There is one name in the auto industry right now that makes the biggest auto makers squirm: Tesla Motors. After a remarkable past year, the electric car company is gaining serious traction with consumers as it has zoomed ahead of predictions thus far.

"[Sales] have surpassed Porsche, Jaguar, Volvo, Land Rover, and Lincoln, according to...the California New Car Dealers Association. ... Tesla also has outsold Fiat...Buick...and Mitsubishi[...]Tesla shares have gained $16 billion in market cap this year, more than the total market cap value of about half of the S&P 500 components," observes Marty Steinberg.

Those are some incredible statistics, and it comes as no surprise that Tesla is now trading at around $170 a share. The car company has seen some serious rise in value ever since it surpassed expectations with its Q2 report. Now that it has a valuation that is quickly rising to the level of behemoth, Tesla has even gotten comparisons to some of the monster tech stocks such as Apple.

But that doesn't mean that everyone is buying what Tesla is selling. There are now grumbling in the investment community that Tesla Motors, while being a trendy pick, is no longer a very solid investment. The real reason? Not enough strong hands in the market.

"Any fund or institution that wants to buy TSLA probably already has and the phenomenal price appreciation has probably resulted in their holding being significant as a percent of the portfolio. They will not hesitate to sell at the first sign of real weakness, so any downward move is likely to be exaggerated," writes Martin Tillier.

Doubters aren't Tesla's only problem either. Zhan Baosheng of China had the foresight to trademark the Tesla name for automobiles in his home country back in 2006. Now that Tesla Motors is looking to expand its operations to the Far East, Baosheng is standing in the way and requesting an incredible $32 million.

"The electric automaker is also taking Baosheng to court, arguing that despite launching a half-assed website, the Chinese trademark owner has no intention or ability to launch an all-electric vehicle. Baosheng trademarked the name back in 2006, before the Tesla Model S ever saw the light of day," reports cleantechnica.com.

That court case is still pending, but should Tesla fail to receive a positive verdict, they are prepared to go ahead with the name "Tuosole" for their Chinese operations. "Tousole" literally means "Tesla" in Chinese.