Do you know how to read a financial statement? They have 26% gross margins on the Model S. Model 3 just turned gross margin positive in Q2. Your response is boring and boneheaded. Next.
To be more specific, how about the words "Cash Flow Positive" ?? In any case, Tesla has only had ONE profitable quarter since its IPO, and has never had a profitable year.
Which is why the point about margins is so crucial. No one anticipated such great margins on an electric car. The tear down analysis demonstrates that the $35k standard-range Model 3 is not a unicorn, but will be profitable to make and sell once the production lines have any slack at all at the higher price points.
What definition of "long term" do we have here?
How many years did it take for Apple to become profitable from the iPod? The iPad? The iPhone? It was profitable throughout all of those years.
That's the very point of technology gadgets: they don't require huge upfront costs like Tesla. Apple does have innovations (see their custom ARM chip, which is consistently superior to Snapdragon in benchmarks every year). But even with the billions of dollars needed to custom-make an uncore from scratch, Apple remains profitable.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/267728/apples-net-income...
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/TSLA/tesla/net-inc...
Since 2005 (and maybe earlier), Apple has made a profit every quarter. Since 2009 (before Tesla's IPO), Tesla has NEVER made a profit.
Its completely insane to compare these two companies. They're run completely differently, aside from both being California based.