That’s because Tesla’s stock valuation was always based on “revolutionary new shiny thing!” rather than “making and selling cars”.

musk has to constantly come out with a new reason why the stock justifies a valuation so insanely high (was worth more than all other car companies combined). “Full self driving!” “Robotaxies!” “Fully automated manufacturing!”, etc….

That’s also why musk can extort $50B payoffs from Tesla. So much of their value is based on his BS powered reality distortion field that they’re terrified of what might happen if he leaves.

Now, there’s huge risk inherent in banking everything on the very stable genius musk as they’re learning.

The EV1 was too far ahead of its time. The tech wasn’t there and to even accomplish what they did cost far more than they could hope to sell it for. An estimate that each EV1 cost GM around $100k to make in the early 90’s (so around $200k in today’s dollars).

Battery tech has progressed massively since then and makes all of this possible now (even if it’s still expensive).