Not sure, it depends on what the numbers look like going back to the founding of the company. Tesla probably wouldn't have survived in the past without the credits, but as others in the comments noted the point of the credits is to enable companies selling EV's to survive and grow during their difficulties in the switch to EV's. So I definitely wouldn't consider this a mark against Tesla, the credits are doing what they're supposed to, to an extent.
> Listen, weird nerds and $8 blue checks, I don't care about the 3rd Quarter of this year. I'm talking about the history of the company, its foundations and how it arrived where it is now. Which is a story most people clearly didn't know.
Wow, does he seem salty when called out. You can't untangle these profits from the car business. The credits won't exist without the cars.
The credits are not a magical widget that they are selling independent of the cars.
https://twitter.com/stealthygeek/status/1596605162294218753
It would be interesting to see the % of profit over time from regulatory credits, which appears to be what the author is focusing on.