True. Waymos are very easy to spot…except that one car in my neighborhood: small, white, with the spare tire on its roof. Fooled me all the time.
The Tesla Robotaxi is a modified Model 3. There is a picture of one in the article linked below. It’s distinctive enough to easily spot one but not even close to as distinctive as a Waymo.
https://www.kron4.com/news/technology-ai/tesla-robotaxi-service-now-goes-to-sfo/
I spotted a Waymo the other day that was pink instead of white. As I got closer I could see that it was an advertising wrap, not for Waymo but something else. I’m guessing they’re trying a new income stream.
In Q3 54% of the EVs sold in the US were Teslas. It was 41% market share in the same quarter last year. This is a total of 144k Teslas sold, down almost 20% from the same quarter last year but that quarter was a significant outlier because it was the last quarter where Americans could get the $7.5k tax incentive which expired when the quarter ended.
That said, only 6.5% of new cars sold in the US were EVs.
Tesla global sales in Q3 2026 were 486k cars.
BYD sold 1.3 million cars in Q3 2026, of which 762k were EVs and the rest were hybrids. So BYD sold about 3x as many cars.
BYD also has point to point driving.
BYD’s market cap is still 100 billion while Teslas market cap is 1.5 trillion.
BYD has point to point driving only in China which is a huge distinction that you failed to mention. Again. It has to be intentional at this point. You can search for the multiple countries across multiple continents including China where Tesla’s point to point is approved. BYD is supposed to try for approval for their p2p in the EU next year though.
The number of units isn’t nearly as relevant as revenue, profit and margin and how much the State is propping up the company.
I’d honestly love it if BYD were allowed to compete here and especially to compare the two systems. They use lidar like Wayno. Tesla uses regular light cameras.
None of this justifies Tesla’s larger market cap.
I agree although I’m far from an expert. I was just countering the dishonest comparison to BYD.
I think you might describe the comparison as unfair; dishonest is a little strong.
And only unfair/misleading on the autonomous driving side, which is far from the only reason people buy either Tesla or BYD vehicles.
The other comparisons on sales and market cap are accurate.
Yeah only around 12% of Tesla drivers pay for FSD. It’s the only reason I have one but the vast majority don’t pay for it.
Sales and market cap are accurate (I assume, I didn’t check) and I never claimed otherwise. I said that it’s misleading to not also include profit or margin which I think we can all agree are very relevant.
Which company is being propped up by the state? Because Tesla benefited from billions in tax rebates, tax credits and other subsidies. See this PDF of a Washington Post article for some numbers.
Both are propped up by the State. Where did I claim otherwise? The specific mentions I made in that regard was that one Tesla rebate was ended a year ago and that the US prevents BYD from doing business here.
But how is it even unfair? BYD has point to point driving. The only issue is regulation. The point is the technology of point to point driving is not monopolized by Tesla, which is something Tesla likes to claim. A big part of Teslas high market cap is them pretending they have a monopoly on point to point driving, which they don’t.
Other companies have this technology, there are just regulatory hurdles. So I still don’t understand why Tesla’s market cap is 15x BYD.
BYD also has higher net profits.
Regulation is pretty key. BYD needs to prove that it’s safe in each country which is a massive hurdle. I’m sure that they will get there but is it months or years? For now it effectively is a monopoly (in the sense that BYD is limited). It’s a distinction without a difference.
As others have pointed out, it has little to do with the market cap, I think. I also don’t think Tesla is actually claim they are the only ones to have it because with an asterisk they aren’t.
This is a long thread that has been going on a while. Can you explain why you feel Tesla’s market cap is about where it should be? My impression is market cap should either reflect P/E ratios, or reflect a companies future potential. I have my biases and I don’t like musk, but I really don’t see what Tesla does to deserve this level of market cap.
I have no damn idea. I have very little understanding of how these things work. Going way out on a limb, it’s a combination of being part of retiree mutual funds, fanboys and savvy (so far) investors who see upside. I’ve never said anything about the stock price. What I have done is posted news reports and corrected the never ending stream of misinformation about the cars, in particular self driving.
I don’t know anything about the robots which is I think a tiny part of the revenue.
There’s also the solar installations, home batteries and the giant charging network that is open to all EVs now. A lot of independent solar installers use Tesla batteries and Tesla does entire installations I think using local contractors.
Anyway, I have no opinion on why the market cap is so high because it’s out of my depth. I invest in mutual funds.
The entire thread, including the title, is about why the market cap is so high. Misinformation about the company and its self-driving cars is irrelevant.
Ok. I’m still going to correct the misinformation.
Moderating:
Then perhaps this isn’t the thread for you. Let’s keep to the topic at hand, please, which as outlined in the OP is:
Thanks.