Yea, it seems to be more of one of his hobbies than something he is fully engaged in; but at any rate he adds some excitement to a relatively boring industry in terms of how the approach the public.
I am not sure Amazon's approach will work for an industry where manufacturing and inventory costs are a large part of the costs, and some Tesla unique GSA costs. For example, Amazon carries inventory for 3rd party sellers but it only costs them warehouse space; Amazon pushed much of the last mile delivery costs and risk on its ADP's. As a result, it can grow faster than its costs due at some point.
Apple seems to be taking a similar risk mitigation approach to the Apple car.
I'm not saying Tesla won't be profitable at some point, just it faces several significant challenges to get there and stay there.
To a certain extent I agree, but a number of Tesla's issues go beyond just minor quality problems.
Tesla's play may be in the technology and not as a car manufacturer long term.
I have no position in Tesla, I'm just interested in it from a strategy and finance POV.
Musk estimated 500 - 600K have placed $100 deposits late last year, it looks like
650k by end of December; the question remains how many can he deliver and when, as well as how many will actually turn into paid orders. It's not even clear when full scale production will start; if it is in 2 -3 years as the article implies it will face competition from Ford and Gs; whose owners tend to be brand loyal. GM already is getting ready to sell the new Hummer, for example.
In addition, the Cybertruck is a US market only model, and Tesla is trying to get those with deposits to leaseanother Tesla until the truck can be deklivered in the 2021-2023 timeframe.
Tesla has gotten a lot of hype and Musk knows how to excite consumers; but you have to move from early adopters. It's true he gets lots of preorders, but for $100 if you are interested why not take a shot?
The eMustang is popular, but dealers aren't taking orders they know they can't fill.
and tried to conquer too many markets...