The best way to justify that high p/e would be for them to use it to buy out the competition.
It costs Tesla ~<6% of market cap (780b) to acquire Ford (40b) or GM (44b) (with a friendly ftc); so for 15% of their shares, that could become the only "American" manufacturer - then they'd probably strip those 2 for parts, end the dealer model, bust the unions, maybe keep a few of the popular models.
Some of this might be inevitable anyway, as autos become more expensive (tariffs, inflation, chips, unions), and more reliable (dealer maintenance model, fewer sales)
You spin off a company with all those obligations and pay it a pittance to take them on as supposed assets, soon after it declares bankruptcy. Now your new megacorp is free of all those pesky contracts.
I don't know much about A&Ms or frankly business, but it seems kinda strange that this hasn't happened yet. We got the Stellantis Car borg before the Tesla car borg.
It costs Tesla ~<6% of market cap (780b) to acquire Ford (40b) or GM (44b) (with a friendly ftc); so for 15% of their shares, that could become the only "American" manufacturer - then they'd probably strip those 2 for parts, end the dealer model, bust the unions, maybe keep a few of the popular models.
Some of this might be inevitable anyway, as autos become more expensive (tariffs, inflation, chips, unions), and more reliable (dealer maintenance model, fewer sales)