Tesla Motors Essay Example for Free

Tesla Motors Essay Elon Musk successfully established Tesla Motors as one of the leaders in the electric vehicle industry since his induction as CEO in 2008. Tesla Motors designs, manufactures, and sells electric cars and powertrain components. The company also provides services for the development of powertrain systems and components, and sells electric powertrain components to other automotive manufacturers. It markets and sells its vehicles through Tesla stores as well as over the internet (Mora 2014, 1). Consumers and companies are looking to save at the pump, and what better way to do so than with electric vehicles (Mora 2014, 1)? Through government support and raised capital, Musk has put Tesla in an advantageous position to capitalize on the growing electric vehicle market. Battery electric vehicles will increase at a 31.5% compound annual growth over the next seven years (Navigant Research 2013). With Musk’s leadership and innovation, Tesla plans on boosting sales by increasing current production of the Model S, introducing the Model X SUV in 2015, and introducing the more affordable Gen III by 2017 (Recharge Now, Forbes 2013). â€Å"Tesla has now crept onto the top ten list for brand perception, as ranked by Consumer Reports† (Ingram 2013, 1). Tesla is exceeding their own expectations as more consumers are becoming familiar with their company. In 2013, sales totaled to 22,450, while forecasts were set at 21,500 (Ohnsman). All of this success has resulted in Tesla’s stock rising nearly $100 this past year (Yahoo Finance 2014). With people increasingly worrying about the harmful effects of combustion engines on the environment and the limited supply of oil, the market for electric cars has a ton of potential. While there is tons of potential for Tesla, the truth is that they have yet to make an annual profit. Yes, they did raise their revenue from $413 million to $2 billion in the last year, but this still resulted in a net loss of $74 million (Yahoo Finance 2014). This loss is primarily due to the high cost of goods sold, which is why it is so important to keep researching and developing cheaper ways to produce their technology. â€Å"Few expect to trim electric-car battery costs by more than 20%-30% by the planned 2016† (Recharge Now, Forbes 2013). Increasing sales indicates a positive future for Tesla, but if they are unable to effectively reduce the cost of goods their financial condition will suffer. Next, we will examine the opportunities that Tesla could capitalize on with their substantial growth over the past few years. Being that oil is a limited resource, it’s only a matter of time before the supply becomes extremely scarce, resulting in skyrocketing oil prices. This event should cause a major shift to the use of electric vehicles. The average consumer cannot afford the $90,000 and up Model S, but many are still interested in owning an electric vehicle. Musk realizes this opportunity and has begun developing a more affordable model known as the Gen III. In order to launch this model at a price point of around $35,000 Tesla must drastically reduce the cost of batteries. Tesla unveiled details about a plan to build a â€Å"gigafactory†. It will cost them $5 billion, but it will reduce battery costs by an impressive 30% in the first year (Trefis 2014, 1). At peak production, this factory will be able to produce 50 gigawatt-hours of batteries in a year, more than the entire world’s current production (Trefis 2014,2). At this point, Tesla could provide surplus batteries to the electronic industry and potentially become a leading producer of energy storage. Despite all of this, there are potential threats to Tesla’s business, mainly the competition they face in the alternative fuel vehicle market. Many established and upcoming automobile manufacturers have entered, or plan on entering this market. For example, BMW, Cadillac, Porsche, and Audi are promoting new plug-in models aimed at affluent consumers (White 2013, 1). Established luxury brands are muscling on to Teslas turf in part because government policies are forcing them to, and in part because they see Mr. Musk peeling away influential trendsetters they dont want to lose (White 2013, 2). The impact of these new luxury plug-ins on Tesla will depend on whether they are trying to expand the segment, or merely go after the same consumers. With Elon Musk’s plan to increase production of the Model S, while introducing two new vehicles by 2015 and 2017, the Model X and Gen III, we  should expect to see continued success from Tesla Motors. If Musk successfully reduces operational costs and offers consumers an affordable Tesla model, he may trigger an amazing turning point in the auto industry and leave a lasting impression on the world. Works Cited Alpert, Bill. â€Å"Recharge Now!† Forbes. 10 June 2013. Web. 16 October 2013. â€Å"Electric Vehicle Market Forecasts. Navigant Research. Navigant Consulting Inc, 2014. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. Ingra, Antony. Tesla Gains In Brand Awareness. Green Car Reports. High Gear Media, 4 Feb. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. Mora, Victor. Is Tesla Motors an Attractive Investment? Wall St. Cheat Sheet. Wall St Cheat Sheet, 21 Jan. 2014. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. Ohnsman, Alan. Tesla Rises After Model S Sales in 2013 Exceed Forecast. Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. â€Å"Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA).† Yahoo Finance. Web. 13 March 2014. http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=tslaql=1. Trefis. Gigafactory Will Cost Tesla $5 Billion But Offers Significant Cost Reductions. Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 11 Mar. 2014. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. White, Joseph B. BMW, Cadillac Aim to Pull Plug on Tesla With Pricey New Cars. The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones Company, 20 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.

