Who cares, most cars now are now leased or financed for a few years. That is the next guys problem. And he gets a good depreciation discount for taking on the risk.
Again, highly recommend you watch the video before making simplistic comments about the Tesla car. To sum it up though, here we go...ready? Tesla is not a car company Tesla makes cars, Tesla makes solar panels, Tesla makes energy storage units, Tesla makes Virtual power plants (VPP), Tesla makes batteries, Tesla recycles batteries, Tesla makes software (Autobidder) to manage supply/demand, Tesla owns a utility license in the UK (for now)... No automobile company in the world controls so much vertical integration. For the last 10 years they've been trying to build cars that can compete with Tesla cars. And when they finally do come up with a car that can match Tesla specs? Tesla will give you the option to have a Tesla car for free! It will be your choice of course. All you will have to do is allow Tesla to manage your car's energy when you plug it in. A million Teslas on the road is a million energy storage units like their Powerwalls or their VPPs With million mile batteries, V2G (Vehicle to Grid) and Autobidder, Tesla will be able as a utility company to efficiently manage supply and demand for electricity. pumping when it's cheaper and taking when it's more expensive. Now do you see why the valuation? If you don't, it's on you.
It will be interesting to see how the Tesla cars play out. Will we see magnificent advances in battery technology or will that continue to be a multi-decade pipe dream peddled by charlatans? Is the maintenance cost for Teslas lower than a similar luxury ICE vehicle because there is less metal-on-metal friction and fewer parts to go bad in EVs, or is Tesla maintenance cost greater because of battery replacement issues and software glitches? Will nontraditional automakers flood the space? EVs could ultimately become a commodity dominated by lower cost entrants with a few niche high-end brands. Tesla does not have a lock on speed. Speed is becoming a commodity amongst luxury ICE autos. Consider that a grocery getter like a BMW X5M competition that is bone stock, has over 600 HP and does zero to 60 in 3.7 seconds. It can be reflashed by the dealer, and still under warranty, to produce over 700 HP. There are ICE vehicles at about the same price-point as the Tesla Model S that go zero to 60 just as fast and can do it all day long without recharging. *Correction: the Model S clocks in at 0 to 60 in 2.3 seconds; I thought it was 3.0 seconds. Still, the BMW X5M example would beat the Tesla on a road course of more than, say, 4 laps.
I think the questions are already dated. Europe, China, Korea, Japan and parts of the US are already mandating EVs by future dates, some further out than need be but likely to be moved forward based on speed of EV evolution. This means that within 15 years, there will be a flip in cost of ownership, whereas today's more expensive EVs will be far cheaper than ICE vehicles, with their zillion moving parts and need for soon to be expensive and harder to find fuel due to low demand. Going to a gas station to fill up will seem so quaintly antiquated in 25 years, when plugs will be everywhere. Speed is an American thing nowadays. There are far fewer big guzzlers in Europe or Asia where diesel or petrol are expensive. Everyone loves an exotic, but few can afford or maintain them and Europeans don't mess around with speeding.. you will lose your license in no time. But EVs are definitely a challenge for the production exotics like Porsche, AMGs, M series, etc. where the mystic was their engine. See how Porsche can't get itself to remove the "Turbo" from their EV... There must be amazing behind the scene battles going on with copyrights of sports car sounds to complement the EV experience .
Porsche has the Taycan EV. I heard they are going all EV in a few years. If the lifespan of something like a Tesla is 25 years or more not counting battery replacement, it might be economical (and fun) to buy a used version. I am wondering what the cost of a Tesla ECU might run. The "brain" tends to go after time and are expensive to replace. I'm most skeptical of the EV truck market. I just don't see how an EV truck could haul a heavy boat or trailer a few hundred miles over mountains and not run out of juice. In the US, you can fastly accelerate to the speed limit as long as it doesn't appear to be drag racing. The trick is not vastly exceeding the limit and getting nabbed. I have a truck that gets about 5 miles per gallon, but it uses regular unleaded and it doesn't get driven much. The tire wear on asphalt is actually more expensive than the gas.
Actually EV trucks are the future. Tesla trucks are cat 8, meaning they are the typical semi you find on the road. EV truck competition is tighter than cars with more specialized manufacturers, but Tesla is up there. What makes EV trucks exciting is they are mandated practically up and down the west coast of the US, starting 2040, I think, but hope the date will move up by 10 years. In any case, the point is, concentration of trucks are in and around ports, which makes property values low due to pollution and noise. Yet these ports are waterfront properties... With ship to shore power, the ships no longer spew smoke from their stacks, and ports are phasing in electric equipment for longshore operations. Add EV trucks and now you have noise and pollution free land around ports that will spur development and skyrocketing property values. Thinking of West Oakland, LA, Seattle, Portland...
Toyota doesn't know how to make good looking cars though, my Celica was gorgeous and Supra, but although built well there just bland why very few Toyotas in the uk, so not a huge surprise.
Not checked the 2nd hand value of Teslas but Nissan Leafs the first real EV in the UK prices drop like crazy, saved you £200 on fuel while 20k depreciation in 3years, 10year old ones are around £1500 area but range down from 90miles to 30miles, £6000 for a battery pack ouch. You can lease battery £80 per month, so replaced when needed but thats what I spend on fuel per month.
The only reason why they say tesla is a technology company is to make up the excuse for the extreme market capitalization and the fact its worth more than any other car company in the world. Its now reached that status where the company can do anything it wants and the stock will rise just because its tesla.
Market cap at $200 billion is cheap. Could easily be $2 Trillion in a few years. And $20 Trillion by end of decade (given all the money printing going on).