[Fabulist]

Obviously I have no idea what sort of profit or loss they make per car, but assuming it's anywhere close to $0, at $100k/car, it's easy for cash to run up or down $10 million in a few days (since that's just 100 cars either paid-for or not-paid-for). It's an easy bet that this is a cash flow issue rather than a profit/loss issue.

Companies can, of course, be killed by cash flow issues ... but they're tractable if you can get loans.

I am guessing this has a lot to do with the DOE Nina loan rather than the current operating cash for the company.

-- Fab.

 

[Fabulist]

I wondered why they ramped up to 650 employees in Irvine after most of the R&D was complete. Maybe they were trying to reach some kind of arbitrary employment goal.

BillyO

Judging by the state of our cars, the R&D still has a long way to go. Plus they are constantly working on Nina and the other downstream platforms. The design and engineering is all in Anaheim. The group working in Delaware are on the manufacturing side, who are not needed until there is something to manufacture.

-- Fab.

 

[Fabulist]

I can't imagine anyone being dumb enough to give them more money at this point. For that matter I'm not sure how anyone could have been dumb enough to have given them money in the first place.

-Brian

I never thought of Kleiner Perkins as being dumb money.

KP was paid for raising the money.

BillyO

They also have a big chunk of their own money invested in the company, far more than any fees they may have collected and are exposed to the risk along with the other investors.

-- Fab.

 

[Fabulist]

The conversation had veered off Karma's cash flow and into upgrade delays at the the Fisker dealer in Texas, so I started a new thread and moved the messages to that one.

-- Fab.