From the very beginning, there have been signs that Elon Musk’s ambitions for Tesla Motors exceeded his grasp on reality — or at least the realities of the car business.
Starting with his Moores Law-like product strategy (halving costs and doubling volume with each new car), and continuing through the Hyperloop and now the electric-battery “Gigafactory” proposal, Musk has dumbfounded the entire auto industry. Not because of the proposals themselves — most car industry executives expect overblown hype from Silicon Valley types. Rather, they are shocked that Wall Street is buying that hype and pouring money into Musk’s dream factory.
Tesla’s market capitalization is hovering around $30 billion, about half that of General Motors and Ford. Tesla has sold a grand total of 25,000 Model S sedans around the world over three years. GM and Ford deliver upwards of 200,000 vehicles in the U.S. alone each month. When you extend the comparison to financial performance, with $2 billion in sales last year, Tesla’s relative market valuation appears even more overblown.