The Men of Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Essays

The Men of Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the reader is given a particular glimpse into Janie's life with reference to the men she has known.   Janie's three men are all very different, yet they were all Janie's husband at one point in her life.   Although they all behaved differently, in lifestyle as well as their relationship with Janie, they all shared certain similarities.        Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Janie's first husband was a poor old soul named Logan Killicks.   He was an ugly, dirty farmer whose prime concern for Janie was that she do her share of the work in order to keep the farm up and running.   Janie was simply another pair of hands to do some work.   When compared with Janie's second husband, Logan seems uncaring and rude.      When Janie first met her second husband, Joe, he was very caring and reassuring - an ideal husband.   Joe was an ambitious young man with many goals set out for him.   And like Janie, he was raised around a white background.   Joe strived to be and have the best at everything.   However, once Joe got Janie as his wife, he became a jealous and demanding man, just as Logan had been.   Joe saw himself as a god, his sentences began with " I god..." ... ...use he used it to help himself become mayor.   Tea Cake loved Janie for who she was as a woman.   All three had completely different things to offer Janie economically, socially, and emotionally.  Ã‚  Ã‚   The two rich men loved a woman, the poor man loved Janie.    Works Cited and Consulted: Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Perennial Classics, 1990. Interpretations: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Williams, Shirley Anne. Forward. Their Eyes Were Watching God. By Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Bantam-Dell, 1937. xv.

