Tesla CEO, Elon Musk has gone to Hawaii to see Oracle executive chairman, Larry Ellison who is also a Tesla board member. Given the year that Tesla has had with the run up in its stock and company valuation, Musk has a lot to sort out in the coming year.
There is going to be a lot of pressure on his team, the execution of operations, and production to keep growing the earnings while finalizing construction of the Austin and Berlin Giga factories. Tesla is also due to launch the long-awaited Cybertruck, Roadster, as well as the Semi, which has already seen large pre-order numbers.
Then there’s the perpetual battery, product, and software innovation especially with more competitors surfacing and with solid state battery technology coming down the road within the next five years. There’s a lot of talk of Apple Inc moving towards the EV industry, and it’s a company with huge assets, solid experience in supply chain management, and a lot of battery and software expertise.
So, at the moment there's no bigger market that’s as big as the car industry and manufacturers – whether they’re new to the space or established players, it’s a sector for business growth.
Musk is going to have to continue to prove to the market and investors that Tesla can and will make profits based on the business of manufacturing, designing, and selling all electric vehicles while providing the transparency on the margin net of the carbon emission credits that Tesla sells. We may even see mergers and acquisitions with Tesla if the company feels it needs to partner with other companies to bring in more expertise.
For now, the Tesla share price has made a lot of people happy, which has created a new term Teslanaires, referring to long-term investors who stuck with the EV carmaker. Tesla saw over 700% increase to top the list of the most valuable car manufacturer.
While it may have been roller-coaster ride, it has paid off for some.
Jason DeBolt is an engineer based in Los Angeles and he bought 2,500 Tesla shares in 2013, which cost $19,000. He was motivated to buy into Tesla after getting his first Tesla Model S and after going on a factory tour. Since then, he has slowly invested more and today he owns 15,000 shares that are worth $10m.
Jason added that as a long-term investor it was very difficult seeing the media attack Elon and Tesla. He actually felt that watching the media onslaught was worse for him than watching the share price jump up and down because he was confident that the Tesla shares bounce back. And of course, they did.
DeBolt is a member of the Tesla Shareholders Club and is in regular contact with like-minded investors through a dedicated Facebook group.
Another Teslanaire, Scott Tisdale is based in New York and also started his Tesla investment journey in 2013 and currently owns 4,000 shares worth around $2.8m. Tisdale says,
"I am not finished investing in them yet because I think their real story is just about to begin and people have been saying the stock is 'overvalued' since before the time I began to buy it. As amazing as it is to be included in this growing group of 'Teslanaires', it is almost as satisfying to be able to tell all the naysayers 'I told you so.'"
Analysts predict that the chance of Tesla’s share price to further increase in the coming year is highly unlikely, which will probably close the gap for newcomers to jump on-board the Teslanaire train.
