Not quite. Tesla has a high valuation mostly because traditional auto carries an enormous amount of debt on their balance sheets. I think Tesla is one economic downturn in a high interest rate environment from meeting the same fate. Once an auto company is loaded with debt, they get stuck in a low margin cycle where the little profit they make has to go into new debt for retooling and factories. Tesla is very much still coasting from zero interest rate free VC money times.
