Maybe Tesla receives negative press coverage for its poor workmanship, constant delays, near-unrepairability, bad labor conditions, union-busting, the CEO lying to investors, the CEO being unstable, precarious financial state, unfulfilled promises, reckless deadly computer-assisted driving sold as if it were self-driving, lack of independent competent management, a valuation highly dependent upon retaining a single executive, a valuation wildly overinflated by any objective measure, nonsensical acquisition of a failing home solar company run by a family member of the CEO, nonsensical and distracting forays into products unrelated to building and selling cars, it goes on...
This is not to mention the constant good press it receives.
I would also add that some side-projects linked directly or indieectly with Musk and/or Tesla also contribute to the erosion of goodwill we're witnessing. For instance, the boring company is marketed as if they've made this gigantic breakthrough in tunneling that no one else in humanity has ever come up while they're actually just a company that bought a commercial tunneler, and hyperloop is marketed as if they're the first guys ever to look at the problem of transporting people very fast through tunnels while they're actally demonstrating they're even completely unaware of some pretty basic constraints and very fundamental problems that need to be solved prior to increasing train speed. Therefore, it's hard not to look at these ventures as if they're real-world eeenactments of the simpsons' monorail episode, and if Musk and Tesla's names are linked to these projects then they simply suffer the backlash.
It blows my mind how many Tesla apologists/fanboys are in this thread. Liking Elon Musk and thinking Tesla is heading for bankruptcy are not mutually exclusive. I think he's generally a force for good in the tech industry and greater world, but I've been pretty grim on TLSA for almost 3 years now. They are overvalued, under delivering, and Elon has seemed to be in the midst of a manic breakdown pretty much since his breakup with Amber Heard.
Gotta agree. Although I love what his space division is doing. With Mercedes getting into electric cars now, I think people will go for a Mercedes instead of a Tesla, especially if the price is right
I wrote this response because my experience so far is that, while not discounting his twitter antics, Elon is a force of good in this world and is mostly sincere and there seems to be a lot of fud (fear, uncertainty, doubt, often unsubstantiated or just quoting lies) spread around whatever he's doing.
Some sentences or terms you use may be factually correct in some context or way, but you seem to be painting a pretty negative picture chaining them together.
Granted, the media also occasionally report on Tesla kicking ass, but the negative press coverage almost seems like a concerted effort to spread fud every chance the media gets. The media have a vested interest in selling drama and they blow shit out of proportion and created issue where there isn't any.
They misuse their responsibility of shaping public opinion when they for example go crazy on someone taking one puff of a blunt and ignoring almost 3 hours of meaningful conversation with a sentence.
If Tesla is in such a precarious financial state and a sorry ass company, why do investors and banks keep lending and pumping money? Because the fundamentals are solid and anyone actually following the numbers and their mission, as opposed to media fud, knows they are about to skyrocket.
Their valuation may have been inflated especially if you believe the value represented the here and now but the fundamentals haven't changed, in fact they may be even better than expected. Once Tesla hits profitability on the account sheet (they already make close to 20% on every Model 3 sold but are 'losing' money because of heavy investment as far as I can tell), they will shoot to the moon because the media will then report Tesla is suddenly a good company and the optics have changed, even though the fundamentals haven't.
They're betting big on at least mid range Trucking switching electric because according to them it'll be cheaper to operate electric fleets. They got a pickup, the model y, planned to begin production soonish. They can lower their unit prices once they hit massive scales due to multiple gigafactories. They operate their own charging network, no other car manufacturer comes anywhere close to what they have.
Granted, Elon is the hype machine behind companies he's running or involved in, but his cult of personality is not all vanity. Why does Elon take no (1 dollar) salary, still holds some 20% of the stock and works his ass off and drains himself to his detriment on Tesla? Because he seems to be for real, a believer, and he delivers even if it's delayed.
Tesla under his leadership has done a great service to humanity, igniting the transformation to moving away from fossil fuels. The other car makers are lagging behind and only now starting to invest billions into battery manufacturing when Tesla is showing them they're for real.
I thought helping with load balancing and storing more volatile non-fossil energy and the creation of smart local grids and allowing people to get off the grid with their home batteries could be a reasonable endeavor for Tesla's battery division.
This is not to mention the constant good press it receives.