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Tesla' market cap is $30B. GM is $53B. Ford is $61B. If you're buying Tesla, you have to believe that they will become a huge player, and soon. They can't j
by tdees40 11y ago
Tesla' market cap is $30B. GM is $53B. Ford is $61B. If you're buying Tesla, you have to believe that they will become a huge player, and soon. They can't just be bigger, they have to be huge or else you're radically overpaying for a niche producer.
- beat 11y agoI want to play the game where we can make a fortune on high-growth stocks without any risk.
- jarsin 11y agoBecome a bank and issue IPO's :)
- jkestner 11y agoDon't forget batteries. Rolls-Royce did well with jet engines, probably better than cars.
- VLM 11y agoAgreed and don't forget licensing. OK so TSLA makes squeeky sunroofs, who cares, they can sell batteries and controllers and motors to ... construction crane companies or something. You know all the weird details of making a tow truck, cool, here's the parts to make it electric. Happens all the time in the automotive industry. The first "american" hatchback car I ever drove had a nice VW engine. Ironically it was something to do with low emissions.
- semi-extrinsic 11y agoWell, Tesla buys their batteries from Panasonic. And the motor is a standard induction motor, not very different from what the actual (Nikolai) Tesla invented back in 1887. I agree that their control system is going to be fairly complicated, since induction motors require the AC frequency to be a function of the torque as well as the RPM. But then most applications outside "quick 0-60 pure electric car" use brushless DC motors instead, where the controllers are simpler. Even the insane McLaren P1 hybrid, which eats Teslas for breakfast, uses a brushless DC motor. So I'm not sure there is as much of a market for Tesla's expertise as you'd think.
- jkestner 11y agoThere are standard components, and then there's the work done to make and certify them as EV-ready. Tesla currently sells components to Daimler-Benz and Toyota.
- josephagoss 11y agoI had no idea Tesla but the batteries from Panasonic, I thought the entire point of Tesla is that they build them in house? And what about the Gigafactory? If it's all truly Panasonic's tech, I am surprised so many people put their money into Tesla.
- dagw 11y agoPanasonic is a major investor and partner in the Gigafactory. They're also providing the initial cell manufacturing technology and over a hundred Panasonic employees will be on site helping with the setup.
- burger_moon 11y agoWith that thought, I wonder if GE, Siemens, Mitsubishi, etc will move into the market of creating electric motors for automotive use. They all have a lot of experience in electric motors.
- dragontamer 11y agoExcept it is Panasonic who makes Tesla's cells. The "batteries" can't really be used for much else because they're so customized to the car. http://pop.h-cdn.co/assets/15/07/980x490/landscape_1423750808-tesla_model_s_chassis_battery.jpg http://pop.h-cdn.co/assets/15/07/980x490/landscape_142375080... Tesla Home isn't doing too hot, as far as I can tell. Even SolarCity isn't recommending it to anybody... and SolarCity is Elon's baby as well!
- jkestner 11y agoPanasonic may make the general-purpose cells, but that doesn't mean that Tesla can't add value by making them more suitable for the EV market. In fact, it does sell components to other car companies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Motors#Technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Motors#Technology
- NickNameNick 11y agoAren't the cells just 18650s?
- sliverstorm 11y agoWell, be huge, or be smaller and maintain huge margins. That's also an avenue.
- jsight 11y agoExactly... it isn't that GM-style revenues are priced into the stock it is that much greater than GM-style margins are priced in. Whether they will achieve that is a different (and still open) question.