When you’re not getting time-sucked into the 101 canonical tweets of all-time (#30 is all you need to know), remember that the social-media platform occasionally serves a greater purpose.
Such as finding out how Tesla started. From the mouth — well, fingertips — of Elon Musk himself.
The Tesla CEO used five succinct tweets (and a few follow-up answers to reader inquiries) very early this morning (earlier than usual) to explain the origin and success of the electric car company.
Few people know that we started Tesla when GM forcibly recalled all electric cars from customers in 2003 & then crushed them in a junkyard
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 9, 2017
They was done against the will of their owners, who held a candlelight vigil all night to protest the death of their cars
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 9, 2017
Since big car companies were killing their EV programs, the only chance was to create an EV company, even tho it was almost certain to fail
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 9, 2017
Nothing to do w govt incentives or making money. Thought 90% prob of losing it all (almost did many times), but it was the only chance.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 9, 2017
TL;DR: Big Auto tried to destroy the electric industry from within, Musk saw an opening from the outside, started a company and then ate their lunch. Of course, in the years since, all of the big auto companies have climbed back aboard the battery-powered bangwagon, which Musk was quick to point out in a response to a follower:
Long way to go, but we’ve convinced most of the auto industry to start EV programs & gave them all our patents to help, so that’s something
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 9, 2017
Believe that’s commonly referred to as a mic drop.
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