The cars his company produces are average at best.
Sales says otherwise. His cars are just like iPhones. Some love them, some hate them, but from an engineering perspective (not scientific exploration, but not penny pinching either), it is the best in terms of balancing between reliable existing technology and innovations on new features that require little to no fundamental research.
In other words, predators of existing technology, explorers of uncharted applications.
For crying out loud, let's not call Tesla cars reliable. And please also let's not call all of their inventions a pioneering innovation. It's the same crap like Apple. Apple products also break down and that's not surprising, because anything can. But coincidentally Apple products are designed in such a dick move way, that you can't repair them because there are no parts. They are designed in such a way, that if you attempt to repair them, you're likely to break something because someone can't afford to use a screw but must use adhesives. They are designed in such a way, that if you swap 2 non-security critical parts on 2 identical products, they won't "pair" due to serial numbers and remain broken.
Apple and Tesla think this is a good way of doing business with their customers. Their customers buy into a brand and hype, much rather than a product, and a large part of that is the CEO of the company. Meanwhile, customers are ripped off once their product does break down, because they would have to buy into the manufacturers own monopoly on repair and servicing.
I'm not saying that this means their product is by definition bad. In fact, I think that Apple and Tesla do offer compelling options for many use cases. And also, this whole right to repair thing is arguably *FINE* if this is how *THEY* want to do business. The problem is the whole industry adapts these techniques which extrapolate things for consumers. Do consumers really want smartphones that are 0.5mm thinner with glued on glass back panels that break the moment you bump it into a car door? Alright, I heard you like a glass panel, let's make it so you cannot replace the battery anymore that will die down in a couple years time anyway.
Coming back to the Tesla quality and reliability thing. They are not outstanding. The number of defects per car is substantially higher than any other car brand:
https://thelastdriverlicenseholder.com/2020/06/25/j-d-power-blasts-tesla-quality/https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2017/11/29/tesla-model-3-production-defects-fremont-tsla.htmlYou could argue that it's in the same order of magnitude as other luxury car brands such as Audi or Volvo, which similarly have many extra buttons that can break down. But Tesla doesn't even seem to get the basic stuff right like the panels. How can anyone at quality control think that a 50k$+ semi-luxury car with huge panel gaps should go to a customer. HOW?! You won't even get to see such a defect on a VW Up or Citroen C1, which even we Europeans we would literally call a shopping trolley car, and probably most will beat the crap out of it.
And then I think, well what's so innovate about Tesla cars? Sure to pack the batteries in a huge floor is very novel and perhaps a pioneering point, which allowed to really pack alot of kWh into their electric cars at the time. But then, what else is up there?
The interior design? I have heard build quality is not that great compared to the germans.
Big centralized screen? Please give me a button to change the heater or wipers, please.
Is Tesla the first manufacturer to bring humor into their cars again? Like "ludicrous" driving setting or fancy show modes? Well, maybe they have a branding and marketing department after all, because it's all a bunch of bollocks.
Their autonomous driving option? I don't have any reason to be that impressed yet, it's still a 1st-gen design and will likely be ancient in a few years time.
Other decisions from Tesla are irresponsible at best, either for their customers or their employees. So as you can see, I'm not really a fan of them, and for sure I really can't understand how their stock is so overvalued.