Is Tesla made from Teflon? You would almost think that after the insane summer that the automaker and CEO Elon Musk have had.
There was the ongoing fight against short sellers, Musk accused a diver involved in the Thai rescue operation of pedophilia, the notorious tweet that there was funding to take Tesla off the stock market, the tear-jerking interviews, the ramp up of the production speed of Model 3 , the production line in a tent, the lawsuit of the SEC, the settlement with the SEC …
Almost too much to mention. And yet Tesla is still standing proudly.
Tesla probably closes the year with 200,000 to 300,000 cars delivered. That is a big improvement compared to 2017, when a total of 100,000 cars rolled off the belt. And that was already a record for the automaker.
It comes down to the fact that it is very necessary for the whole world that Tesla sells 200,000 cars this year, next year 400,000 and then millions as soon as possible.
These past weeks the UN’s report on global warming made it clear that humanity must do what Musk has always said: leaving the era of fossil fuels behind. Otherwise, the catastrophe can strike from 2040 onwards.
To prevent an existential threat to our civilization, we need a lot of more electric cars to replace those on petrol. And we also need to generate the required electricity with sustainable sources.
Sometimes it is good to know what to expect and to have a deadline. Two decades is in principle enough time to replace many of the current cars that drive around the world with electrical alternatives.
But we must start now, and we cannot do it without Tesla. There are few other successful electric cars now. And although they sell reasonably, they do not have the impact that Tesla does.
And that will not be enough. All other automakers must join Tesla and replace the billion petrol cars that drive around on our planet with much cleaner alternatives.
This means that Tesla is ‘too big to fail’, although the company itself is not (yet) big. What is too big, is the impact of Tesla. Without the urging of Musk, the development of the electric cars would not be as far away as it is now.
If Tesla falls over, we might lose five or maybe even ten years of the 20-year period we have.
Let’s save our planet.
Dear John,
Interesting read! I wrote my own blog about the driver-helping systems and I watch the car manufacturing market with great interest. I completely agree with you on the point that we should do more regarding reducing the reduction of fossil fuels. I think however that the problem might be a bit bigger than just fossil fuels as most of the electricity gathered for electrical cars still comes from a coal-fired power station. I am very interested in your point of view about this?
Furthermore, I sincerely hope that the electrification of consumer cars is just the beginning of a positive environmental trend and that it will translate to other industries as well.
Kind regards,
Daan Masselink
Hey John, Interesting blog post here. I was drawn in by your title but was surprised how you ended your blogpost. I also believe that you are right in the sense that we “as a human spices” should invest in automotive industries that emit zero or near to zero carbon emissions. However, we see the automotive industry taking shape towards EV’s. Tesla is now not the only company that offers fully electric vehicles that are a true alternative to traditional cars. Look at Jaguar’s F Pace or Mercedes GLC F-Cell. Cars that undoubtedly will be popular in 2018/2019. Tesla should be focussing on what they always wanted to make money on, the electric network that is associated with EV’s. Ill end my comment by saying you are right, we should not let Tesla go to waste. Although it should not be for the sake of EV’s but for the sake of the EV’s charging station market.