[rjdagost]

I hear people say things like this about Tesla, but I am really skeptical. The company is still highly unprofitable despite having scaled production up significantly. It survives because of investor capital. That kind of strategy runs out of steam when investors stop believing the company's promises of future profits, or when a recession hits.

[pmorici]

The things that make them unprofitable are one time capital investments. If you buy a 50 million dollar stamping press the serviceable life of which is measured in decades you probably aren't going to recoup that cost in year one. They are however profitable on a per vehicle basis and they have a lower cost of materials than any other EV maker.

[rgbrenner]

That’s not how accounting for fixed assets work. If you buy a stamp press with a 10 year life, you convert 50m in cash into 50m in fixed assets. Both of these are assets, so this conversion affects liquid cash, but does not change your profits.

You then take 1/10th of the value of your stamp press and subtract it each year (depreciation). This is the amount subtracted from your profits each year.

Accounting as a profession has been around longer than tech companies. They know full well that companies buy fixed assets. Tesla isn’t some special case in this regard.