With Tesla’s business of making and
babu88 selling cars falling apart, and with nothing to revive its fortunes than the rolling monument to Musk’s out of touch arrogance known as the Cybertruck, Black fully capitulated over the weekend. But having both is how you make electric cars popular. Not all this evidence can be taken at face value, but as it accumulates and as Elon Musk’s story continues to play out, it’s worth noting how and where past anecdote and current reality meet up. Musk’s ability to capture the public imagination and leverage popular narratives about technology gave Tesla a totally unpredictable opportunity to succeed at the car business, but rather than solidifying and protecting the nearly 2 million unit/year business he created against all the odds, he just kept doubling down on hype. EDWARD NIEDERMEYER: So Tesla went public in 2011. People forget this. Sure enough, nearly five years after the release of my book, which argued that the specific aspects of Tesla’s culture and approach to EVs were more important than the abstract theories underlying the bull narrative, the view that equated betting on Tesla with betting on EVs more broadly has fallen apart.