Well, a few reasons are listed in articles like this: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-tesla-burns-cash/
It's clearly not false to state that the company will need a lot of money to scale going forward, compared to the money needed in the past. The only question is whether that money comes from revenue, debt, or investment. The revenue projections don't come close to covering it in the short term, and the company has already taken on quite a bit of debt with respect to its assets, making it unclear whether it could get loans for the amount of cash needed to scale up to "real car company"-sized manufacturing capacity.
Maybe they don't need money, and Musk is just taking advantage of undervaluation to make a great deal. But it's certainly not crazy to think that they do need money, and if so, taking the company private may be the only viable option.
> You can’t really bet against bonds that could soon no longer exist.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-08-08/elon-musk...
TL;DR Tesla going private at $420/share wipes out the bond debt. Their just-hired Chief Accounting Officer oversaw Seagate going private in 2000.
https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/95gv0l/dave_mo...
This doesn't make any sense. Companies don't go private because they need money unless it's a private buy-out. There is no indication at all that TSLA would have any trouble accessing the debt markets. In fact what we see is TSLA turning away investors like the Saudis who are eager to increase their exposure to the firm. If TSLA was so desperate for money why would they be turning away some of the biggest investors in the world?
Actually there are a lot of indications that junk bond markets have little appetite for Tesla offerings:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-28/tesla-bon...
https://www.thestreet.com/investing/tesla-junk-bonds-sending...