Tesla is one of the most exciting companies out there and one of the most controversial. Particularly because how much the man behind it loves to tweet. One wrong tweet and the stock price drops. Then we start seeing articles about how Elon Musk should either stop tweeting or step down as the CEO. However, the reality is that it's not about the tweets as much as it is about Tesla’s financials. Theoretically, Tesla should have gone broke long ago because it burns cash faster than you can imagine ($7500 per minute). Although that it has been profitable in the third quarter of this year, for the longest time since its existence, it has always been operating at a loss. I know that it seems confusing because if the company is merely burning cash, why is it still around. Tesla is losing money every time it sells a car because it's heavily investing in building the infrastructure that will pay back in the long run such as the Giga factory.
So who do they get the money from? Lenders, investors, and the depositors. Every time Tesla unveils a product, it accepts the deposits and then delivers the car months later if not years because it needs the cash to move forward, but investors are afraid that Tesla might go broke before they get their money back, plus the interest that they are hoping for. So every time, Tesla is late on their promise, investors panic, and the controversies start. As long as the survival of Tesla depends on the mercy of the investors and lenders, this will continue, and Musk's tweets will matter a lot. However, they aren’t the only ones who are concerned about Tesla. Most of us are excited about electrical self-driving cars. Nonetheless, not everyone thinks that way. Traditional auto manufacturers are comfortable. They have a proven sustainable business model. This new age of electric cars might be too risky and not as profitable as their current model. That's why you don't find the industry giants leading the way although that they have all the resources, and we haven’t even talked about the oil companies and the politicians who don't want to see these changes because it might affect their careers negatively.
Despite all of these obstacles, Tesla has been in way bigger trouble. In 2008, during the financial crisis, when one company after another was going out of business, Tesla was on the brink of bankruptcy. Even GM and Ford received a bailout from the government to survive, what do you think happened to Tesla? Elon invested the last pennies he had to save it, and by some miracle in December of 2008, Daimler decided to invest 50 million into Tesla which saved the company. So regardless of all problems that Tesla is going through now, they are in a way better shape than they have ever been. Even industry leaders such as GM or BMW can't catch up with Tesla anymore because they are so ahead in this game. Electrical cars run on batteries which are an essential part of the vehicle and Tesla is ahead of the competition with its Giga factory. They are the largest producer of battery power in the automotive world. In fact, Tesla is more like a battery company than a car company. In 2017, he offered to fix Australia's electricity problem by building the biggest lithium-ion battery, and when he was asked if he is serious about it, he just tweeted, if he didn't deliver his promise within 100 days, it would be free. One of the biggest differences in electric cars is that they run on software like our phones do. Tesla’s autopilot recently crossed a billion miles which gives them the technical advantage in this field. While other companies are trying to build a competitive design like Audi recently did with their new e-Tron which is pretty impressive, Tesla has already installed over 10,000 superchargers all over the world. Of course, most people won't even need them because you can install one right in your garage but they are convenient if you are traveling long distance and we haven’t even talked about how powerful the brand name is, which is also a really important aspect in the corporate world. Tesla is simply the face of future cars, and the guy behind it is the symbol of the future. People around the world are excited about his vision and enthusiasts will continue to deposit or invest in this company because of his vision. In some ways, Tesla is simply too big to fail because it has already achieved tremendous success and another few years of production hell shouldn’t be a problem.