YOUR NEXT CAR WILL BE A VOLT:

Model 3 in, Prius out.

That's my prediction. The most-prominent symbol to date of the green car could be replaced by the Model 3 -- if Tesla can make lots of them. Elon Musk wasted no time this past week, during the company's earnings conference call, in addressing just that: manufacturing and the laser-like focus  - "hell bent" as he put it -- the company needs to make the electric car that it was born to make.  I like companies that obsess about manufacturing. That alone is a good indicator of future success. (The Intel INTC +0.50% of the 90s is a good example. China-based Foxconn and its manufacturing partnership with Apple AAPL -0.57% is another. And Toyota of course.) Musk made a great argument -- largely overlooked by the numbers-centric media -- for obsessing about manufacturing. "We believe that manufacturing technology is itself subject to a tremendous amount of innovation, and in fact we believe that there is more potential for innovation in manufacturing than there is in the design of a car by a long shot." 

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