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:
Some of the most interesting shifts in our lives come through odd luck — or fate if your brain works how mine does. Believe it or not, I didn’t plan to land in the career of “blogger” when I went to college in the year 2000.
A year ago, Jim Chanos was a a prominent supposed “expert” on the topic of Tesla [TSLA]. I’ll start out by saying that I’m giving Chanos the benefit of the doubt in this piece and not assuming any nefarious motives. Though, I will summarize a popular theory that disagrees with that assumption as to why he has been so publicly negative about Tesla over the years, and I definitely think the theory could be true.
A long time ago, in a land far, far away, Tesla Motors was a baby. (It would later change its name to Tesla, but that’s another story.) Being a young baby, tiny little Tesla was not valued as highly as it is today. It was worth relatively little to outsiders, nothing close to its market cap of $51 billion today.
I recently had some fun digging up old Tesla news, putting it in the context of the company up to today can make it fascinating. I’ve also elaborated on 11 years of hyped up FUD about Tesla and claims of its eminent demise for the past decade, as well as 8 “impossible” goals the company has achieved. I forgot, though, that a reader sent along a list of his own back in October. It’s a great list as well, so I’m writing about it here for another round of “Tesla Flashbacks.”
I was searching for some old information on the Model X on Friday and I stumbled across interesting old news that made me reflect a bit on Tesla’s development. Then I stumbled across more. And then more. So I ended up deciding to put together this piece on some Tesla news flashbacks.
You may want to write this off as a clickbait fluff piece. Well, it may clickbait (depending on the definition you’re using) but it is certainly not a fluffy Furby, flufferbot, or feckless sideshow. In fact, I think the points illustrated below are often critical to know and keep in mind when reading and writing about Tesla.
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.”
On a Tesla Motors Club thread, some members there recently shared a few old claims of perennial Tesla bears. It was a brilliant little move of reverse trolling, and it prompted me to do something I’ve been wanting to do for ages — dig up some old claims about Tesla from prominent bears and see how they held up to the light of today.
