NEW YORK (The Deal) -- The once shiny outlook for Tesla Motors (TSLA) - Get Report has been dented. The company is far from a lemon, but it could perhaps benefit from the kind of a tune-up an activist investor could provide.

Tesla piled up accomplishments quickly, in the process capturing the attention of both futurists and investors with its beautiful car designs and cutting-edge technology. But the quarterly reports have not caught up with the breathless predictions for the future.

Shares of Tesla are off 30% from highs reached in September, and yet the company still has a market capitalization about one-third that of General Motors (GM) - Get Report despite having just a tiny fraction of GM's sales. Tesla delivered 31,655 cars worldwide in 2014; GM delivered 231,378 vehicles in the United States in February alone.

Wall Street can't figure Tesla out, with analyst price targets ranging from $65 to $400. And Elon Musk, Tesla's renowned CEO, is not offering much clarity. Musk in recent months acknowledged that Tesla shares -- which trade at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 46 -- might be overvalued. On the other hand, he also said that if all goes well, he believes the company could be worth as much as Apple (AAPL) - Get Report in 10 years.

There's no questioning the strength of Tesla's technology, and other automakers would love to have the brand loyalty it enjoys. But Tesla recorded a surprise quarterly loss and delivery estimate miss for the fourth quarter, the second straight period in which it missed estimates. The company has warned it will not be profitable before 2020, and is likely to have to raise substantial capital in the years to come as it tries to ramp up production and move from a maker of niche vehicles to, someday, a mass-market automaker.

Tesla today seemingly would make a poor candidate for activism, considering Musk's 22% ownership and the stock's sky-high valuation. Hedge funds have mostly ignored the stock of late, putting much of it in the hands of retail investors who are likely true believers. An ISS QuickScore report on the company reveals few characteristics that activists like to latch on to, though Tesla does not have a separate chairman and has a classified board.

Tesla arguably could use the grounding of a serious investor who might ask difficult questions, including whether the company's future should really be tied to the auto business. A number of auto industry insiders consider services such as Uber Technologies and Google's's (GOOG) - Get Report self-driving cars -- products that could shrink overall demand for vehicle ownership -- as greater threats than Tesla.

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Most large automakers have dabbled with electric drivetrains enough to feel comfortable with the product, and are ready to pounce and take advantage of their massive manufacturing scale advantages should Tesla prove there is a mainstream market for the vehicles. If that is the case, Tesla could succeed in transforming the industry, and yet still end up with only a small share of the market.

And Tesla has not been good at controlling investor expectations, which could make an activist campaign more feasible. This week, for example, the shares climbed about 5% after Musk announced plans for a media event to address battery anxiety, and then lost much of that gain in a few minutes on Thursday when the actual software updates were unveiled.

An activist might suggest that Tesla shed its ambition to be a mainstream automaker -- as well as the billions in engineering costs needed to build out a manufacturing footprint -- in favor of becoming more of an energy company. Tesla's battery technology is the envy of the world, and the coming manufacturing capacity via its Gigafactory in Nevada could make it a key supplier not just to other automakers but to a range of adjacent industries as well.

While Tesla has teamed up with other automakers in the past -- the company counted Daimler and Toyota Motor (TM) - Get Report as early investors -- those partnerships have been marred by competitive tensions. A Tesla that isn't a competitor could have better luck working with automakers and helping ensure that its primary battery technology is not passed over by other, less certain technologies being explored by competitors looking for an edge.

Tesla also has a large and growing network of superchargers spread over three continents, and could be positioned to become the Exxon Mobil (XOM) - Get Report of an electric-vehicle future. Its existing manufacturing footprint would allow it to continue as a luxury automaker and compete against lower-volume, higher-margin producers such as Porsche and Ferrari while leaving the lower-margin mainstream to existing automakers.

The company Musk created has traveled a tremendous distance in just over a decade, but the time is coming for results to begin to match up with the hype. Maybe Tesla -- which hopes to launch its Model X SUV this year -- can get there on its own. Or it might be time for an outside voice to push the company to perhaps reconsider whether it's on the right road.

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