehicles, autonomous driving technology and mobility solutions. Some have predicted this industry that I like to call transportation-as-a-service (TaaS) will become an $8 trillion market opportunity.

The foundational companies that are part of TAGMAN are…

Tesla, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Nvidia

I believe each of these companies will develop significant business in a future market opportunity of…

John Krafcik dismisses Tesla as a Waymo competitor

Originally published as a TaaSMaster Newsletter.

Recently the Mobileye CEO, Amnon Shashua, described Tesla’s method of developing self-driving vehicles as a brute force method of gradual beta test improvements that might run into a glass ceiling. Shashua believes Tesla essentially records the wrong part of of the self-driving process. The piling on continued this week as Waymo’s CEO, John Krafcik, asserted that Tesla is only developing a very good driver assistance system that will never develop into full autonomous driving capability. …

And Legacy Automotive Old Guys Need to Wake Up. Tesla Matters!

Why is it that the Tesla fan believes all legacy automakers are doomed to fail in the race toward an electric and autonomous vehicle future? Conversely, it seems many traditional automotive supporters think Tesla’s success is nothing more than “smoke & mirrors” and doomed to fail, eventually! To the Fan Boys (mostly Tesla investors that I follow on Twitter), a winner-take-all, zero-sum-game of Tesla winning while all others lose is not realistic. While I admire Elon Musk for doing what is very hard with Tesla (which I’ll write about…

Ignore GM at your own investment peril

Chris Isidore had the nerve to write an article for CNN Business insinuating that General Motors could be a better investment bet than Tesla. Immediately, Twitter Tesla dismissed the idea. For Tesla’s many investment fans, electric vehicle success is a zero sum game where Tesla wins and all others lose. While Tesla is an important component of any portfolio designed to profit from a future transportation world, investors should not ignore GM anymore. …

Twitter Tesla are mostly “fan boys” (emphasis on them being men). And many of them say they’re also Tesla shareholders. This description represents many of the Tesla supporters I follow on Twitter. In addition to the Tesla fandom, Twitter Tesla absolutely adores Elon Musk. Like much of Twitter Tesla, I’m a long-term Tesla shareholder. I also believe in the company’s increasing technological prowess versus others. I also acknowledge that Elon Musk is the single most important driver of the company’s performance and vision for its future.

Unlike Twitter Tesla, however, I do not automatically disdain any attempts by other legacy…

It’s a big deal, irrespective of the short-term impact on the stock price

I’m a long Tesla shareholder who does not get too worked-up around the short-term gyrations of what is a very volatile stock. Battery Day didn’t seem to excite investors, with the Tesla stock falling around 10% the day after the event. For me, however, the most significant part of Battery Day centered around what I’m now calling “The Future Factory.”

Cell Design

Anode Materials

Cathode Materials

Cell Vehicle Integration

All of the above battery and vehicle engineering advancements presented during Battery Day will contribute significantly to driving down Tesla’s battery costs by 56%. However, it’s the capability in what Elon…

All are attacking an $8 trillion market future.

This future market is a reason I own all of these stocks!

Let’s be clear. My ownership of the stocks of these companies is no inherent reason for others to invest. However, my research about why I purchased these stocks provide a guide about each company’s future leadership potential in a massive new market opportunity. Before discussing these details, you should know I believe in investing versus trading. For me, investing is a long term endeavor versus trying to time a company’s stock price by making frequent entry or exit decisions. I…

The entire automotive industry essentially is closed for business due to COVID-19 as states have enacted stay-at-home orders to fight the virus. Many vehicle assembly plants around the world are shuttered, eliminating much of the revenue automakers derive from vehicle production and shipments to their dealers. IHS Markit is forecasting global vehicle production to decline by 18.8 million units versus 2019 levels. Global vehicles sales are projected to decline by 18 million vehicles, worse than the 2-year sales decline seen during the global recession of 2008 and 2009. In the U.S., vehicle sales fell 54 percent during the week of…