[seabj0rn]

Another argument for justifying the run up in price is that investors see the promise of TSLA being more than just a car company. The future of the Solar City division means that part of the company can be viewed almost as a utility co. There is a data play too. With an ever growing volume of Teslas on the road, all stocked up with the very latest in sensor technology, the company collects tons of valuable data not just for maps but also for Real time road conditions and traffic. At some point, they may find lucrative ways of monetizing that. Then we look at just the trends for their core product, the cars. The crazy thing that Tesla is doing is turning all other luxury cars into Cadillacs (ie products for old people). They are doing the same thing to Mercedes and BMW that the Apple Watch did to Rolex. If you want to signal that you are part of the new rich, you buy a car that shows off power + environmental friendliness. With the flight out of major cities in the US, Tesla is going to be a pretty popular choice for new car buyers that just landed in the suburbs.

[endori97]

Tesla is similar to Netflix/Amazon when everyone knew the future -- TV/shopping would eventually go online and now everyone knows cars will eventually be EVs

The legacy OEMs must allocate their capital to maintain current products/dividends/pensions and have a seat at the EV table in the future. Not as easy as it sounds, especially considering technology creates winner-takes-all situations and cap-ex to participate in battery production at scale appears to be in the 10s of billions.

[rsynnott]

> The future of the Solar City division means that part of the company can be viewed almost as a utility co.

That would surely lead to a lower valuation, if anything? Utility companies are not generally massively profitable, nor are they typically valued at hundreds of times P/E.