If you just measure based on Tesla's last two quarters, their P/E is just 28. That's high for a car company but pretty low for tech. Self-driving is not necessary to maintain that valuation, only continued growth of the electric car market in general.
> That's high for a car company but pretty low for tech.
Yes! Totally agree.
> Self-driving is not necessary to maintain that valuation, only continued growth of the electric car market in general.
Disagree. The key properties of the car business are high capital costs and high variable costs and not huge margins. The key property of the tech business is low variable cost and often low capital costs (but not always) and high margins.
There's nothing "tech" about building electric cars vs. normal cars and 10 years from now the margins and capital expenses of electric car business will be like the existing ICE car business.
So this is Tesla saying: "Yeah, our financials are starting to look like a normal car company, but we've got this thing that you should keep value us even more like a tech company than you do today."
The market values Tesla like a car business that is growing ~50% per annum.
> 10 years from now the margins and capital expenses of electric car business will be like the existing ICE car business.
Tesla already has margins similar to existing car companies.
> So this is Tesla saying: "Yeah, our financials are starting to look like a normal car company, but we've got this thing that you should keep value us even more like a tech company than you do today."
Yes, they're saying that, but the market is obviously not buying it.
