I don't, actually. I just view Tesla the cult differently from Tesla the car company.

Tesla the cult worries me because it's an overhyped, underperforming moneysuck that gets a bye from everyone without a fundamental understanding of automotive engineering. Tesla the cult undercuts the performance and value of Tesla the car company such that they aren't required to come down to earth anytime soon. And as "earth" is where I live, Tesla the cult has the potential to inhibit the long-term prospects of Tesla the car company.

At the same time, Tesla the car company likely wouldn't have made it far without Tesla the cult; the roadster wasn't a particularly novel vehicle, the Model S is basically a Taurus with delusions of grandeur and the X is a station wagon as designed by a rich kid with no imagination. That level of mundanity needs a pretty shiny halo to keep the product selling. Maybe the 3 is gonna be the shiznit. If so, it might drive the rest of the industry into making non-fuggly EVs.

But it's been pushin' 8 years now. Valuations for the S&P500 are the highest they've ever been, ever, but the cult stock batshittery surrounding Tesla beggars the imagination. And I'm left with the lingering feeling that if real car companies were held at the same gonzo valuations as Tesla, we'd actually see some cool shit. I mean, if Jaguar could lose money at the rate Tesla burns through it, not only would we have actually gotten a few CX-75s they'd have cost half as much.