Tesla

(via Vincent Wolters at Seeking Alpha)

TSLA gross margin excluding R&D is comparable to that of competitors. (~25%)

TSLA SG&A per revenue is higher than that of competitors and just about wipes out gross profits.

There is no indication of economies of scale in spite of increased production.

Expansion will not lead to profits if Tesla doesn’t change its cost structure.

CURT:

(This is being critical of overhead costs – which are, admittedly, nonsense-high, but neither acknowledging that revenues purpose is to offset R&D costs, and the analyst is not putting value on the upside.

They’re using the amazon model and betting that they will own the battery market, and therefore the whole car market.

IMO this is exactly how leaps in technology should be achieved: public investment (with non-voting public ownership), and funnelling all profits into R&D and market expansion.

Markets do not produce capital intensive leaps as fast as mixed market investments.