Tesla's 'Master Plan' Is All Promise, No Product

Elon Musk's second "master plan" for Tesla Motors arrived much like one of the electric automaker's cars: brilliant and inspiring, but late and rough around the edges. And like Tesla's desirable yet quality-challenged cars, Musk's vision is sure to be embraced and evangelized by anyone who was already convinced that Tesla is destined to dominate the car business. But with sales stalling, Tesla has already shown that it's gone as far as it can on the faith of its true believers alone. If Musk hoped to broaden Tesla's appeal, his latest strategy needed to do more than preach to the choir.

Musk's latest sermon takes a leap of faith from the very first sentence, declaring "the first master plan that I wrote 10 years ago is now in the final stages of completion." This bold claim is worth examining.