Chevy Volt a Failure - GM to Layoff 1,300

When we were in San Fran/NorCal a couple months, we had a running joke about the number of Teslas we saw as it seemed like they were every other car the closer we got to Palo Alto.

 

Yeah, LA is so representative of the country.

LA is obsessed with what's hot, and what's trending. Tesla is both a status symbol, and "green". Of course folks in LA love it.

 

The ones who can shell out $100K for that P85D love it.

 

As long as they support the right causes, it's OK if they're part of the nasty 1%.

 

Yeah, cause California's tastes never translate to the rest of the country.

 

Of course they do. But, the rest of the country doesn't have $100,000+ to spend on a luxury car.

 

Except plenty of people do, and they are.

 

Isn't everything in life, particularly economics?

 

If that was true, companies like Mercedes Benz, Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, etc. would have left the U.S. market long ago.

 

You can get into a Mercedes for less than $40,000: Sports Cars, Luxury Cars, and Vehicles from Mercedes-Benz | Mercedes-Benz

The others, especially Rolls, Ferrari and Lamborghini are really small players. How many states even have a dealership for one of those three brands?

Of course there's a market for them, but it's small, and places like LA and Silicon Valley make up a sizable portion of that market.

 

Maserati has sold fewer units (less than 60,000) across its entire model lineup during that span. BMW sells fewer M6 convertibles per year than that, and even sells fewer of its regular 6-series models, which are less expensive. Audi sells fewer than 800 R8 models per year. Aston Martin sold 4,200 units across its model lineup in 2013 and they were excited about the jump in sales. Saying Tesla has delivered fewer than 80,000 cars as evidence that it is failing is misleading.

Now, those companies are profitable, so there's a clear distinction between what they are producing and what Tesla is doing. But your units sold figure is not a good indicator of success when discussing vehicles at that price point.

Skepticism is warranted and if you feel investing in Tesla is a bad risk, that's reasonable position to take given the other evidence you've presented. But given the resources Musk is putting behind this company, the long-term societal need to wean off dependence on fossil fuels and, yes, the government benefits Tesla has received, I'm more inclined to believe Tesla will ultimately be successful.