Tesla Ranks Highest In Customer Experience

This is indeed interesting to note, especially when we consider Tesla vehicles have some serious ouches. Take for example that two thirds of Teslas needed to have their drivetrains replaced before 60,000 miles. Yeah, Tesla did this work under warranty, but even so, it points to a big, widespread, and serious problem.

I believe *when* the survey is taken will make a huge difference. Ask a Tesla owner about their experience 90 days after purchasing, and you'll get heaps of praise. Ask a Tesla owner who had his drivetrain replaced in year 4 and you'll get a different response.

If it is under warranty, few people will care. Mine was swapped out on a routine annual maintenance before there were any issues, I didn't even know until after the maint. The new motors shipping out now should outlive the rest of the car (hundreds of thousands of miles, 200k miles have already been hit with no issues). Tesla is on their 3rd gen electric motor while other companies are still struggling to bring their first electric car to market.

The "TUCKER" was also ahead of its time - as was the "EDSEL" - and lots of others. That is the line you use when the car was advanced but failed to make a viable profit. So far - the Tesla's Profitability is on the same trajectory. TESLA MUST make money on the Model 3 - real money - but I doubt that they can actually do that at $38.000 - base. And Tesla is already talking about using its largest credit line - to support the company - since Wall street is no longer so interested in diluting its stock to raise money for them. Tesla has about 2.6 billion dollars in debt - and has sold about 125.000 cars - so they are ONLY losing about 20,000 per car!!! WHen you give away cars at low prices - customers BETTER be happy.

You need to separate out CAPEX and OPEX. Gross margin on the Model S is 30%, similar to Porsche. The CAPEX costs are huge and likely won't get any smaller until well after the Model 3. Any startup car company is going to have a similar balance sheet (on a good day).

No - I do not. The CAPEX costs still have to be assigned to every car. They are not assigning ANY of those costs right now.
Tesla started production in 2012. The "ahead of its time "model" has already gone a mid-cycle refresh. The technology is not getting any younger - it is already due for major improvements. THat is the problem with being "first" - you run the risk of having first generation technology - that fails to keep up with second technology product from other manufacturers. So - you have to apply those costs to far fewer cars than you imagined - and also need to raise MORE money to upgrade your product too. In addition - the sales model ASSUMES the cost of the Batteries will come down significantly - but the price of Lithium has gone up - not down - and it has already been estimated that demand by Tesla alone IF the Gigafactory ever comes to production would use ALL of the available lithium now produced - With Lithium being used for batteries in a number of other products - there will be competition - and still increased prices - so in fact COSTS will actually go up.
And - with the number of other manufacturers coming to market over the next few years - the ability to Increase prices on the product will not exist either. In fact - it is likely that their "one price - no discounts" policy will suffer greatly under increased competition- where discounting will be the norm of the day - when competition wants to justify their costs. Add in the disadvantage to Tesla owners of increased repair costs due to long distance travel to the few repair facilities that can access their computers - and reluctance of other dealers to take Tesla in trade for the same reason - and the residual value of the Tesla will take a dive as well.
In the end - Tesla has not shown that it has priced its product high enough to actually make a profit in any near term - and the current price STILL represent a major discount to actual COST.

The CAPEX costs you would depreciate over the lifetime of that asset. If a car company builds a $5 billion factory, you don't take $5B and divide it by the cars produced that year... zero companies will do that math that way including every other car company. If you buy a $500k home, you don't say this house just cost me $41k/month after the first year. It's an investment and the divisor is how many cars it will output over the lifetime of the investment.

Runbuh is also correct regarding the Lithium. It is not the primary component of the battery, Nickel is. Lithium isn't even absolutely necessarily to build the battery and if it gets too expensive Tesla will just alter the chemistry.

Tesla owners have a cult mentality. They cannot admit to the emperor's new clothes syndrome.

What is more likely in 5 years: Tesla has gotten larger? Lincoln has gotten smaller?

The longer he rests in his grave - the less there will be of Lincoln. Same applies to Tesla as well. (The man and the car company)