The particular one I'm referring to (there's at least two others underway now) is just spooling up; Lundin Law is handling it and details are here:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...ORTANT-INVESTOR-ALERT-Lundin-Law-PC-Announces
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According to the Complaint, throughout the Class Period, Tesla made materially false and/or misleading statements, and/or failed to disclose, that contrary to the Company’s representations that it was prepared for the launch of its Model 3 sedan, the Company had severely inadequate inventory and was woefully unprepared to launch its Model 3 sedan as anticipated; and thus, its public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. On October 2, 2017, the Company cited “production bottlenecks” as the reason for its failure to meet its production goals for its Model 3 sedan. On October 6, 2017, the Wall Street Journal published an article reporting, in part, that “(U)nknown to analysts, investors and the hundreds of thousands of customers who signed up to buy it, as recently as early September major portions of the Model 3 were still being banged out by hand, away from the automated production line, according to people familiar with the matter.” Upon release of this information, shares of Tesla fell in value materially, which caused investors harm according to the Complaint."
Of course there's also the one that stemmed from the crash that killed Joshua Brown, which the SEC is investigating because it looks like Tesla hid information about the crash from investors, and then there's the other one that was filed about the racism thing, although who knows where that's going. But the point is that if the SEC is down there tomorrow it's probably because of ongoing investigations into problems which are pretty well-known, not because they're obviously defrauding people with any new claims.
Although considering their track record re: deceiving investors, obviously that's a possibility.
I would argue that history does not, at all, show which way this is going. Every previous attempt to replace hydrocarbon-powered piston engines has failed despite massive government investment, venture capital backing, and entrepreneurial interest, so if we follow the established pattern, this will be a flash in the pan, which of course happens all the time in technology as I presume you know if you have, like me, spent your career in high-tech industries.
In fact I'm pretty sure that in past arguments I've offered a series of examples of so-called next generation technology, which turned out to be dead end technology, or at best, niche technology.
That is very probably where pure EV technology will wind up; popular for commuting and transit vehicles in highly urbanized areas where charging infrastructure can be centralized. If they can find a way to make it work, terrific. I stand to gain nothing if Tesla fails, or EVs never become mainstream, or anything else related to this industry.
But there are a bunch of problems with the fundamentals of the technology which enthusiasts are glossing over, and that doesn't change whether the various class actions against, or SEC investigations into, Tesla INC turn up wrongdoing or not.