Tesla went public this week, closing out it’s first day at a valuation of $2 billion. Let me right that out in old style money. That’s $2,000,000,000.00.
One way of thinking of that number. The value of the company is $2 million per car they have sold to date. That’s right, they’ve sold just 1,000 cars. And they are selling $100,000 cars at zero gross margin (except for the government’s zero emission tax credits).
Porsche, which sells cars in the same price range as Tesla, sold 42% of itself to Volkswagon, at a price that made Porsche worth $13 billion. That’s $173,000 per vehicle sold. Porsche had debts of course, but it also is the highest margin seller of cars in the world.
At $173,000 per car sold, Tesla’s valuation today is about $173 million. It’s a good thing they have two years worth of cash on hand. If all goes well, they hope to sell 20,000 cars by then. At Porsche valuations, they could earn today’s valuation.
Of course, their car has to deliver by then, and they need more money for manufacturing, tooling, and the like.
Any short sellers?
Sean Foote's Blog 