Technology

I can barely see how they were so popular up to now anyway. I, too, thought they were cool like 10 years ago, when they were the only real electric car (Leaf and I-Miev don't count and we didn't get the Bolt or Volt here, only Opel Ampera and Ampera-E, which are ultra rare). Then a couple of years later, I realized some things, in this order: 1) Tesla interiors are THE BLANDEST THING EVER, 2) Elon Musk's been seeming increasingly weird starting with the cave diving incident, 3) Tesla quality control is absolute shite

Tesla changed the world by proving you CAN have good range and performance in an EV, but now they're way past their prime. The Germans, Swedes, Koreans and now I believe EVEN THE CHINESE make better EVs. I have no experience with non-Tesla American EVs to comment on those, but I wouldn't be surprised if they surpass Tesla in overall quality of vehicle in a few years too.

Net profits $2.3B. "Poor financial results". How does one reconcile these two things?

That's 2.3B USD on a 1.29T USD valuation, or 0.17%.

Valuations should be reflective of expected future profits. Multiples of ×20 yearly profit are possible for risky (tech or biotech usually) companies, with large potential profit. But the ratio is ridiculously off the charts for tesla. If it does not improve, it will have turned out to have been a very wastefull use of capital.

The issue is the price to earnings ratio of the Tesla stock which is almost 200:1.

The level of profit is not bad for a normally price company but Telsa needs to have profits grow exponentially to justify their stock price.

It used to be double that, so I can see why people see it as a bad thing. But I also don’t think 7.1B profits qualifies as “poor financial results”, even if it used to be higher.

tessla plans to launch it's autonomous ride hailing service

Autonomous driving, like he's promised he already had every year for over a decade now.

Who does anyone believe this scammer? He is a con man, always had been, and I'm just amazed at the enormous amount of idiots believing his shit

They are emissions credits. Every company receives some amount of "CO2 emission credits" from the government. These allow you to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide. If you don't emit all the CO2 that your credits allow, you can sell those credits to other companies that need more than the government gives them.

The idea is to put a total limit on the amount of emissions in the country, while letting the market figure out where it makes most sense economically to invest in emission reduction.

Tesla makes only EV cars and so it doesn't need all the credits a typical gasoline car company would receive. So they sell them.

Yes you are understanding that correctly. For producing EVs, they get credits from the federal government. I don't know the exchange rate -- e.g., how many EVs per credit.

Then, Tesla turns around and sells these credits to buyers, usually other companies. Companies buy these credits from Tesla to comply with regulations requiring certain environmental outcomes, and credits count towards these outcomes.

In theory this type of program incentivizes and rewards companies who invest in the technology(is) tied to these credits, in this case EVs. In practice it's a way for other companies to comply with renewables regulations without actually doing anything to meaningfully reduce their impact and footprint (other than buying credits)

You are. Without the EV credits, Tesla would have folded years ago.

I wondered that a while ago when Tesla was worth more than many other car makers combined while producing far less vehicles than any single one of them. And I remember people telling me about projections and expectations and that it’s only a matter of time until everyone drives a Tesla basically. Sounded like mass hysteria to me back then because the rest of the world won’t just sit there quietly and let Tesla have a monopoly. People bought shares because they rose rapidly in value, causing even more people to buy shares. It’s a pyramid scheme like so many things these days and people have no problem with it apparently. They love gambling and playing lottery. Value investing is too boring for them.

It's gambling

The investors are banking on Elon looting the Govt coffers into Tesla. I can’t deny the chances based on the other crap we are seeing.

That’s not new to Tesla. Avoid bubble stocks. Avoid penny stocks. Buy “stodgy”

Value investing isn't dead. There are tons of value investors, and they aren't the ones buying Tesla.

It's terrible for the stock price which has a price to earnings ratio of almost 200.

If this were a normal company with a profit margin of ~6% and a normal stock price (in line with the market average), it would be fine.

Since when 2.4 billion net profit is terrible?

Since Musk claimed in 2022 that a 50% growth per year would be normal for Tesla. And people are stupid enough to partially believe him. In January 2024 Musk promised 2024 would be a HUGE growth year, with autonomous RoboTaxi being launched in June. He claimed it’s LITERALLY only 5 months away!!!

https://fortune.com/2025/01/29/tesla-shares-rally-2025-earnings-growth/

Tesla Inc. revealed plans to begin robotaxi operations and forecast a sales recovery this year, fueling what Elon Musk predicted would be an “epic” period of growth for the electric vehicle maker.

Nothing he claimed or promised has come true. Quite the opposite.

"Terrible" is just for attention, but the bit of news that would have cratered any other company's stock it that it's down 71% YOY. Plus:

Regulatory Credits: $2.8 billion of profit came from selling regulatory credits, not from core business activities.

People in the current administration have said they plan to end these credits in the coming months. Without them in 2024 Tesla would have reported a $500million loss for the year.

71% drop in a single quarter is time for workers to start looking for other jobs bad. This was way before Elon's Nazi salute so expect things to get way worse. I'd be so embarrassed if I drove a Tesla.

You just glossed right over the "dropped by 71%" bit...since when is that not terrible? That's an incredible decrease in profits over the course of just 12 months.