What were you doing 8 years ago? Tesla was preparing for its Model S delivery event on June 22. The video below shows a visual snapshot of the foundation being laid for the Model X, 3, Y, Cybertruck, next-gen Roadster, and Semi. Each of these new owners in 2012, along with the Tesla team back then, made it possible for Tesla to be where it is today.
“What is the Model S really all about?” Elon Musk asked excitedly before answering. “It’s about breaking a spell. The world has been under this illusion that electric cars can not be as good as gasoline cars; that if you have to go with an electric car, then you’re accepting a product that’s worse. What the Model S is fundamentally about is breaking that illusion. It’s showing that an electric car can, in fact, be the best car in the world.”
One thing Elon said was that he wanted to exceed having 2,000 employees at Tesla. Fast forward just 6 years, and toward the end of 2018 Tesla had 45,000 employees.
Thanks for recognizing the great work of the Tesla team! 45,000 people now.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 14, 2018
Another thing he said in the video was that he wanted to show that it was possible for an automotive company to make the best cars in the world right in California.
Looking back over the course of the past 8 years, it’s easy to see the struggles and achievements Tesla has had. Today, it’s a household name with top-selling cars all around the world. Tesla is also the first American company to open a completely foreign-owned factory in China — and it did so right in the middle of a trade war between the US and China.
In breaking that spell, Tesla has cast a new one upon the entire world — one that has legacy automakers looking at Tesla not just as a competitor, but as the leader in the industry. “We think that Tesla plays a very important role in the transition because they are paving the way,” VW’s CEO, Herbert Diess said about the challenge Tesla declared when announcing its fourth Gigafactgory location in Berlin. “They showed that electric cars are working, that a fully electric car is the right solution. So, we appreciate that.”
The stock market also represents that, as Tesla is now the most valuable auto and energy company in the world.
I think that the next 10 years will show just how much Tesla will change the world. Not just the auto word, but also the energy world. The Model S was just the second layer of the foundation, following the Roadster. However, this whole past decade could be seen as setting the foundation of the company.
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Former Tesla Battery Expert Leading Lyten Into New Lithium-Sulfur Battery Era — Podcast:
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
