[ChuckMcM]

Ok, I see where you are coming from. But aren't you getting ahead of yourself? The luxury car market is what, 1 million cars annually [1]? So these 'niche' cars which have good margins give Tesla the capital to do the next step which is bring the costs down.

I think folks who drive a model S will pretty quickly understand that Tesla is building a better car, so if someone was in the market, and open to an electric, Tesla is a contender.

I expect the majority of Tesla's sales to be 'status symbol' sales initially (just like Hummer's sales) and later a more durable market will develop. And I think it will benefit from being considered the 'best' you can get, Elon is a pretty compelling figure as well so very trendy.

Where we differ I expect is that I expect they can translate that early success into a broader class of car.

[1] rummaging around in http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales.html isn't particularly helpful.