Nevertheless, ramping up R&D disproportionally to current sales like Tesla does also incurs disproportionate costs compared to rather static incumbents.
PS: The high SG&A figures are still confounding me. In other sources, Tesla's marketing budget was said to be negligible for the premium segment.
Tesla does no marketing. They are supply constrained, so there is no need to generate more demand when they can't fulfill the demand they have generated.
however, they are opening up stores and galleries. that is an expense that is typically handled by car dealerships for legacy automakers. i assume that is a big factor driving up their sales expense, and as i stated... I believe the existing stores and galleries will be able to support a lot of model 3 sales.
The other manufacturers offload that cost onto the dealerships, who provide show rooms, sales staff, service staff, etc. AFAIK Tesla takes this on themselves.
Do Telstra split the costs of new leases, refits, transformer installs, super-charger installs - for showrooms?
Also I'd guess they are pouring a lot into training and development. Assuming they have a long term view, they'd want to retain their top sales and management staff to move them up to more senior roles in the future. This is the opposite of dealerships, where a high churn in sales staff is unquestionable doctrine.