真正让我，呃，觉得不对的事情是，是我们查看了这次试驾的数据，而它与写出来的那篇文章完全对不上，结果就是那辆车续航耗尽了，必须被拖走，是的，没错，于是就有了这样一张令人难过的照片，我们的车在一辆平板拖车上，好像这就是这样一次行驶唯一可能的结果，而，而那根本，那根本不是真的，而且很多人说，哦，你知道，你不管自己是对是错，你都不应该《纽约时报》，嗯，而我的想法是去他的吧，我宁愿说出真相，并且承担后果，即使后果是负面的，我不认为这应该终结他的职业生涯，我甚至不一定认为他应该被解雇，嗯，但是我，我，我，我

确实认为他，他，他篡改了，他篡改了一篇文章，那么在这一切期间你听到了什么，嗯，我们确实因为《纽约时报》的文章收到了很多取消订单，所以这并不是，我是说，它对我们的影响可能达到数千万美元，如果不是，也许大约1亿美元的话，所以这不是，这不是小事，1亿美元，可能差不多是这个量级，是的，那么我们说的可能是因此取消了1000份订单，不，抱歉，关于1亿美元，我想说那更多是指公司的估值，我明白了，你说的不是订单，不，订单，我们是在谈订单，但你说的不是订单金额合计1亿美元，不，我们，并不是因为《纽约》就有多达th000份取消订单

时报》的文章，嗯，大概有几百份，现在，El，你和我多次谈过产量目标，所以你现在基本上是每周生产400辆车，对吧，就，就 Model S 而言，而且你将会达到，看起来你今年将会达到20,000辆，嗯，现在有些人可能会说，好吧，你今年会达到20,000辆，但明年和后年呢，也许这20,000人只是早期采用者，需求就来自他们，就 modelist 的需求而言，我们看到，嗯，每一个后续季度的新增预订量都更多，所以需求似乎在增长，如果要把这一趋势外推的话，而且我们还看到，当一辆 Model S，当许多辆 Model S 被交付到这个国家的某个特定地区时，呃

我们的预订量实际上会增加，所以如果只是早期采用者，你会看到的是，当你把 model Ence 交付到这个国家的某个特定地区时，你，你的销量会大幅下降，因为你已经满足了早期采用者，但实际上我们看到的恰恰相反，呃，我们实际上看到，交付到某个特定地区的 Model S 越多，销量就越高，这意味着口碑非常正面，我们每交付一辆客户的车，似乎就会增量卖出2或3辆车，好吧，这是那位客户所带来的，嗯，平均而言，而有些，有些客户带来了大约20辆车的销量，现在我知道在第四季度，嗯，你们有问题，你，你们报告第四季度出现亏损，其中一部分与费用增加有关

嗯，我想是增长了29%，达到1.15亿美元，不过你也承诺在未来一年提高产量，你们会，正如我提到的，你们将达到每周500辆车，那么你们要如何降低成本并提高产量，第四季度的巨大挑战是从，嗯，较低的生产速度提升到每年20,000辆的生产速度，这真的很困难，因为，我是说，那基本上是每周超过400辆车，过去在做公路上的东西时，我们每年只生产600辆车，哇，所以我们必须在差不多1周内制造，呃，交付和维修与过去1年一样多的车辆，嗯，所以这需要，你知道，那是一条陡峭的学习曲线，是的，嗯，而且问题，我们一路上犯了一些错误，它并不，不是最理想的，嗯

我不知道我们还能多做些什么，但毫无疑问，我们，我们在那里并不完美，Yan，如果没有政府补贴，你觉得你们的汽车还会有同等程度的需求吗，哦，7,500美元，嗯哼，不，我觉得，我觉得需求会少一点，一点，我是说，可能会，我不知道，少10%到20%的需求，所以，而且你在股东信中提到，因为你们从能源部获得了这笔帮助 Tesla 的贷款，你提到最终你希望能够摆脱，你知道，本质上是这种政府帮助，成为一家独立经营的企业，成为一家独立的商业企业，这会在什么时候实现，我们，我们实际上一直在按时偿还贷款的利息和原则，而有一件事

有点，嗯，我认为去年一些媒体并没有完全报道，呃，是，听起来好像有那么一阵子 Tesla 正试图推迟偿还贷款或类似的事情，但事实上没有什么比这更偏离真相了，我们一直都把贷款还清了，嗯，要么按时，要么提前，所以我们还有，我想，大约10年，我们希望在，在5年、5年或更短时间内还清，不过你是不是也在更深入地了解如何与华盛顿打交道，首先我会说，我对华盛、华盛顿的总体印象是，它远没有人们想象的那么腐败，嗯，而且谢天谢地，因为如果它腐败，我们就完蛋了，这并不是说完全没有一定程度的那种，那种，那种，那种事情发生，嗯，但实际上确实存在，我认为，占多数的

的，的，一些主要的，嗯，众议院议员和参议员，呃，实际上相当理想主义，也确实关心做做正确的事。埃兰，我当时在看最近的一篇文章，实际上是《赫芬顿邮报》的一篇文章，其中，呃，它它似乎把你描绘成华盛顿的一种奇人。人们并不真正了解，这位闯进来并且并且开拓了电动汽车市场的亿万富翁企业家是谁，他有这家私人宇宙飞船公司。给国会议员汤姆·德莱的一项援助说，你穿着一件紧身黑色T恤出出现在与一名国会议员的会面上。顺便说一句，我不记得做过这件事。我我我不认为那是准确的。我在华盛顿特区时总是穿西装、打领带，所以我认为那是一项不准确的说法。你认为人们为什么会有那种反应？

