Tesla: The Electric Revolution

This decade is set to be the Roaring Twenties of the electric car. Right now, electric cars make up only a tiny fraction of the automobiles sold worldwide, but according to a recent analysis, this is going to change pretty quickly. The same report suggested that by 2040 there's potential for electric cars to make up 57% of all passenger car sales worldwide. They are on the rise. We all know the benefits of going electric, but this is a story that has already played out once in history.

An electric didn't win out last round; it seems that we could be in danger of repeating the story with astonishing accuracy. This may come as a surprise, but the dawn of the electric car was, in fact, over a century ago. Battery-powered vehicles were already being developed in the late 19th century. The early electric vehicles quickly became fashionable, particularly in densely populated cities due to their lack of exhaust fumes. By 1900, around a third of all cars on the road were electric.

In New York, electric vehicles were so common that a fleet of more than 60 electric taxis served the city. The rise of the electric car continued over the next 30 years, overcoming a lack of infrastructure with limitations of battery technology and tons of controversy. That is, up until the inception of the Ford Model T, which became popular for its low costs, durability, versatility, and ease of maintenance. These developments pretty much spelled the end of the electric vehicle's popularity.

However, fast forward nearly a century, and now we have Tesla. [Music] Tesla is an American company located in Palo Alto, California, led by Elon Musk and founded in 2003. Tesla designs, manufactures, and sells electric cars, components for electric vehicle propulsion, and, more recently, solar-powered panels to allow the production of clean renewable energy for your home. They devote themselves primarily to the engineering of the electric vehicle propulsion system.

This includes the battery pack, motor, power electronics, and the control software that allows all the components to form a system. The system has many benefits, more than just the fact that it's electric. The system is compact, with far fewer moving parts than a standard internal combustion engine. Its modular design allows components to be reused on different Tesla and third-party models.

Tesla's aim is to accelerate the transition to sustainable transportation. In the beginning, its master plan was to capitalize on renewable energy and use this to influence the industry. Tesla began with a small project, manufacturing just a few units at a high price, which is almost exactly how it went in the nineteen hundreds. Tesla released its first car in 2008, a completely electric roadster powered by lithium-ion cells that could be recharged from any standard electric outlet.

In company tests, it achieved a range of nearly 250 miles on a single charge, an unprecedented achievement for the electric car. They could also perform comparably with many gasoline-powered cars in other areas, too, achieving zero to 60 in 3.7 seconds as well as a top speed of 125 miles per hour. It was lightweight with a carbon-fiber body and had no emissions. For the first car, this is very impressive.

The Roadster was a success to a point; it demonstrated that the electric car did not need to be slow, heavy, ugly, and have a short battery range. They could be high-performance, and this opened up a world of possibilities. Tesla went on to manufacture up to 500 units a year. Unsurprisingly, it had a huge impact on the industry. Other companies, such as General Motors, began to follow suit but having settled this, only about 2400 of them were sold, and with the price tag of around $110,000, this was pushing to be a luxury item.

It certainly wasn't a car that your average consumer was interested in, so while the Roadster demonstrated a lot of things about the electric car, it wasn't the car that was going to turn the tide against the internal combustion engine. But it was a start, and some might argue that Tesla would not have the success of those a day without the Roadster. But in 2012, production had ended, and Tesla was concentrating its efforts elsewhere. The Model S came next and was celebrated for its performance and design, despite its still pretty hefty price tag of around $74,000 that it still has to this day.

It was the first mass-marketed, more practical electric vehicle. In the numerous versions of this model, Tesla experimented with technology like autopilot and superchargers. Supercharging is a pretty cool concept and one thing that has, in recent years, really set Tesla apart. Tesla has built a network of roughly 1200 supercharger stations throughout the world.

Then, when it was first released, while Tesla owners were allowed to use it for free for life, the Model S offered three different battery options, giving ranges between 235 and 300 miles. The highest performing battery gave an acceleration of 0 to 60 miles per hour in just over 4 seconds and a top speed of over 130 miles per hour. It carried its batteries underneath the floor, which allowed for extra storage space and improved handling. Overall, Model X followed in 2015, with all the features of a sports utility vehicle but on a car chassis.

