It will certainly be fascinating to watch how this plays out. The people who are Bearish on Tesla may turn out to be correct - Elon Musk certainly takes breathtaking risks - but if they are correct it will be the result of an over-reach by Musk, not of a fundamental change in where this is going. The electric vehicle genie is out of the bottle, whether Tesla succeeds or fails. So is battery storage as an essential component of distributed renewable energy networks. Whether we all end up with a Tesla EV, Power Wall and Solar Roof is debatable for sure - but the long term accelerating growth of EV sales, battery storage and solar PV seems a certainty - it's only the brand and design choices still to be determined. This would have happened without Musk anyway - but his showmanship and focus on integrating the various components of renewable energy has had the effect of speeding the transition.
Of course he also intends to colonise Mars, while my preference would be to focus on fixing the planet we have and learning to live within our means and with each other - so I'm not a mindless Musk acolyte - but I do admire his vision and drive.
I have good friends who are renewable sceptics. I don't even have solar myself! The payback period isn't all that exciting in my current living situation - but I will be taking the plunge at some point based on where the cost/benefit curves are going and so will a lot of renewable sceptics, and even a few climate change deniers.
Confession: I did drop in at the Tesla store on Martin Place and sat in a Model X. Not really in my price range, but the kid who demonstrated it didn't care. I must admit, its a pretty cool car. If they solve the Model 3 production issues I might just sign up for one of those....
Lol
Best seasons greetings to all
Dave
BAR Price at posting:
5.0¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held