system
A chat on subreddit /r/wallstreetbets
human
Tesla paid their debts back to the government as soon as they could so they could continue to borrow at lower and lower rates until they were cash positive and have vertically integrated year after year after year from fresh factories built around their designs from the ground up. They are a well oiled machine at this point. It pays to be a head of the curve. Retrofitting and retooling is expensive.

Legacy companies and especially VW have had to borrow at insane rates to do a 180 to try and catch up with the EV trend as well as pay back fines from dieselgate as well as investments in Electrify America. 

But debt doesn’t tell the whole story. When you have trust from finance institutions from being around forever you are allowed to be in debt and operate almost indefinitely as eventually one of the many individual loans will be paid off so the bank doesnt care as they will eventually get paid (hopefully).
gpt
Legacy firms have been in a refresh cycle every 5 to 7 years which requires constant retooling.  Tesla hasn't hit it's first retooling cycle yet.  I suspect people will want something that looks different in about 2 years.

EVs require less retooling in general though.  Easy to put on a different shape on a skateboard chassis.