What’s this fetish about insurance. Now whenever I rent a car, I never buy separate insurance unless in some states where they require specific insurance. Even in that case, Hertz or other rental agents have their own standard rates for all cars in that category. EVs may be even lower since their upkeep and maintenance is much lower.

If I fly to a city where I need a car, I don’t go running a cannonball run with that car. Most likely I need it only within that city. If I had needed to travel much more than the range of that car, I would have simply flown to that city further away instead. LOL.

Let’s not talk about the debate about EV and gas transport/ transmission. The quote I posted in the beginning applies to that. .

I’m sure even Sam and Onoowindoo are laughing heartily.

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Tesla recently reached the $1 trillion market cap. In our search for solid explanations why, it would be natural for the company to lead all rankings evaluating EV companies. After all, bull analysts try to justify the valuation with the leading role Tesla may have in five to ten years in the EV market. But that’s not what a Chinese survey shows.
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Created by LandRoads, it was translated and shared by Bridget McCarthy, a financial analyst at Snow Bull Capital. The survey is called “NEV (New Energy Vehicles) Brand Health Index Ranking" and it evaluates popularity, familiarity, reputation, and recommendation.

According to the survey, BYD is the most popular EV brand in China. It is also the third brand with the best reputation and the second when it comes to recommendation and familiarity. The latter is the only ranking in which Tesla leads, and it means that it is the brand most associated with EVs.

Tesla is the second brand in terms of popularity and reputation, which are pretty good results. However, the American brand is not even listed among the five leading brands to pick when it comes to recommendation.

The company that leads this ranking is Li Auto, an EV maker that is only the fifth in popularity, familiarity, and reputation. Anyway, it is the brand with more loyal customers who would recommend it to family and friends.

NIO is the brand with the best reputation in the survey. The Chinese company was only fourth in popularity but third in familiarity and recommendation. That probably has to do with the fact that it is a luxury brand.

Xpeng is another brand that did not make it into the recommendation ranking. It was third in popularity and fourth in familiarity and reputation. Replacing Tesla and Xpeng in that category were Leapmotor in the fifth place and Volkswagen ID in the fourth.

The survey reinforces why Tesla’s market cap has raised so much doubt about its fundaments. Without a marketing department, Tesla relies only on the good impression it may cause on its customers. If it does not appear among the five leading brands in China when it comes to recommendation, the lead it could have on the EV market in a decade is more a belief investors and fans chose to have than something sustained by data and facts.

Tesla Inc. has joined the trillion-dollar-valuation club — as the member with the lowest revenue.

The electric-vehicle maker’s shares have run past several milestones over the past couple of weeks amid a rush of positive news, including reaching a rarefied $1 trillion in market value on Monday. That helped further bolster sentiment among investors, who are betting on Tesla’s potential for rapid future growth as EVs become mainstream and eventually replace gas-powered cars.

However, unlike its trillion-dollar peers, Tesla’s valuation touched that level long before its revenue could reach the $50 billion mark.

Even though Tesla is the fifth-biggest company on the S&P 500 Index when ranked by market capitalization, it is in the 89th place when ranked by last year’s annual revenue. It is preceded by Capital One Financial Corp. — which had $31.6 billion in revenue last year (versus Tesla’s $31.5 billion) and is valued at $75 billion. The company with the biggest revenue on the index is Walmart — a mammoth $559.2 billion that dwarfs its own valuation of about $417 billion.

“If you look at Tesla’s revenue for the next year or so, valuation looks stretched,” Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said by phone. However, Ives’ $1,100 price target on Tesla reflects the opportunity for the company to capture a major share of the EV market over the next five to 10 years, along with high margins, the analyst said.

Tesla’s valuation milestone came as car-rental company Hertz placed an order for 100,000 Teslas, a move that signals EVs are here to stay and gives bulls confidence that Tesla’s sky-high valuation is sustainable too.

“Wall Street is starting to believe the skyrocketing move with Tesla’s stock price is nowhere near over since Tesla has a massive lead in the EV space and improving growth potential as the U.S., European and Asian markets for electric cars grows,” Oanda analyst Edward Moya wrote in a note on Monday.

Tesla shares jumped as much as 6.1% on Tuesday, after closing up 13% on Monday. The company’s valuation now hovers around $1.1 trillion.

Tesla’s last annual revenue is considerably lower than that of Facebook, which entered the trillion club earlier this year before slipping back below that level. That also gives Tesla a very expensive price-to-sales multiple. The EV maker’s shares are currently trading at 21 times its sales, with the same ratio hovering at 8 times for Facebook and estimated to be around 6.6 times for the NYSE FANG+ Index.

Tesla's price-to-earnings ratio as of Tuesday morning was a very high 327.

Tesla also has a considerable debt load, that puts it in the 162nd place when ranked by 2020’s total debt. For the current year, Tesla reported total debt of $10.1 billion as of Sept. 30.

“Looking at current valuation multiples and market share for Tesla has been a loser’s game for years,” said Matt Weller, global head of market research at Forex.com & City Index. However, Weller noted that at some point, likely as more competition enters the market and interest rates start to rise, “investors will start to question whether the company will be able to deliver on its massive promises.”