Re: Tesla only making money because laws take it from other companies

I've been pretty pessimistic about Tesla just as I have been pessimistic about electric cars.  They cost a great deal more and give you much less range.  Although Elon Musk is an interesting innovator, some of his ideas seemed questionable, like the hyper-loop and putting a colony on Mars.  I wondered if he might be a bit of a con man.

On Mon, Feb 1, 2021 at 2:49 AM Larry Trout wrote:

Eleven states require automakers sell a certain percentage of zero-emissions vehicles by 2025. If they can't, the automakers have to buy regulatory credits from another automaker that meets those requirements -- such as Tesla, which exclusively sells electric cars.

It's a lucrative business for Tesla -- bringing in $3.3 billion over the course of the last five years, nearly half of that in 2020 alone. The $1.6 billion in regulatory credits it received last year far outweighed Tesla's net income of $721 million -- meaning Tesla would have otherwise posted a net loss in 2020.

"These guys are losing money selling cars. They're making money selling credits. And the credits are going away," said Gordon Johnson of GLJ Research and one of the biggest bears on Tesla (TSLA) shares.

Tesla's dirty little secret: Its net profit doesn't come from selling cars - CNN