Tesla Just Can't Catch a Stock Market Break

Everyone says it's easy, but so far only Tesla's made the only electric car that people want. It's funny when you think about it. Tesla understands the "longer/lower/faster/quieter/sexier" sales pitch better than any traditional auto maker. GM invented that pitch, but they are pinning their electric hopes on a dumpy subcompact. Good luck to them.

@heavy handle +1

@heavy handle "longer/lower/faster/quieter/sexier" And unprofitabler. Not traditionally a traditional auto maker's goal.

@Old Man Pants Profitability is so 1998.

@jkross22 It's coming back. Another Clinton's on the way!

none of the existing car companies were technologically incapable of building something like the Model S. What they all lacked was the *business case* for doing so.

@heavy handle Tesla has lost a couple of billion dollars since it was founded. Gee, it's shocking that other automakers didn't rush in to get a piece of that money-losing action.

@jkross22 Nah, unless its all truly rigged (which it will be). Remember the lesson of 2000, whose vote matters again?

@jkross22 "unless its all truly rigged" Oh, yeah, it was all well and truly rigged back in '46 when Trump's mouth was in utero connected to his shriveled pea-brain. The so far only known case of idiopathic Zika. And everyone thinks there's actually something *under* that hair mat.

@JimZ Right. Because there was an obvious business case for the GTR, a car that was only ever going to have one year of decent sales, and for the Leaf, but not for establishing primacy over the electric car market for ever and ever? Because making the unfortunately-styled runt that is the Bolt makes perfect sense, but spending an extra $1,000 per unit to make it into a car that Americans actually want doesn't make sense? Because there's a "business case" for yet another futile attempt to sell Cadillacs in Europe? Other than the obvious one, which is that it justifies having senior VPs use the corporate jet for their European vacations rather than slumming it in first class. JimZ, is it possible that you put entirely too much trust in Detroit's business savvy? I know you've argued along similar lines before. The dog ate GM's homework, they fact that they failed at something proves that it couldn't be done. Not saying you shouldn't root for the home team, just that sometimes the true fans should be the most critical.

@heavy handle As JimZ and others have said before at length, in detail and often, there is also the faith-based engineering and resultant legal liability necessary to have a model S at this stage of battery and AI tech. And none of T***a's detractors here would argue for constant omniscience or sage judgement on the part of traditional automakers. Dat don't make T***a no smarter.

@Old Man Pants Kenmore, please explain the legal liability of making the Bolt bigger and better. I did not realize that there was an actual law preventing GM from making desirable cars. It does explain a lot.

@Old Man Pants You know I was referring to overcooked batteries and Autopilot-like slapdashery in T***as. Gimmee a bigger (& taller) Bolt for the same money and I happy-dance! But phukkin' physics happen, mensch.

@heavy handle Tesla loses money because its customers don't want to pay the true cost of getting the stuff that they want. Tesla should be charging another 20 grand per unit, but it obviously can't get away with that. In essence, Tesla fans want a free lunch. Established automakers make EVs that weigh less and have less range because making the cars work with smaller batteries lowers the cost. Since the OEMs are going to lose money on them but have to make the EVs for compliance purposes, they may as well reduce their losses.