Overall, it was similar in design but targeted towards the SUV market, with seating for up to 7 people. Both are still in production today, and most sale volumes are relatively low. Together, these models have been key for the financial health of the company. Most have suggested that these models now remain in production mainly for sentimental reasons and that they are of minor importance for the future of Tesla.

In 2015, the demand for a more inexpensive vehicle—arguably the ultimate goal of Tesla—was finally met in the shape of the Model 3. Low cost, high-volume, four-door sedan with a range of 220 miles at the price tag of only $35,000. The Model 3 is really the sub-$40,000 car that is truly within reach for fans priced out of the Model S or X. This could turn the tide for the electric vehicle world, and it seems they are doing just that.

Customers are just starting to receive the first deliveries of the Model Y. It's a smaller and much more affordable version of Model X, which makes sense. The small SUV market is one of the biggest car segments in the world. With the Model Y, Tesla is aiming to tap into this customer market, and they are now truly competing with basically every other automaker. This will be a battle for electric over gasoline, and if they can win it, they could really be on their way to the electric car revolution they've been working towards.

But Tesla isn't just all about cars. The Tesla semi truck, due in late 2020, represents an important extra stream of revenue and a way to expand into the commercial transportation market. Future plans could involve launching a fully autonomous fleet later this year. Musk has visions for an autonomous rideshare network, with Tesla owners able to equip their vehicles with the ride-sharing app's self-driving software in every Tesla.

It's also apparently a possibility that by the end of this year, you might not even have to look at the road. To top this off, with The Boring Company's network of underground roads and Tesla's million-mile battery, this is an ambitious-looking future. Tesla stated that 2019 would be the year that they are able to sell over 360,000 cars, and they did just that. In the last quarter, over 112,000 deliveries were made, and of those 112,000, over eighty percent were Model 3s.

This just goes to show how pivotal this model has been in Tesla's and the electric vehicles' recent success. This all paints a pretty positive picture: vehicles that are praised and prized by a passionate fan base, record sales and stock prices pushing into new markets and segments. It looks like the electrical revolution is a sure thing.

But Tesla is also one of the most watched companies on Wall Street for a good reason. A lot of controversy surrounds both the company and its CEO, Elon Musk. It looks like they could be their own worst enemy. Now you see, Elon takes a particularly unconventional approach in his role as CEO, which in itself isn't really a problem, but some of his methods and actions have raised serious questions about many aspects of the business and have led to volatility in Tesla's stock prices.

For starters, it's pretty well known that Musk and the SEC have not seen eye to eye recently. The agency sued Musk in 2018 after he tweeted that he had secured the funding necessary to take Tesla private at $420. The safety of Tesla's cars and their batteries have also been called into question. Vehicle fires have become a point of controversy for Tesla, from inaccessible door handles not functioning after a collision leading to the death of a driver, to parked cars spontaneously combusting.

There is understandable concern, particularly when no obvious reason for a fire can be found. The capability of the autopilot system has also been called into question, after at least four drivers have allegedly been killed while using Tesla's semi-autonomous driver assistance system. When autopilot is in control, the car can speed up, change lanes, take exits, and brake in reaction to an obstacle, and customers love it. It has a combined total of more than 1.5 billion miles using the system, but questions are being asked about both the autopilot's capabilities and whether drivers actually pay attention to the road when using it.

For example, a number of drivers have been filmed using autopilot without sitting in the driver's seat. Are drivers placing too much trust in the system? However, there's one thought experiment that comes to mind when thinking about autopilot. I continually think about the ethics of Tesla's AI. Assuming your car was on autopilot one day while you're driving along, an unfortunate set of events causes the car to head towards a crowd of 10 people crossing the road.

Now, it can't stop in time, but it can avoid killing those 10 people by steering into a wall. The thing is, the collision would kill you, the owner and occupant of the vehicle. What should it do? Should the vehicle prioritize the occupants of the vehicle or the lives of those around it? Is the death of one person more or less important than the death of ten people? I think I'll let you decide for yourself. [Music]

Tesla is truly a force to be reckoned with in the electric car industry. They're pushing boundaries constantly, and that's the only way to progress into the future.

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