The novels Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence

The novels Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence and Orlando by Virginia Woolf make interesting comments on sexuality and the gender roles defined by society and the class system. Through Orlando and the other characters of that story, Woolf depicts androgynous characteristics of men and women, highlighting the similarities between the genders. Lawrence’s characters, too, show an interrelationship between the sexes that belies the societal norms. Classification and structure of the societies in both novels denote a separation that, like that of gender, seems superficial as the main characters are able to transcend class by experiencing aspects of different strata. Many of the problems regarding gender and sexuality, it is found, persist regardless of the class. In both stories, therefore, one finds the depiction of relations in which class and conventions dictate the role of women and men on the societal level, yet on the individual level, the relationships between men and women a re often odd and confusing in defiance of these dictates.Though Orlando starts out sarcastically mocking its own direction with the words â€Å"He—for there could be no doubt of his sex [†¦]† (Woolf, 3), the descriptions of the characters and especially of Orlando in the novel demonstrate a fundamental likeness between the two sexes that is often overlooked in a society that stresses the salient yet superficial differences. In fact, Woolf at first draws attention to his being in the middle of slicing a Moor’s head—an action not conventionally considered suited to females, but then she traces his image by defining body parts that are common to both sexes and hold very little gender-differentiating characteristics. She describes his red cheeks â€Å"covered with peach down† (4). Though this â€Å"down† might be in reference to a (very thin) mustache, the delicacy of the description lends a feminine flavor to the entire portrait. Other cha racters are described in this way too. The archduchess Harriet is a very tall woman—who turns out to be really a man, and when Orlando first sees Sasha he is unable to determine her sex as she appears to be straddling both.Sons and Lovers can be seen to portray a similar view of the masculine children of the Morel family. The sons William and Paul are introduced in their youth, which is the time when girls and boys share many characteristics that are differentiated in the future. As they grow up, their co-dependence on their mother further attributes to them an appearance of femininity as they (especially Paul) are unable to make decisions that leave her out. In the sister Annie, too, has an element of the hermaphrodite, as she is described as a tomboy to whom Paul looks up. These facts prepare the readers for the further confusing roles of the sexes and the strange ideas of class and sexuality that come with them.At the beginning of the novels both protagonists (Paul and Orl ando) are pictures of sexual purity. Queen Elizabeth considers Orlando to be a picture of innocence. Soon, however, Orlando encounters Sheba, expresses freedom with his sexuality, and has trouble finding love. It is interesting to note that though Woolf ostensibly portrays the two sexes as only superficially different, Orlando’s sexual freedom becomes tempered once he changes from man to woman, and it is in his female state that he finds love. Paul, on the other hand, exhibits an initial restraint toward sex during his more youthful and effeminate period. It is later in his maturity that he becomes passionate and pursues sexual relations with Miriam. Both Orlando and Paul are met with difficulty in finding what Orlando terms â€Å"life and a lover† (Woolf, 90). Orlando is, however, able to reconcile his differences with†¦ the opposite sex. Paul cannot, however, and remains alone.The roles of the men and women in these two stories are atypical when compared with th ose defined by the class and society in which they live. It is noteworthy first of all that though the class distinctions existed, they all regarded women as members of the softer sex who were in need of protection and guidance from the opposite sex. In Sons and Lovers, Mr. Morel is a poor provider for his family as he dissipates his earnings on drink and lives in a house provided by his mother. His wife directs the path of his sons, and he plays a very small role in his family. Alongside him, Mrs. Morel appears less like the fireside, knitting woman and more like the man who solicits work for her sons and advises them on relationships.Miriam’s reaction to Paul is also one in which the woman expresses the desire to perform in a role that is conventionally reserved for men. He thoughts are, â€Å"Then he was so ill, and she felt he would be weak. Then she would be stronger than he. Then she could love him. If she could be mistress of him in his weakness, take care of him, if he could depend on her, if she could, as it were, have him in her arms, how she would love him!† (Sons and Lovers, 137) The role of protector is given to man by Western society, and in all classes men are seen as the stronger sex that exist to take care of women. Here Miriam wishes to fill that role, take Paul in her arms, protect and love him. Paul’s character, in turn, appears to be one that would fit well into this portrait, as he is already in a subordinate position with his mother.In Orlando, something can be said along these lines as well. The title character weaves in and out of the roles of women and men as though they were only superficially differentiated. He admits that at core he is the same, though by society’s standards he performs adequately in each role. Researcher Ruth Gruber writes, â€Å"There is almost no perversion in Orlando's bi-sexuality. As a man, he has a strong predilection towards women, makes violent love to princesses and lies with ‘loose women’† (87). He is accepted by female prostitutes and male archdukes alike, their genders allowing them no knowledge regarding the truth of this woman who once was man.The fact that the prostitute as well as the arch duke accepts Orlando leads also to the idea that class barriers are as superficial as the ones that separates the sexes—which renders them complicated but superable. Orlando himself declares that he feels attached to the low born, but when he goes to live among the gypsies, he realizes he does share some of the appreciations of the higher classes. This gives the idea that just as human nature transcends gender, so it also transcends class.This idea is reflected too in Sons and Lovers. Paul is also akin to the common people and tells his mother this when she expresses the desire for him to rise to a higher class. This mother, who had accepted a lower position in marrying Mr. Morel, has found little happiness in the descent. Lawrence writ es this in a letter to a friend: â€Å"a woman of character and refinement goes into the lower class, and has no satisfaction in her own life† (â€Å"Letter,† 28). Still, judging from his mother’s desire and that of Miriam who â€Å"hated her position as a swine girl† (Sons and Lovers, 137), it is put forth that the luxuries of the higher class were still (perhaps naturally) desirable to humans.Remarkably, the authors hit upon similar themes in two vastly different types of novels. Orlando, a fantastic piece written by Virginia Woolf, presents theories about gender, class and sexuality that show them to be complex and therefore not as easily defined as convention would have it. D. H. Lawrence’s more realistic tale is able to touch upon these issues as well. The novels challenge both reality and belief by depicting the characters with plausible emotions in their situations. Even in the case of Orlando, the handling of relationships rings authentic i n both his period as a man and as a woman. The class situations and the expressions of sexuality also assist in demonstrating that the complicated nature of the human being transcends barriers of sex and class.Works CitedGruber, Ruth. Virginia Woolf: The Will to Create as a Woman. New York: Carroll and   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Graf, 2005.Lawrence, D. H. â€Å"Letter to Edward Garnett, 19 November 1912.† D. H. Lawrence’s Sons    and Lovers: A Casebook. Eds. John Worthen and Andrew Harrison. Oxford:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Oxford UP, 2005.Lawrence, D. H. Sons and Lovers. New York: Signet, 1985.Woolf, Virginia. Orlando: A Biography. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth, 1995.

