Originally Posted by
ThreeThreeMike
You're being too generous. It's over $10 billion, and when Sollar City is thrown in, it's a few billion more.
I'm quite impressed by what Space X had done - they've completely moved the goalposts for space launches and done things that the rest of the industry frankly didn't think was possible. Further, indications are they are not loosing money hand over fist doing it.
Tesla, not so much. I give Tesla credit for showing that an electric car can in fact be practical and even desirable. But at some point a manufacturer has to stop borrowing money and become self-sustaining, and Tesla is nowhere close to that. I read an interview with a former auto exec a while back who semi-joked that being the head of Tesla would be a dream job - who wouldn't want to be in charge of a company that wasn't expected to make money
. Now that the other automakers have jumped into the electric band wagon and are producing similarly capable electric cars and selling them at competitive prices, consumers are going to wonder if a Tesla is really worth the dodgy build quality and spotty customer support when they can go down to the local Ford or Volkswagen/Audi dealer and get something at least as good, often at a better price.