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Something like Tesla only worked because of the era of low interest rates, quantitative easing, insanely busy tech investment market, etc, in the post 2008 era. 15 years of record low interest rates meant investors were desperate to find places to shove money to get returns, and Tesla was one of the chosen spots, profitability be damned.

These days it would be harder to pull something like that off, investors would be demanding better books from day one.



> profitability be damned

Currently, Tesla makes each car with a profit of almost 10k USD. That is insane compared to competitors, VW is at 973USD. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-teslas-unrivaled-pr...

It was really bad in the beginning, but now it's stellar, second only to Ferrari and other luxury cars. I don't like the guy, but this is not just luck.


Well yes that's my point. In the long run it worked out for them... but only after years of intense non-profitable investment that would not have happened in a more conservative investment climate where higher interest rates prevailed.

There would have been other places for investors to stick their money.


They're not comparable numbers. Tesla doesn't count profit per car the same way as the rest of the industry.


care to explain yourself? All I could find was this article, lamenting that car dealerships take up too much profit for everyone else other than Tesla.

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4573601-tesla-gross-margins...

I don't see how that negates everything I said. Tesla can and does ship directly to buyers, so kudos to them.




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