>Electric cars were obvious, but Tesla was not an obvious play. In hindsight, it might seem so, but in the beginning it was far from clear that Tesla would dominate the space. Additionally, time will tell if Tesla's stock stays 8x higher than its pre-pandemic price.
Tesla's stock price isn't really related to the fundamentals. It's a meme stock that, as you note, benefited hugely from the increased retail interest in stocks during Covid. Even if the GP got into it by looking at the fundamentals their profit is (mostly) because of its status as a meme stock.
I agree it's a meme stock now, but it wasn't always a meme stock. There was a time where it was severely undervalued and that's when I bought. I did not hold it all the way to the top. I sold it way before then.
In retrospect, Tesla was undervalued, but this wasn't a guarantee. Elon is a loose cannon with a history of overpromising to the extent of borderline lying. This got him in trouble with the SEC (funding secured), and he lost his board chair position and could have been ousted as CEO. In hindsight, the SEC obviously wouldn't screw over the fastest growing American company for a dumb meme tweet, but this isn't something people knew at the time.
Tesla's stock price isn't really related to the fundamentals. It's a meme stock that, as you note, benefited hugely from the increased retail interest in stocks during Covid. Even if the GP got into it by looking at the fundamentals their profit is (mostly) because of its status as a meme stock.