[gamblor956]

1. Tesla can always enter into the ICE market with ease, not that they will do it, but they can and probably will succeed. ICEs are much harder than electric engines.

2. Tesla is the new cool factor. Undeniably. Tesla had the cool factor. Now they're 2 years away from being just another electric car.

4. Tesla's marketing machine is immense and enormously efficient.

99% of car buyers don't pay attention to social media when buying a car. Tesla has one of the smallest marketing machines in the industry; it's heavily reliant on social media to bring in buyers, which limits its customer base. Moreover, the reliance on social media is also its weakness, as it is subject to the whims of the online mob.

I remember Elon writing a blog article about a journalists negative review of their car and the discussion about Tesla dominated social media for a few weeks. No one even bothers about the management at the big 3, but Elon is a celebrity who is given geek god like status.

I remember that coverage as well. It was uniformly negative about Elon's blustering response to the review, and raised significant concerns in the market. If a single negative review is enough to tank Tesla, it's got no chance of surviving Model 3 mass production.

[calvinbhai]

Social media is good to generate and sustain hype, especially when Tesla itself is unable deliver the number of vehicles that have already been ordered.

Once Tesla has enough capacity to manufacture, more than what social media presence can consume, that is when traditional marketing mechanisms will make sense.