In his book Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors, one of the key points that Neidermayer makes is the differentiation between a tech company that builds cars (what Musk pitches Tesla as), and a car company that’s developing new technology (like BMW). Why does it matter?

This is why. In the new news thing called Sherwood (no RSS feed, boo), Jack Raines explores the recent decline of Tesla’s fortunes. The key bit is this graph, showing the margin levels of companies from a few companies:

Tesla’s margins look an awful lot more like Ford than Facebook. It could have major implications for Tesla and other EV companies, who have raised money at tech company valuations which are multiple times higher than traditional car companies (tech companies make one thing and sell it many times, traditional companies incur a cost to make each thing they sell).

I’m not sure how well Ludicrous holds up – a lot has happened with Tesla since it was written. I really liked Power Play as a newer take on it, though even it feels ancient now.

I haven’t read the Isaacson book. I’m an Isaacson fan, but I don’t think writing about a living person (and one as volatile as Musk) was a great choice for him, and the reviews of it lead me to think it’s not exactly a balanced take.