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Comment by H8crilA | Hacker News Reader

Just "Copying Tesla" is not a fraud by a mile, the whole point of capitalism is that enterprises compete by offering alternative solutions[1]. It is actually surprising it took so long for someone to copy the "electric car company with Tesla characteristics", given the insanely attractive cost of equity capital that Tesla is enjoying.

Matt Levine wrote a section on this, about how Elon said good-bye to earnings calls since his funding is coming mostly from retail investors, to whom he speaks via Twitter and memes, they don't listen to the call anyhow so why bother :)

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-07-27/matt-l...

[1] Well unless (unless! unless!) it eventually turns out that Tesla is a fraud and you're copying that too.

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Whatever you think of them, the Tesla fanboys have been proven more right then wrong and the likes of Matt Levine (and Bloomberg) are just bitter at this point.

A lot of EV startups like NKLA are going to come and go but very few if any will be able to replicate Teslas success in the long term. Retail investors are not always stupid, many of the same Tesla investors have been shorting NKLA since it came on via a spac offering.

Personally I don’t always love everything Elon does but I view him in many ways as a modern day Edison. It’s always funny to me to go back and read stuff said about Edison while he was alive. I very much color my view of Musk by historical perspective and try not to get lost in present day minutia.

and the likes of Matt Levine (and Bloomberg) are just bitter

Matt Levine has also struck me as more amused-- and perhaps confused-- than bitter about this.

Matt writes brilliantly on irrational, ridiculous, silly happenings in the world of finance. My guess is he's happy for a such a steady stream of subject matter.

He most definitely is :)

BTW, you can subscribe to the email newsletter for Money Stuff, then you can access it without paying for a subscription to Bloomberg.

> Retail investors are not always stupid,

Matt Levine wrote an article mocking them for buying Hertz stock, then a bit later another one saying "wait no that was actually a very smart thing".

"Whatever you think of them, the Tesla fanboys have been proven more right then wrong"

I'm not sure why that's interesting or important. The Tesla fanboys had no special insight into Tesla, Elon or anything. They are part of a cult of personality that bought the marketing hook, line, and sinker.

Only about a year ago there were hundreds of Trevor Milton fanboys all over HN, Reddit and elsewhere just sure that Nikola was the next Tesla and anyone that didn't agree was just "bitter" or had no vision. Where are they now?

There's no difference between either group of fanboys, really. Other than one got lucky and their cult leader delivered on some of his claims.

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