Tesla stock is selling for over $500 a share, and the market cap of the company is over half a trillion dollars, which is more than the combined value of the rest of the North American automotive market sector. That is: more than the combined market cap of GM, Ford and Chrysler, plus all of their North American parts suppliers, plus all North American auto-parts stores and auto-repair businesses.
Many Tesla fans seem convinced, not only that Tesla makes better cars than anyone else on the planet, but also that no other manufacturer will ever catch up with them, and that Tesla will eventually, literally speaking, take over the entire world. If you believe that, then maybe Tesla's current valuation could be justified in your eyes. To everybody else, this looks like a bubble, and the only questions are when it will pop, how bad it will be, and how many of you fans will still think that Elon Musk is Jesus after you're living in your Teslas because you had to sell your houses after Tesla stock was wiped out, and then living on the sidewalk because you had to sell your Teslas. I know, I know: many of you will still think he's Jesus. Even if he sells all his Tesla stock before it crashes and is 4 times richer than Jeff Bezos. I know absolutely incurable madness when I see it.
An automotive stock whose market capitalization is currently slightly higher than GM's is NIO. This may surprise you if you've never heard of NIO, and if you're not heavy into EV's, you probably haven't. They are a Chinese company with some impressive models coming soon to the US market. So, how many vehicles have they sold worldwide since their start up in 2014? Just over 50,000. How many vehicles has GM sold in the same time? Over 20 million. Just in the US and Canada. So is NIO another bubble? Aehhmm...
Maybe GM is drastically undervalued. Maybe none of this, literally speaking, makes any sense at all.
NIO and another Chinese Company, XPeng, will be bringing high-performance cars to the US market soon. Automotive journalists have test driven NIO's and XPeng's products and described them as serious competition for Tesla.
But the car currently regarded as the most serious competition for Tesla is the Lucid Air, coming soon from the American start-up Lucid Motors. I don't have range anxiety, but I know that many of you do, so for your sake I'll just mention that the Lucid Air goes over 500 miles on a single charge.
And that 500-mile range excites a lot of people. Bores the Hell out of me. But the following excites me. In another market sector, the affordable electric car, yet another Chinese company, Kandi, is making big news in the US: their model K27
And the K27 is rather affordable. I'm not clear exactly what the sticker price will be. It was going to be $20,000, but if a recent report it's accurate, Kandi have changed their minds, and lowered it to $17,500. If that's accurate, it might be a smart move on Kandi's part, because $17,500 minus the federal $7500 EV rebate equals exactly $10,000, and then any state or local rebates which bring the K27 down into four figures, so much for for-real new EV's not being affordable. For example, it would cost $6000 in Colorado, and as low as $3000 in California. For a legit -- although very small -- brand new EV which has all the features you'd expect on a new car. I'm picturing a lot of suburban Daddy's girls in families which never considered EV's before this, getting brand-new Kandis for their 16th birthdays. Could be big. Could be big business. Watch this space.
Oh, btw, just for extra oomph: if the K27 does go on sale for $17,500, that would be exactly half of the $35,000 sticker price which Tesla promised for the Model 3, but never delivered on. I know, a lot of Tesla zombies will insist that Tesla did so offer a $35,000 Model 3, but just keep in mind, they also believe that they, as Tesla stockholders, will soon rule the world. And that Elon Musk makes about $20,000 a year working for Tesla. They believe a lot of very silly things.
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