Forum Topics Who owns TSLA?
rh8178
Added 3 years ago

Having listened to Andrew and Scott talk on the Motley Fool this weekend about Scott buying Tesla I thought it would be interesting to hear what people thought on this forum.

For full disclosure I own it IRL, and it has been a hell of a ride.

Given market demand, the business is really restricted by what it can produce from its factories, not market demand, which I think is the reverse of most businesses. It is profitable, and growing, but is trading at a high multiple still (although that's come down of late).

I have to admit, I am a huge Buffet fan and invest accordingly, and my investment in Tesla is similar to Buffet's investment in a private jet (i.e. "Indefensible"). YET, Tesla is playing into a huge macro theme, has first mover advantage and has produced a great product.

Anyway, I'd be interested if anyone in this forum is a shareholder or has a strong view either way.

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mikebrisy
Added 3 years ago

I don't have a direct holding in $TSLA, but I guess I hold it as a significant component of $NDQ, $IVV and in my offshore passive retirement portfolios of World Shares and Developed Market Shares, where it can be anything from 1.5% to 5% per fund. So, I'm guessing my total expsoure to TSLA is about 1% to 1.5% of my total assets. So I take a passing interest in it, but there is not a lot I can do.

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Mujo
Added 3 years ago

I don't have much of a view either way as an investment but some of the things I think about:

There is obviously high levels of competition coming down the line, will they keep their leading edge?

Are they trying to be a premium or an everyday brand? I think they were premium but trying to expand to everyday - how does that play with consumers and into margins etc.

I also wonder whether having elon musk associated with the brand is a postive or a negative. Elon seems to be aligning himself to the right yet most that buy EVs currently are leftward leaning. I do know some people that his association has put them off buying a tesla now.

Then long term obviously EVs (besides batteries/tyres) need less maintenance does the mean less cars in the future. Furthermore if we get driverless cars does that make total car sales also go down as uber etc is magnitudes cheaper. All well off into the horizon obviously.

If China tensions continue or scale up this will impact China sales and production plants there. A bit like Apple...

I think Tesla massivley benefited from european carbon credits to get where it they are now but not sure how relevant that is these days? I think government tax incentives for EVs will still continue to help Tesla.

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lyndonator
Added 3 years ago

I own quite a bit in my RL portfolio.

Hugely bullish on them (obviously), however all the concerns above are legitimate and I totally understand why people reach the conclusion not to invest in them.

Of all the risks, the key man risk of Elon is probably the one that concerns me the most, however the longer Tesla goes on the less they actually need him it seems.

Of all their moats/competitive advantages 2 stand out to me:

  • Their manufacturing prowess, how much better they are at making the machine that makes the machine than the OEMs (2 main pieces of evidence here are Sandy Munro's breakdowns, and Herbet Diess (ex CEO of VW) being honest about how far behind Tesla they were).
  • How much further ahead in a generalised solution to autonomy - I say generalised as I would say Waymo is currently winning the autonomous race by having autonomous vehicles actually generating income already - but I think their solution will take forever and be hugely expensive to roll-out en mass.


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