Tesla bought SolarCity http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/21/13698314/tesla-completes-... - even if they totally flump on cars they still have solar installations, gigafactory (developments), charging stations they could lease and tech/patents they could sell to other EV manufacturers.
Sorry, Tesla bought struggling Solar City as it needed a complete residential energy storage solution to leverage rebates from energy companies. I.e. the sum of the parts is greater than the whole in terms of final price to consumer.
SolarCity was/is $4B in debt at the time of the acquisition. If Tesla's car division fails, solar panels is not the cash cow the company is going to fall back on.
Let me know when Ford autopilot is available on the street. They did buy Argo, but current Ford projections are saying 2021..
"whether Tesla is the next Ford or the next Delorean" Tesla is neither of these because it is more than a car company. It is vertical integration that incumbents can't match at this point.
? Yes, of course. You must not own an electric car.
> Yes, of course. You must not own an electric car.
You may have responded to me instead of someone else. I own a Leaf, I didn't say "whether Tesla is the next Ford or the next Delorean". I work at an organisation that supplies both Tesla & Ford with the toolchains in which they do all their control design. (And Nvidia for that matter). I'm intimately familiar with what these companies are doing today and are capable off. It's amazing to see what they are producing.