Okay, it’s a small joke, of course, since Tesla isn’t dead and certainly hasn’t been dead for 11 years! However, for those of you who thought this idea of an 11 year Tesla death anniversary was an April 1st joke, I assure you, it is not.
I’ve followed Tesla closely for about 7 years. Confident predictions about Tesla’s imminent death have been commonplace for much longer than that. These have come from armchair auto experts, retired auto executives, non-retired auto execs, high-rolling short sellers, low-rolling short sellers, clueless or pretending to be clueless TV hosts and journalists, paid trolls, and probably others I’m forgetting to honor here.
As time goes on, some things become clear, and some urban legends grow in scope and popularity. I’ve found it pretty interesting to go back in time and compare Tesla critics’ forecasts and predictions to what actually happened. But I realized I’ve never done a really short and simple summary of that history. There’s surely more that could be added, but here’s my summary of Tesla critics’ claims over the years:
10 years ago, now-rabid CNBC didn’t know Tesla from your mother. Fox News was busy complaining that Obama encouraged people to keep their tires well inflated. Seeking Alpha? Well, I couldn’t find a single Tesla story on Seeking Alpha published in the month of August 2008. But some geniuses on a website called “The Truth About Cars” were onto something. They published episode #17 of their “Tesla Death Watch.”
