A few articles above this one is Aston Martin Expected to Achieve First Profit Since 2010 Even with large cash reserves on hand and generous loans, it's sometimes hard to imagine how these big companies are able to stay afloat for long periods of time and it often seems that their only avenue to continue to exist is to be bought out by other companies. See Aston Martin again with this great tidbit "Aston Martin was often financially troubled. In 1972 David Brown paid off all its debts, said to be £5 million or more, and handed it for £101 to Company Developments, a Birmingham-based investment bank consortium chaired by accountant William Willson" or Chrysler in recent years.

Tesla? Who'd buy that? What's their IP worth? Their physical assets? The brand name? I dunno man. I know they're trying to innovate, but what makes them worth buying when other companies are starting to do what they're doing? When it comes to electric cars, you have cars like the Chevrolet Volt and Bolt, the Nissan Leaf, and BMW's i marque making more than considerable ground and I don't think any of them use Tesla's batteries or charging stations or nothing. When it comes to self driving cars, everyone is getting into the game, from Ford to Volvo to Toyota. Honestly, I think if Tesla can't deliver, they're not gonna survive at all.

Edited: Added additional thought about self driving cars.