Tesla has yet to make a profit selling cars - though it has been profitable for several quarters by other means - which is what allowed it to enter the S & P 500.
Is there competition for Tesla?
The big one is Volkswagen. I believe the ID.3 was the bestselling car in Germany last month (replacing the Renault Zoe). The ID.4 is priced at around $39K in the US - $32.5K after tax credits - versus $49K for the Model Y (though Biden may reinstate tax credits on Teslas). The base price of the ID.4 will fall to $35K in 2022 when they start making them in the US.
Volkswagen also has solid state batteries on the way through its battery company Quantumscape. They are promised for limited production in luxury cars from 2024 / 25, though VW may be sandbagging and they may only be a couple of years away. (VW has been in with QS since 2012 - before dieselgate - has largely funded their development, and has two people on the board of QS).
Tesla's "problem" is shit build quality. But then American cars have always been shit - Americans don't care - if they want a well made car they buy a Euro / or Jap car.
Tesla is a tech company that needs to learn how to build cars properly if it wants to achieve global scale.
The likes of VW / Daimler / BMW have the opposite problem. They are brilliant at building cars but they need to learn how to be a tech company.
Yeah it's a bit strange that America is often claimed to be very demanding for things like quality and customer service yet I agree my perception of American goods is that they are crap quality.
The Tesla's owner that I went in (That's the Tesla I "went in" not the owner
) said he was worried picking it up as he'd read lots of horror stories on line about multiple major build quality problems for customers that needed fixing when they picked them up.
His was fine but apparently you get a bit long check list of things to tick off when you collect it
Wouldn't you think that this should be done before it leaves the factory or at least by the garage before the customer picks it up
Someone commented a while back about interest in buying the Jaguar all electric car, others then commented that they had previously owned Jags and the electrics were the worst and most unreliable thing about them so the thought of buying an all electric one made them
If Tesla haven't made a profit from selling the actual cars then they must be making money on associated things which is often the case, when there was the California gold rush for instance a few lucky prospectors struck it big but most lost money.
The people that made money weren't those panning for gold but the people who set up stores to sell the prospectors food; shovels; pans; dynamite etc or the saloon owner with gambling tables and "Rooms by the hour" upstairs, disgusting thought eh
