Tesla is the company of the moment the prime exemplar of just about any big and important trend that you might care about.

Why it matters: Almost every reader of finance and business news will have at least one strongly-held opinion about Tesla. What you might not realize is just how widely those opinions range, and the degree to which they map onto much broader views of the world.

Tesla, especially after its merger with Solar City, sometimes feels like a Utopian project an attempt to populate a carbon-neutral future with fast, efficient vehicles that don't contribute to global warming.

Tesla has already benefited from the Fed's zero-interest rate policy following the global financial crisis a policy designed to incentivize capital-intensive investment.

Capitalists love and fear natural monopolies. Tesla's flagship product its cars, powered by its batteries, its home-built software, and its network of charging stations is years ahead of the competition, and is synonymous with "electric vehicle" for many.

The one thing Tesla hasn't made, despite many years' worth of promises that it was just around the corner, is a self-driving car. That hasn't stopped the company from advertising a feature called "autopilot."

Depending on whom you talk to, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is the archetypal cartoon-villain billionaire or else he's the archetypal planet-saving billionaire.

Go deeper: Tesla goes from electric vehicle to gambling vehicle

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Breaking down the Tesla obsession - Axios