People often think of the electronic-nature of their cars as Tesla's key advantage.

Other elements factor into share/debt cost analysis:

1. Culture — They appear to still have a startup "let's solve the problem" mentality

2. Distribution — There are no networks of dealerships taking a cut

3. Marketing — They don't need to pay for it at all right now

4. Legacy — There are no pension funds and other obligations on them

5. Environmental icon — There is a lot of political support for them

Tesla is still high risk, but they have a big potential upside.

Contrast with e.g. GM:

1. Old-school Culture of "if you build it, they will come"

2. Mandatory dealerships

3. Big marketing costs

4. Pensions are underfunded and they have a huge inventory buildup (and defaulting subprime leases are mounting)

6. They have a lot of political support, but it's not for environmental reasons

That's pretty cursory, but illustrates a few factors besides just the product.

Tesla's burn rate is a marginal-risk long factor, if/when they get past their manufacturing bottlenecks.

[edit]: Newlines.