Don't be afraid to invest in a Tesla. Are the radical statements of the richest man on the planet a mere ambush for…

Almost the whole world is struggling with economic problems. Investors are still reluctant to make decisions. Yet Musk is urging everyone to invest in his company without second thoughts. Is the richest man on the planet confident, or is this a trap for investors?

Is Elon Musk luring investors into a trap?

Everyone knows Tesla $TSLA. A company that almost went out of business shortly after it was founded. But it's also a company that in recent years has worked its way up to one of the biggest and most important companies on the planet. That's thanks in no small part to CEO Elon Musk, who is now enticing investors to invest. Which can only mean one thing in a situation where almost everything in the market is falling - either the richest man on the planet really believes in himself, or he is aware of the problem and is enticing gullible investors to give him their money.

Tesla has the financial wherewithal from the last few successful years to match some of the established conventional car companies. CFO Zach Kirkhorn pointed to that reserve on Wednesday when Tesla pledged consistent production growth.

Incidentally, I wrote about Tesla's numbers and promises here: Considering an investment in Tesla stock? Take a look at the most important numbers to help you decide

"I think this is a real opportunity for the company to move forward as aggressively as possible," Kirkhorn said as Tesla reported a near-record quarterly profit approaching $3.3 billion.

Tesla said it had about $21 billion in cash and short-term investments at the end of September, up about $16 billion from a year ago. That's similar to, say, Mercedes' parent company.

Despite the decent results, Tesla is down

"Let's say 2023 is the year of a brutal recession. Even then, we'll generate meaningful cash," said Musk, the Tesla chief.

By the way, Musk has indeed been predicting and warning of a recession for quite some time. These words only confirm his position.

Tesla is poised to benefit from tax breaks on electric vehicle and battery production in the U.S. and is well positioned to pass on potential savings in delivery costs to consumers in the form of lower vehicle prices. In fact, Tesla has repeatedly raised prices recently as inflation and supply chain issues have driven up costs and made cars harder to afford for consumers.

"Although Tesla is declining as much as the market, we believe its growth and margins could be much more resilient than the rest of the industry in the event of a global recession, given the various levers at its disposal," Deutche Bank analysts wrote.

But as the chart shows, investors are still worried. In particular, this has caused the company itself to lower its estimates. Tesla has been trying to increase car deliveries by an average of 50% a year, but expects to fall short of that target this year as it adjusts its car delivery structure. In the first nine months of the year, Tesla delivered more than 908,000 cars. It would need to deliver nearly half a million cars in the final three months of the year to grow 50% from 2021. I don't want to underestimate Elon, but I don't think he's keeping up.

Tesla's quarterly deliveries since Q1 2016. Source

It's also interesting to note that Tesla deliveries have always been concentrated towards the end of the quarter, as the company has tried to get as many cars into the hands of customers as possible before the end of the fiscal year. Which is something it is now trying to mitigate. And Musk blames others.

"There weren't enough ships. There weren't enough trains. There weren't enough trucking companies to handle us," he said.

The surprise for investors?

Musk also had a pleasant surprise in store for investors. Tesla is likely to conduct its first share buyback, Musk said, floating the idea of buying back $5 billion to $10 billion worth of stock next year.

But the seemingly positive move did not meet with the favour of all investors. Some fear it is not the best way for Tesla to use the capital it has at its disposal.

Buyouts tend to be the domain of larger, older, established companies that are no longer facing hyper-aggressive expansion. Which Tesla still wants. The company's goal is to produce 20 million vehicles a year by 2030, a feat that Musk says would likely require a dozen factories and would easily make Tesla the largest car company in the world by production volume. Tesla already enjoys top honors among automakers.

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Disclaimer: This is in no way an investment recommendation. This is purely my summary and analysis based on data from the internet and a few other analyses. Investing in the financial markets is risky and everyone should invest based on their own decisions. I am just an amateur sharing my opinions.