Why is it so hard to lead Tesla?

In July 2019, Tesla - electric vehicle manufacturing company celebrated its 16th anniversary. In 2003, Elon Musk agreed to invest in Tesla Motors. Over the 3 years, Tesla continued to grow and develop its first car, The Roadster, and opened its own production facility in Fremont. In May 2006, the first prototype of a new racing electric car, EP1, was ready and on July 19, 2006, Tesla held a large presentation of the prototype The Roadster in Santa Monica.

Elon Musk has earned the fame of a tough but very effective CEO, he is actually rebuilt the entire Tesla control system. To save the company, Elon Musk invested several tens of millions of dollars in it from the personal budget.

Earlier this month, Dyson abandoned plans to create its own electric car after more than two years of work. Sir James Dyson concluded that building his own electric car would not be "commercially viable."

Another Nio company is also experiencing financial difficulties. Its shares over the past six months have fallen by two-thirds. The automaker suffers from heavy losses and recall of nearly 5,000 cars due to battery defects.

Last week, Jia Yueting, the founder of Faraday Future, another popular Chinese startup with an electric car, filed for bankruptcy.

Similar startups in the automotive industry are constantly losing out. That is why most automobile companies created in the last half century no longer exist.

Recent Harley-Davidson issues have revealed problems in mass-production electric vehicles.

Like any other company, Tesla periodically experiences production problems. Because the development of an electric car company is an incredibly difficult task. In addition, Tesla constantly encounters a large number of people who disseminate false information about the company.

But after 16 years, Tesla is still on the market and took a leading position. Throughout these years, most reputable companies did not believe in Tesla, but now they recognize that electric cars are not just fads. Because despite the fact that all these manufacturers have an advantage in global supply chains and dealer networks, many still do not have electric vehicles that could be placed in car dealerships. The difficulties of Dyson, Nio and others indicate that knocking Tesla out of its place will not be easy.

In 2006, Elon Musk published the first secret masterplan on the Tesla blog:

“Overarching purpose of Tesla Motors is to help expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy, which I believe to be the primary, but not exclusive, sustainable solution.”

1. Create a limited-edition car that will certainly be expensive (We need an electric car without compromise, so The Roadster is designed to defeat other sports cars with a gasoline engine.) Done!
2. Use this money to develop a car that will have a medium distribution volume and at a lower price (According to the rapidly growing technology company, all free cash flow is plowed back into R&D to drive down the costs and bring the follow on products to market as fast as possible. When someone buys the Tesla Roadster sports car, they are actually helping pay for development of the low cost family car.). Done!
3. Use this money to create an affordable high volume car. Done!
4. Provide solar energy (Tesla Motors will jointly promote environmentally friendly energy products from other companies. For example, we will offer solar panels from SolarCity among other options). Done!

In 2016, the second secret masterplan was published:

1. Integrate Energy Generation and Storage. Create a smoothly integrated and beautiful solar-roof-with-battery product that just works, empowering the individual as their own utility, and then scale that throughout the world. One ordering experience, one installation, one service contact, one phone app. Done!
2. Expand to Cover the Major Forms of Terrestrial Transport. With an entire line of cars, Tesla plans to cover a large part of the consumer market. The Roadster, Model S, Model X, Model 3 - Done!  Model Y, Tesla Semi - Already presented! Tesla Truck will be presented in November 2019!
3. Autonomy. As the technology matures, all Tesla vehicles will have the hardware necessary to be fully self-driving with fail-operational capability, meaning that any given system in the car could break and your car will still drive itself safely. Done, and constantly improved!
4. Sharing. When true self-driving is approved by regulators, it will mean that you will be able to summon your Tesla from pretty much anywhere. You will also be able to add your car to the Tesla shared fleet just by tapping a button on the Tesla phone app and have it generate income for you while you're at work or on vacation. This significantly reduces the true cost of ownership to such an extent that almost anyone can own Tesla. Tesla Smart Summon is already implemented and will be constantly improving!

Yesterday was presented Tesla Q3 results. The results of this report were awesome:

- GF3 in Shanghai is developing ahead of schedule

- Model Y ahead of schedule

- Solar installs +48% from Q2

- GAAP - profitable

- Positive free cash flow

Conclusions.

To create a company for the production of automobiles, to survive in the fight against automobile manufacturer companies and make the company successful, is an incredibly difficult task. But Tesla did it. In the electric car market, Tesla is a leading company that produces  most advanced and safest cars in the world. Elon Musk made of a fading sratrap a successful company, in which he invested part of himself.