[tnt128]

This is the same playbook amazon did - give investors a vision, convince them short term profit are less important than the eventual goal. Get the capital at a really really low cost, and then use these capital to build hard things, and crush competition.

[peteradio]

Whats the path that Tesla crushes the competition though? Seems like existing competition can ride the coattails if anything. Only way to stop it would be to engage in some incredibly anti-competitive behavior.

[justicezyx]

Tesla's electronic platform is at least a generation ahead of big auto makers. Confirmed from my friends at Shanghai auto. Other good things are the software platform, direct sale channel.

And in the end, Tesla has Elon Musk.

[peteradio]

So Tesla is like 6 months ahead w/ some modest differentiators and no moat for those differentiators? I think Tesla is doing good things and Elon is some fresh air but still I don't see the competition giving all their customers away (or even a huge portion). Isn't it customers that matter?

[justicezyx]

Where is 6 months coming? I routinely hearing people in auto supply industry claims 3-5 years is usually how a new component enter market with serious adoption. For system like Tesla's entire electronic, 5-10 years seems what they are speculating.

[peteradio]

> Where is 6 months coming?

My pooper. Thanks for clarifying the timeline, that is something if true.

[Hypx]

Tesla is already losing to the competition. See Europe where it is no longer the top selling EV company. This is probably the biggest difference between Tesla and Amazon. Namely, that Tesla isn't able create any kind of network effect to keep competitors out.

[peteradio]

Wonder how much money a simple man could make if they windowed their short correctly. Could TSLA create short billionaires with its current valuation?

[Hypx]

It's possible since we are likely in "Big Short" territory. Timing is the challenge though.