Indeed. I mean, I own Telsa stock, so I'm not unhappy about what it's doing, but I'm not about to invent reasons why it makes sense. Eventually the major manufacturers like Toyota and VW are going to pivot and Tesla is going to be an entertaining footnote of daring that paid off ... in past tense.

The brand is incredibly strong. It wont become a footnote. At this point they will make it standalone or be purchased by another company. I dont think fading away into obscurity is in the cards.

That's fanboyism.

Most places on the world dont have the infrastructure for electric cars yet.

But I'll be damned if you won't find a Toyota Hilux in the most backwater village behind a mountain range.

I know a vast majority of people of my friend group who aren't in tech have no idea about tesla and at best have heard the name something something electric car something something Elon Musk

Compared to VW or Toyota - who shift millions of units in every concievable market - Tesla is just a cute curiosity like the carmakers of the 20s.

What's odd is that there's a fairly strong sentiment that EVs are the future, but some of the existing automakers seem to still be covering their ears and singing.

If Tesla starts suffering mortal market-share wounds, they will still be a compelling acquisition target for one of the existing automakers who are late to the EV party-- you get a ready-made bag of patents, supply chain, and designs. You can immediately start building a Model 3 with an Acura or Chrysler badge, and you've got something to ship to dealers in countries with punitive tax regime or ban on gas cars, and a few more years runway to fully adapt the design into a full full own-brand EV.

> some of the existing automakers seem to still be covering their ears and singing

Some, but the more common story is "traditional automaker pouring billions into EV production to make up for lost time."

> If Tesla starts suffering mortal market-share wounds, they will still be a compelling acquisition target

More importantly they'd need to suffer mortal market cap wounds. At anything like current prices they're not only dreadful value, they're simply unaffordable. At the moment Tesla buying a large traditional automaker is more likely than the reverse (though maybe not likely in an absolute sense.)

So maybe a showcase that a great combination of words in a title is enough to generate upvotes?

Interesting observation. I wonder if the number of upvotes depends more on the quality of the article or the quality of comments. I have to admit that even here, I personally didn't even open the article but rather went straight to the comments.