
Tesla becomes most valuable automaker in latest stock rally - miked85
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-shares/tesla-becomes-most-valuable-automaker-in-latest-stock-rally-idUSKBN2426E8
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yrral
I don't understand the mentality people have when calling Tesla an automaker.
Automakers today traditionally outsource a majority of their parts and are
just glorified assemblers. Meanwhile tesla has much more vertical integration
in their cars and owns much more of the stack, from the batteries (there are
even rumors they'll go into mining to secure steady supply), to their software
and self driving stack, to grid storage, etc.

I'm not sure exactly what I'm getting at here, but it reminds me of back in
the day when people called amazon just a bookstore.

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agumonkey
I think you're twisting reality a tiny bit. Car brands have used all kinds of
partnerships from car body design, to engines. Just last week I learned that
DMC Delorean use a PRV engine. PRV standing for Peugeot Renault Volvo. 3
European brands, nothing American in it..

Same goes for airplanes, boeing and airbus uses parts from similar suppliers.

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kiba
I don't see how this is a criticism given that Tesla is actually vertically
integrated.

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agumonkey
integration probably varies over time, is it fair to take it into account ?

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czzr
Calling the market is a fool’s game, but that valuation makes no sense to me
at all.

Remember this is supposed to be the expected value weighted across up and down
scenarios. The down scenarios are clear, so in what crazy world are the up
scenarios enough to average out to 210 billion?

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martythemaniak
The up scenario is basically the one where Tesla's cars are Apple's Macs.
Apple used the success of the mac to get itself into a number of other
industries to such an extent that people now fear it will abandon the mac
because it makes such a small amount from it.

So what are Tesla's other business lines? Solar panel deployments (residential
and industrial), battery deployments, electrical utility software providers,
autonomous robotaxi services, residential HVAC. This is just things they've
publicly said they're working on today. It would surprise me if they don't
have an electric plane in the works by the end of this decade. Maybe
industrial sabatier-process based carbon capture for jurisdictions with carbon
taxes and Mars bases.

Basically, they have enough "bets" that you can believe, if you want to.

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jseliger
The comparison to Apple makes sense: I have spent the last decade and a half
reading prognosticators announce that Apple's stock is overpriced, and so far
all of them have been wildly wrong.

Eventually they'll almost certainly be right, since, historically speaking, no
stock has gone up forever, but they've been impressively wrong so far.

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fallingfrog
Generally market bubbles come to an end when you run out of fools, but in this
case the supply of fools seems just limitless. What’s the story here? Where
are they coming from? Is it massive leverage? Is it free money from the fed?
What accounts for the endless supply of idiots? I really do want to know who
is buying at these prices and where they are getting the cash to do so.

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woodandsteel
The valuation makes sense. In the coming years the auto market is going to be
moving rapidly to ev's and away from ice's. Demand for ev's is going to outrun
supply, in part due to battery shortages.

Tesla is expanding rapidly and is going to be in a better position than any
other car maker to take advantage of the situation, though lately VW has also
getting very serious about ev's.

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cma
Nikola is now bigger than Ford, Fiat/Chrysler, Hyundai, Suzuki, Nissan, and
Subaru

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KiwiJohnno
Thats absolutely nuts, considering they yet to sell any cars, or book ANY
revenue.

People bashed Tesla for years because they weren't profitable... But at least
they had revenue.

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rcMgD2BwE72F
At today's NKLA valuation, Tesla was selling 20K cars a year. And Tesla had
already proven the BEV are far better than FCV in every aspect (well explained
by VW: [https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com/en/stories/battery-or-
fu...](https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com/en/stories/battery-or-fuel-cell-
that-is-the-question-5868))

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agumonkey
who's buying which rumor ? battery day ?

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marceloabsousa
Impressive given that it has never made a profit!

PS: [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jul/01/tesla-
bec...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jul/01/tesla-becomes-
worlds-most-valuable-carmaker-without-making-a-profit)

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CydeWeys
Is it? This was true if Amazon for well over a decade, and look at them now.

If you can meaningfully reinvest into your business rather than show a profit
(and pay taxes on it), then you're in a good position. Tesla has the growth
that merits doing this, which is why their share price is so high.

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denzil_correa
Tesla's operating margin (16 years after operation) 0.3%, Amazon's operating
margin in 2010 (roughly after 16 years of operation) 4.4%

