Tesla Gets a $94 Billion Reality Check as EV Winter Sets In::Tesla Inc. had a blockbuster 2023, as its shares more than doubled in 12 months. But 2024 is starting on a different note, with Elon Musk’s electric vehicle maker off to its worst start to any year — ever.
“EV winter” is a silly framing. Many Chinese EV companies are on a roll, with BYD just surpassing Tesla in EV shipments in the last quarter. EVs are now mainstream in China and the car markets in other countries won’t be far behind. Obviously, Tesla faces more challenges from the fact that it no longer has the market to itself, but competition is a good thing.
I had the same thought. I always wonder if these types of articles are written with the purpose of sowing negative feelings towards EV in order to maintain the fossil fuel status quo.
EVs are here to stay. Tesla’s valuation drop has nothing to do with consumer appetite for EV and everything to do with the fact that they’re overpriced, poor build quality, questionable design and engineering decisions, and the abyssal oversold failure of full autonomous driving.
BYD has rode Teslas coattails for years. EVs in China didn’t take off until Tesla built a Gigafactory to supply their batteries.
The Chinese car market is dead right now, BYD and other EV makers are dumping their EVs on the global market at a steep discount (Subsidized hmmm by the state) to stay afloat. They’ve targeted their higher end EV products on the EU market because they don’t have protections in place like the US. The EU is going to stop this and well see their numbers drop.
didn’t take off until Tesla built a Gigafactory to supply their batteries
BYD doesn’t rely on Tesla to supply their batteries. It’s the other way round: BYD started out as a battery company, and Tesla relies on their batteries in Shanghai, Germany, and other factories. Tesla originally used batteries from CATL, another Chinese company, but started switching to BYD a few years ago.
only the fanboys didnt see this coming. the lack of a complete product lifecycle had to catch up with them at some point, and thats the least of their current problems.
zero quality control (and plummeting, somehow) and a reputation on the floor of the bathroom thanks to that nazi in charge… its only a matter of time until theyre sold off to a mature vehicle manufacturer.
Listen, I completely agree with most of what you said until the last sentence. Tesla’s been around for long enough that they’ll survive. If by “matter of time” you mean a few decades or longer, sure, I could see someone buying them. Don’t know how long you’ve been around for, but I’ve been hearing this same thing since they went public. Yet, here we are.
Tesla’s been around for long enough that they’ll survive.
How do you figure that works, and why couldn’t these guys figure it out?
Oldsmobile (1897-2004): Once a popular and innovative brand, Oldsmobile struggled in the later years with uninspiring models and eventually met its demise under General Motors.
Packard (1899-1958): Known for their luxury and craftsmanship, Packard couldn’t compete with rising costs and changing consumer preferences in the post-war era.
Studebaker (1902-1966): A pioneer in automotive design, Studebaker faced financial difficulties and ultimately lost market share to bigger players like Ford and GM.
Hudson (1909-1954): Merged with Nash to form American Motors, Hudson was known for its affordable and stylish cars, but ultimately couldn’t weather the competitive landscape.
Willys-Overland (1908-1963): Responsible for the iconic Jeep, Willys-Overland struggled with diversifying its offerings and was eventually acquired by Kaiser Industries.
DeSoto (1928-1960): A Chrysler brand known for its mid-range offerings, DeSoto faced declining sales and was eventually phased out in favor of other Chrysler models.
Mercury (1939-2011): Ford’s upscale division, Mercury faced competition from its own parent company and other luxury brands, leading to its discontinuation.
Plymouth (1928-2001): Another Chrysler brand, Plymouth offered affordable and practical cars, but couldn’t keep up with changing consumer tastes and was eventually discontinued.
AMC (1954-1988): Born from the merger of Hudson and Nash, AMC found success with innovative designs like the Jeep and Gremlin, but ultimately couldn’t overcome financial challenges and was acquired by Chrysler.
Saturn (1990-2010): General Motors’ attempt at a revolutionary, customer-centric brand, Saturn faced production issues and market challenges, leading to its closure.
Hahaha, love that you came with receipts. People are extremely shortsighted sometimes and think surviving a few bad years means they’ll be around for a while. Companies can take a while to fail and can limp along for years before finally being sold off.
Tesla has a market cap of $800 billion.
To put it in perspective… GM is on track to earn that much money over the next one hundred years - they made $9b last year and $6b the year before (that was a low year, supply chain issues).
And even if they somehow found the money, regulators would likely block it.
Tesla, on the other hand, could buy GM if they wanted to. Not sure why they would though, since Tesla is successfully selling EVs (the future) and GM can’t figure out how to repeat that. GM’s EV cars are not profitable yet and they just discontinued their best model (the Bolt).
Paywall. But I managed to see they said “Tesla has been hit with a barrage of negative news” and I think that’s disingenuous.
If Tesla wants to avoid the fate of the first US Football League who were scuttled by a dipshit know-nothing “billionaire” they need to kick Elmo to the curb. Otherwise they just continue to hemorrhage.
Of course, Elmo could get his shit together, buckle down and let the smart and talented people get on with it. Hahahahahaha
Tesla definitely sucks, but headlines like this are so useless. Check out a 5 year chart. Tesla stock hit a 2 year low at the beginning of last year…. that was significant, down to 120. Then it recovered to a fairly average price, where it’s been since then (this made musk the person to “lose” and “gain” record amounts of wealth in a short time). The recent dip hasn’t been extremely significant…. It’s like 245 to 217.
Tesla stock
The price ain’t right.
Your argument assumes that the price of the stock is fundamental, rather than partly speculative. I don’t think that’s a fair valuation of Tesla stock due to the ability of Musk to drum up speculation value.
EV winter? When was EV summer?
