Discussion Points, page-8

Tesla and Musk.

I'm not sure if I see the utility in asking whether management have spoken with Tesla. Personally, I would suspect they haven't it, unless it was for reasons not related to TON (maybe Alan and Elon have crossed paths at one of those supercar races or something). But if they confirm they have then so many will assume TON has the Tesla contract (rah rah all the way) and if they say they haven't then that means TON is worth zip (boo beat all those snakes) etc etc. It doesn't tell us anything in my view one way or the other.

But a penny for all their thoughts on the following point:

Given Musk was looking for such massive government handouts for the gigafactory, do you envisage that he would have great difficulty in sourcing raw materials from outside the US. Do you consider it likely that the government assistance might get pulled if he doesn't source locally? Notwithstanding that reality, how much power does management consider Musk can exercise over Panasonic and its decisions on where Panasonic sources it's natural resources from. With this in mind, has management had any dialogue with Panasonic directly?

Maybe that very last question is pushing the envelope a little.