对你来说，我不认为那是华盛顿特区大多数人对我的看法，而且我一直，我真的可能去了华盛顿特区200次，嗯，而且我见过，嗯，到现在可能见过一半的参议员，也许还见过众议院150多名议员，嗯，而且他们不只是见过我1次，他们见过我好几次，是的，没错，而所有的互动都像，都是怎样的，实际上都相当积极，嗯，而且，而且我，我是说，我，我与那篇文章的情绪相反，我是说，我认为在华盛顿特区应该相当尊重他人，而且，而且我总是穿西装打领带，即使我在 SpaceX 并不穿

the thing that really uh I thought was wrong was was we're looking at the data from this test drive and it doesn't correlate at all to the article that was written and the result was that the the car ran out of range it had to be towed yeah exactly and so there was this sad shot of of our car on a on a flatbed as though that was the only outcome possible for for such a drive and and that's just that's just not true and lots of people said oh you know you should doesn't matter if you're right or wrong you don't the New York Times um and it's like the hell with that I'd rather tell the truth and and the consequences even if they're negative I don't think he it should be the end of his career I don't even think necessarily should be fired um but I I I I

do think he he he fudged he fudged an article so what did you hear in the middle of all of this well we we did actually get a lot of cancellations as a result of the New York Times article so it wasn't I mean it probably affected us to the tune of tens of millions if not maybe on the order of 100 Millions so it's not it's not trivial 100 million probably something on that order yeah so we're talking about probably a thousand cancellations based on this no sorry in terms of 100 million I'd say that that refers more to the valuation of the company I see you're not talking about orders no orders are talking about orders but you're not talking about the amount of the orders equals 100 million no we it wasn't as a th000 cancellations just due to the New York

Times article um there there were probably a few hundred now El you and I talked a lot about production targets so you're pretty much at 400 cars per week right for for the for the model S and you are going to hit it seems like you're going to hit 20,000 um for this year now some might say okay you're going to hit 20,000 this year but what about next year and the year after that perhaps the 20,000 are just the early adopters and that's where the demand's coming from for the in terms of modelist demand we've seen um more new reservations every successive quarter so the demand appears to be growing if one is to extrapolate that trend and we're also seeing that when a Model S is when a lot of Model S's are delivered to a particular area of the country uh

we actually get increased reservations so if it were just the early adopter what you'd see is that when you deliver model Ence to a particular region of the country that you you sales decline dramatically because you've satisfied the early adopters but actually we see the opposite uh we actually see increased sales the more Model S's are delivered to a particular area which means that the word of mouth is very positive for every customer's car that we deliver we seem to to sell an incremental two or three cars okay as a function of that customer um on average and some some customers has been like 20 cars now I know in the fourth quarter um you had issue you you reported a loss in the fourth quarter and part of that had to do with the increase in expenses

um I think it was up 29% to $115 million you also though promise for the coming year that you're going to boost production you're going to as I mentioned you're going to hit 500 cars per week so how are you going to get cost down and boost production the Big Challenge in the fourth quarter was going from um low production rate to to that 20,000 unit a year production rate which was really difficult because I mean that's basically over 400 cars a week in the past with the road stuff we only made 600 cars a year wow so we have to manufacture uh and deliver and Service as many cars almost in a week as we did in a year um so that took you know that's a steep learning curve yeah um and question we made some mistakes along the way and it's not not optimal um

I don't know what more we could have done but there's no question we we weren't perfect there Yan do you think you'd have the same amount of demand for your cars without the government subsidy oh the $7,500 mhm no I think I think it would be a little little less demand I mean there' probably be I don't know 10 to 20% less demand so and you mentioned in your shareholder letter cuz you have this loan from the Department of energy that helps you with Tesla you mentioned that eventually you want to be able to get rid of you know essentially this government help and be a standalone business and be a standalone commercial Enterprise when will that happen we we have actually been paying off interest and principle on the loan on time and that one thing that was

sort of um I think not quite reported uh in in in some of the media last year was it sounded like at one point that Tesla was trying to delay the repayment loan or something but actually nothing could be furthered from the truth we've always paid the loan off um either on time or ahead of time so we've got I think about 10 years we want to pay it off in in five 5 years or less are you learning more though about how to deal with Washington first of all I'd say My overall impression of washing Washington is that it's much less corrupt than people think it is um and and thank goodness for it because if it was corrupt we would be screwed it's not to say that there isn't some some amount of that that that that goes on um but there actually are I think a preponderance

of of the leading um house members and Senators uh actually are quite idealistic and do care about doing the the right thing Elan I was looking through a recent article was actually Huffington Post article where uh it it seemed to portray you as kind of a peculiarity in Washington people don't really know who is this billionaire entrepreneur who's come in and and developed the electric car market he's got this private Spaceship Company one aid for a Congressman Tom DeLay said you show showed up to a meeting with a congressman in a tight black T-shirt I don't remember doing that by the way I I I don't think that's accurate when I'm in DC I always wear a suit in a tie so I believe that is an inaccurate statement why do you think people have that reaction

to you I don't think that's what most people in DC think of me and and I've been I've literally made maybe 200 trips to DC um and I've met with um probably at this point half the Senate maybe 150 Plus members in the house um and they haven't just seen me once they've seen me several times yeah exactly and all the interactions have been like what they've been quite positive actually um and and I I mean I I contrary to the sentiment of that article I mean I believe in being quite respectful in in DC and and I always wear a suit in a tie even though I don't wear it one at SpaceX