What if…

[Jamezam]

I’ve been thinking about ALL the complaints I constantly hear about Tesla, Elon, S, X, 3, Y’s, firmware updates, etc.

And, it dawned on me “what if” Tesla didn’t exist, what if Elon was never born? Where oh where would we be today?

I for one, am entirely appreciative of Elon and Tesla and everything Elon and Tesla and their employees have given the world!

 

[HankLloydRight]

And, it dawned on me “what if” Tesla didn’t exist, what if Elon was never born? Where oh where would we be today?

I for one, am entirely appreciative of Elon and Tesla and everything Elon and Tesla and their employees have given the world!

Newsflash!

Tesla Motors existed before Elon Musk got involved.

There still might be a Tesla Motors today, but yes, it would look very different from today's Tesla.

 

[Jamezam]

Newsflash!

Tesla Motors existed before Elon Musk got involved.

There still might be a Tesla Motors today, but yes, it would look very different from today's Tesla.

Yes, Tesla already existed, however, it was Elon’s $6.5 million contribution that really launched Tesla.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

I’ve been thinking about ALL the complaints I constantly hear about Tesla, Elon, S, X, 3, Y’s, firmware updates, etc.

And, it dawned on me “what if” Tesla didn’t exist, what if Elon was never born? Where oh where would we be today?

I for one, am entirely appreciative of Elon and Tesla and everything Elon and Tesla and their employees have given the world!

Other people would have filled the vacuum.

All that investment in money, time, energy that Elon gets would go into other things.

Now that doesn't mean we should be appreciative of what Tesla has done under the leadership of Musk. But, we also shouldn't forgive Tesla for the mistakes they've made along the way.

I appreciate things like Long range EV's for the masses, SW updates, excitement in EV's, Supercharging, the Gigafactory, etc.

I can detest things like the MCU1, the questionable tweets, and most of all the ridiculousness of the FSD claims.

Like anyone or anything else you take the good with the bad. Sometimes the worst things like FSD become the best things if I'm the one that was wrong about it.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Yes, Tesla already existed, however, it was Elon’s $6.5 million contribution that really launched Tesla.

I wouldn't say it "launched" Tesla, as even after Musk took over, they were near death many times.

And it's quite likely that had Musk not been around, someone else would/could have jumped in with some funding. $6.5m wasn't a lot of cash even back then.

And if Tesla did go out of business, someone surely at that point would have bought up the ashes for pennies on the dollar and continued the quest.

But yes, that would be a very different Tesla from today.

 

[Dan Detweiler]

Keep in mind that the complainers on social media are the vocal minority. The people that are thrilled with their cars, the company, and Elon typically are not posting all the time on forums (except TMC of course ).

Dan

 

[GenSao]

I wouldn't say it "launched" Tesla, as even after Musk took over, they were near death many times.

And it's quite likely that had Musk not been around, someone else would/could have jumped in with some funding. $6.5m wasn't a lot of cash even back then.

And if Tesla did go out of business, someone surely at that point would have bought up the ashes for pennies on the dollar and continued the quest.

But yes, that would be a very different Tesla from today.

Indeed, $6.5 million was not much. That was the first round of many. "By January 2009, Tesla had raised US$187 million and delivered 147 cars. Musk had contributed US$70 million of his own money to the company"

I imagine Tesla could have existed without Elon Musk. But would have developed more like a niche automaker to eventually be taken over by another automaker to be their EV brand.

 

[daniel]

Given the general attitude among the public and the auto industry, were it not for Tesla the introduction of mass-produced electric cars would have been delayed by at least ten years, maybe more, and when they did arrive, they'd have had the performance of the Honda Civic. Tesla was the company that showed that EVs can have massive torque, and that there's a market for EVs with massive torque. Without Tesla, also, there'd be no supercharger network. Just isolated L2 charging stations and a few isolated DC fast chargers operating with differing connectors and differing payment systems.