Overview of Sociobiology Theory

While the term sociobiology can be traced to the 1940s, the concept of sociobiology first gained major recognition with Edward O. Wilson’s 1975 publication Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. In it, he introduced the concept of sociobiology as the application of evolutionary theory to social behavior. Overview Sociobiology is based on the premise that some behaviors are at least partly inherited and can be affected by natural selection. It begins with the idea that behaviors have evolved over time, similar to the way that physical traits are thought to have evolved. Animals will, therefore, act in ways that have proven to be evolutionarily successful over time, which can result in the formation of complex social processes, among other things.​ According to sociobiologists, many social behaviors have been shaped by natural selection. Sociobiology investigates social behaviors such as mating patterns, territorial fights, and pack hunting. It argues that just as selection pressure led to animals evolving useful ways of interacting with the natural environment, it also led to the genetic evolution of advantageous social behavior. Behavior is therefore seen as an effort to preserve one’s genes in the population and certain genes or gene combinations are thought to influence particular behavioral traits from generation to generation. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection explains that traits less adapted to particular conditions of life will not endure in a population because organisms with those traits tend to have lower rates of survival and reproduction. Sociobiologists model the evolution of human behaviors in much the same way, using various behaviors as the relevant traits. In addition, they add several other theoretical components to their theory. Sociobiologists believe that evolution includes not just genes, but also psychological, social, and cultural features. When humans reproduce, offspring inherit the genes of their parents, and when parents and children share genetic, developmental, physical, and social environments, the children inherit the gene-effects of their parents. Sociobiologists also believe that the different rates of reproductive success are related to different levels of wealth, social status, and power within that culture. Example of Sociobiology in Practice One example of how sociobiologists use their theory in practice is through the study of sex-role stereotypes. Traditional social science assumes that humans are born with no innate predispositions or mental contents and that sex differences in children’s behavior is explained by the differential treatment of parents who hold sex-role stereotypes. For example, giving girls baby dolls to play with while giving boys toy trucks, or dressing little girls in only pink and purple while dressing boys in blue and red. Sociobiologists, however, argue that babies do have innate behavioral differences, which trigger the reaction by parents to treat boys one way and girls another way. Further, females with low status and less access to resources tend to have more female offspring while females with high status and more access to resources tend to have more male offspring. This is because a woman’s physiology adjusts to her social status in a way that affects both the sex of her child and her parenting style. That is, socially dominant women tend to have higher testosterone levels than others and their chemistry makes them more active, assertive, and independent than other women. This makes them more likely to have male children and also to have a more assertive, dominant parenting style. Critiques of Sociobiology Like any theory, sociobiology has its critics. One critique of the theory is that it is inadequate to account for human behavior because it ignores the contributions of the mind and culture. The second critique of sociobiology is that it relies on genetic determinism, which implies approval of the status quo. For example, if male aggression is genetically fixed and reproductively advantageous, critics argue, then male aggression seems to be a biologic reality in which we have little control.