… but some investment analysts see a lot of upside potential in Tesla stock:
I hear you.
I’m sure you haven’t over looked investing in the fuel for these cars (EVs), right?
I have invested and reinvested in the parent company (headquartered in Juno Beach, FL) of my local electric utility here in Florida, Florida Power & Light. By the way, the rates I pay for electricity are among the lowest in the country.
It is an international company (largest utility company in the world), I believe it’s the largest wind and solar electric producer in the world, that is very innovative (Fortune Top 25 for innovation in the world) and heavily into solar. Here, in Florida alone, they are building “Solar power plants” (solar farms) at a rate of several per year.
Solar power is great when the sun is shining, which it is nearly every day here, but at night production stops. So, the parent company that I’m invested in “has more energy storage capacity than any other company in the U.S. With more than 140 MW of battery energy storage systems in operation” Locally, FPL’s latest project, under construction here, is the world’s largest solar storage battery.
When EVs get a little better range, and I know they will, I will buy one.
CSA
Dutch onion bulbs were worth fortunes until their market crashed and then people were eating them.
I am not good at predicting things, the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of Russia took me completely by surprise. As far as predicting stock market collapses, I always feel that stocks are overpriced and due to fall, The only time I got it right was when I got out of the market completely in 2007 and didn’t re-enter until 2009.
I think Elon Musk carries the seeds of his own destruction. If he make it in the solar business it will only if Panasonic actuall runs the business.
I am not young enough and do not live in a place where there is an electric car in my future. I would welcome a self driving car but from what I have read, present systems are completely flummoxed by snow and ice.
An additional observation on the market. The only thing that has propelled the unprecedented Bull market we have now is the Federal Reserve artificially suppressing interest rates. This has driven people and institutions to the stock market who should not be there.
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That’s not the only thing. Sorry, but this isn’t intended as a political statement (I haven’t taken sides) but since you brought it up, depending on who returns to or moves to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, we’ll see if it holds or goes down the tubes…
CSA
The modern stock market is little more than legalized gambling. If you’re a halfway decent cardsharp, you have better odds at a Vegas poker table.
The Tesla stock story is absurd, from both ends. You’ve got Musk making ridiculous features just to drive interest (Bio-weapon defense mode!?) and ridiculous promises to inflate the stock price (we’ll deliver eleventy kapillion cars by Thursday! We’ll build 'em in tents!) at the expense of quality control.
Then on the other side you’ve got short-sellers intentionally manipulating the stock prices, one going as far as to file a false NTSB petition about a non-existant safety defect just so that the market would take notice and zap the stock price.
Meanwhile, the company’s doing pretty well with the Model S, and promises to do better in the future. But it will never be perfect, and valuing it higher than the big 3 at this time is premature.
The reality is that the stock market has become a foppish game for the rich. It’s no longer about investing in companies you believe in. It’s about buying and selling stock, sometimes dozens of times per day, because you think you’ll make a quick buck. Such is not a great metric with which to judge the real-world viability of a company.
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It does seem quite obvious that Wall St is skinning US incrementally. Investors out on Main St pour in their cash and watch it rise and fall and hope to get out a winner while the real winners are raking in the profits on the slopes whether going up or down. I read somewhere that 200 million is the threshold to being wealthy. At that point someone has potential for really making it financially. When you can own home on 3 continents and a private jet to take you to any one of them at a whim you’ve arrived, so to speak.
Or success. Seems like his businesses are doing well so far.
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I’m curious how he profits from never ending losses.
Gee…how did Amazon profit from over a decade straight of losses.
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How in the world can they make it without my help? Ain’t it amazing.
You mean investors?
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Actually, I’m a long-term major stockholder in The Southern Company, the biggest electric utility in GA, AL, MS, VA, and TN. I also used to own shares in TECO and in Duke Energy, but I sold them quite a few years ago.
Related… sort of… is the news story from a couple of months ago, regarding the purchase of a Tesla 3 for police duty in Westport, CT.
But, as His Holiness said a few years ago, on a totally different subject, “Who am I to judge?”
I’m wondering when Tesla will come up with some different styling (truck excluded, of course). The S and 3 are fine, but the X and upcoming Y don’t look good to me, kind of hunchbacked. Why wouldn’t they go with a more wagon look for these tall vehicles?
I had to look-up the “Y” model, and after viewing it, I have to agree with you.
To me, the “X” looks like an ungainly, pregnant, something or other, and the “Y” looks like a smaller ungainly, pregnant, something or other.
I disagree about interest rates being artificially low. Rates dropped to near zero to start the public buying again. If rates had been 5% to 10%, the public and most businesses may have been too spooked from the 2009 recession to buy anything that required a loan. That’s just responding to market conditions. Inflation hasn’t really crept up, and rates remained low.
That’s one of the great things about cars. What some dislike are very attractive to others. Then, of course, there is the Utility Above All Else crowd that bought the Aztek. Who cares if it’s ugly they say. That will only keep the price down for them.
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My sister-in-law thinks the Aztek was the most attractive car she ever owned, and misses it a lot.
My wife clearly got the good-taste genes in the family. 
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They are one ugly vehicle.
I also know people who think Vin Diesel is the BEST actor ever.
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I also think the Citroen 2CV is one of the ugliest cars ever, but some of you guys have disagreed with that in the past. You can have one and drive it across a cow pasture.
When considering that “form follows function” the 2CV is a great car whose time has come and gone. But like the Model T and VW Beetle that little Citroen was hard to beat on the bang for the buck chart.