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The brand is all Tesla had left, once the competition caught up (and in practice they have). And now the brand too is damaged. Musk would have to resign and ful
by toyg 1y ago
The brand is all Tesla had left, once the competition caught up (and in practice they have). And now the brand too is damaged. Musk would have to resign and fully, publicly divest from the company, for it to recover. Or, he could start making hybrids and try to get support from the MAGA crowd. But in the current form, Tesla will die a slow death.
- schnitzelstoat 1y agoTesla is the Roomba of electric cars. Technologically behind the competition and more expensive too, but a strong brand name well known for being one of the first major electric car producers. Now the brand is toxic BYD etc. will overtake them in Europe too. Ironically, it's Europe's own tariffs against China that have protected them from BYD for this long.
- GardenLetter27 1y agoThey aren't technologically behind though - Tesla FSD is the best there is for consumers. But Europe bans FSD, so in Europe, Tesla is just more expensive for no benefit.
- rainsford 1y agoPeople care about a lot of technological features of their cars beyond "self-driving". Lots of people are also skeptical of "self-driving" that doesn't reach the level of allowing you to take nap while the car shuttles you to your destination, which Tesla certainly doesn't reach. Paradoxically, I think the closer you get to real self-driving without actually reaching it, the more skeptical people will become since it lulls you into a false sense of security. A car that mostly seems like it will drive itself but will occasionally and unpredictably try to kill you is much more concerning for most people than a car that helps you out but presents no illusion that you can stop paying attention.
- rich_sasha 1y agoThe problem is that they also built their whole story on Musk being the secret sauce and the magic sprinkle. He is the justification behind the PE ratio of (googles) 187x. Toyota's PE ratio, for a random comparison, is 6.5. It is unfair in many ways, but still, it shows the scale of the valuation gap!
- xiphias2 1y agoI don't see any problem with it, but this just means that Elon stepping down would be the worst decision for Tesla, probably halving it's market cap. I just don't understand the reason, why any Tesla shareholder wouldn't like the 400% return in 5 years, just because BYD had even better return and forced some margin compression on Tesla.
- rich_sasha 1y agoThe problem is, if Musk is the TSLA 30x value multiplier, if he leaves then price crashes 30x. And if you don't like the 30x number, pick your own. By comparison with non-Tesla car makers, the discount would likely be massive. Even 2-3x would be pretty crazy.