Totally. Of course, there are many factors that go into the balance: gasoline vs. electricity delivery, refining and transportation of the required fossil fuels, etc. I wish our scientific literacy were higher, or at least the effort being made, if only to produce a scientific humility that we lack. Musk effectively arbitrages the difference between people's scientific literacy and science. It's part of his genius. I think a self-driving Tesla has been just 2-3 years out for 4-5 years now. In fact, he might be more futurist than industrialist. 2019 vehicle sales: GM: 7.7M Ford: 5.3M Tesla: 0.37M Marketcap: GM: $43B Ford: $27B Tesla: $400B Musk is not selling cars, as much as he is selling the selling of cars.
I didn't listen to the interview, but apparently he reminded the audience that he said Tesla was overvalued back in May (when the stock was one third of its present value) and also that it would be worth more in five years. It's easy to say now, but I think comparing Tesla to other carmakers is akin to comparing early Amazon to other bookstores. There's a vision priced into the stock. If the vision fails, it will be a dud like pets.com, but it's too early to say.
One thing I'll give him credit for is the acceleration of EV platforms at other companies. Definitely the EV industry wouldn't be where it is without Tesla. I think Tesla's market dominance in EVs is probably going to be short lived when, e.g., BMW, Audi, and other car makers who make cars that aren't ugly and rife with quality issues have viable products at competitive prices. Right now that giant market cap gives Tesla a big leg up on the competition by making them able to sell cars at a loss while still raising money whenever Elon feels like buying a new plane or whatever.Musk is not selling cars, as much as he is selling the selling of cars.