While remarkable and possibly still true, Tesla has lost something like 2/3rds of its stock value this year, from a high of 361 to current price of about 122. In 2021 the company was valued at $650 billion. Today, around $386 billion per Yahoo finance.
Still, that's a lot more value than Toyota ($190 billion), and GM ($52 billion). It's staggering that Tesla has such a small market share but has had a meteoric rise that is almost impossible to understand. I've read several articles and still don't fully comprehend how Tesla has amassed such market cap value over the major auto makers. There must be more to the financial evaluations, or how it's calculated, etc. It would seem that auto companies with 100 year head start would have far far more global value, factories, inventory, etc. especially selling 10x as many vehicles per year at Tesla for decades upon decades... I'd have to study all the numbers to be convinced this is a apples-to-apples evaluation. I've lived long enough to see the Bernie Madoffs and the FTXs of the world to not fully trust fuzzy math numbers like the reports of Tesla's value. Seems very fishy to me.
It does seem fragile in my view. It's a tech company, and we know how fast those can evaporate. I lived through the dot com bust, as I'm sure many others here did too. I just read an article that discussed the top reasons for Tesla's stratospheric success:
https://www.hotcars.com/why-tesla-became-most-valuable-car-company/
8: Elon's brand: That seems to be on fragile footing.
7: Uncompromising: Favorable comparisons to Steve Jobs. This to me seems very fleeting, especially when competition ramps up. Or as we see now, big discounts appear to be a "compromise."
6: Clear vision: Okay, but so did Blockbuster, Pan Am, Delorean, Kodak, and thousands of defunct companies.
5: Focus on high performance attractive cars: Okay. This goes in the fad fashion category.
4: Break from conventional wisdom: This is true, and it paid off. However he's soon to lose many competitive and front running advantages over time.
3: Own supply chain: This is important but can be replicated.
2: Hire great employees: This is important but not unique and can be replicated.
1: Think big: Yes, but this can also be replicated.
I would add the biggest one is the recent legislative moves to push companies and consumers to EVs.
In the end, it's my opinion that Tesla is more of a fashion and fad for the elite, who will get disillusioned or bored by it and move on to the next shiny object. Elon has done a lot of damage to his brand, whether you agree or disagree with his latest actions. And I think many of those competitive or comparative advantages will be eroded over time.
