The purpose of this article is to challenge the narrative that is commonly heard on mainstream news sites that Tesla has sold a few cars to a few people who just care about the climate, but that Tesla doesn’t know what it is doing. The second part of that is often that Tesla’s leader, Elon Musk, is a great fraud, someone who can get his faithful excited but never delivers on his promises.
It’s time for us to share our 20 most popular articles of last week. This time around, I’ll just briefly throw down a list of my 13 favorite CleanTechnica originals from the past week first. Have a look:
As part of my efforts to fight untrue Tesla myths, I recently engaged the Tesla community to create a Tesla Myth Busters FAQ page. I sent out a call to “assemble a full-fledged myth-busting campaign,” and people responded. We simply want to set the record straight regarding various Tesla myths. Thanks to the Tesla community who heeded my call, this first draft was produced in just four days, which is astonishing and wonderful when you think about it.
A recent article in Forbes highlighted that J.D. Power and LMC Automotive have found “a growing backlog of unsold new cars and trucks” across the country. The reason? Sales are down.
Subaru sales are down 66% in 2019, Mazda sales are down 45% in the last 3 years, and Ford sales are down 50% in the last 10 years.
Preface: I first published this article in March 2018. A recent tweet highlighting a 2014 interview with Elon Musk reminded me of it, and since the piece is as relevant today as ever, I’m reposting it below with only minor changes. Enjoy!
Yet again, before sharing the 20 most popular CleanTechnica articles of the past week, I’m going to force you to read my personal favorites from our pool of exclusives/originals. (Of course, if you are smart, you can just scroll past my favorites.)
The Dutch plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market had another positive month in May, with 2,688 plug-in vehicle registrations — up 193% year over year (YoY). That translated into a PEV share of 7.3% on the broader auto market. The year-to-date (YTD) count is now up to 15,537 units, with the 2019 PEV share at 8.3%, well above the 6% of last year.
Who’s diverting your attention away from this remarkable American success story? There are some alligators lurking in the FUD. Even Elon acknowledged, “It’s the most crazy disinformation campaign I’ve ever seen.”
Criticisms of Tesla actually haven’t changed much over time, especially in the deceivingly serious (or seriously deceiving) investment world. In the past 11 years or so, the same core talking points have been reused, recycled, and revisited in carousel-like cycles. Nonetheless, as one negative forecast is proven incorrect, another can sprout up.
