A little over 10 years ago I wrote my first articles about Tesla here CleanTechnica† In particular, I wrote about the upcoming Tesla Model S, and then the start of Model S deliveries on June 22, 2012. I thought I’d take advantage of this momentous anniversary to see what’s changed in those 10 years.
But let’s go back a little further first. While my first Tesla articles were about the Model S that already sold out in November 2011 and the Model S prices that came out in December 2011, others CleanTechnica writers covered Tesla’s early partnership with Toyota in May 2010 and July 2010 – Tesla delivered the guts for the much-loved Toyota RAV4 EV. (Ironically, more than a decade later, we’re still missing a true homegrown RAV4 EV.) Additionally, in October 2011, Charis Michelsen wrote about the ingenious idea of packing the Model S with small Panasonic batteries for the mass market. There are a few concepts here that are worth revisiting.
First of all, there has always been a huge interest in fun, exciting, innovative Tesla vehicles. There have also always been critics who have argued the opposite – that there was not enough consumer demand for electric cars and that Tesla would go bankrupt as a result. It’s interesting to pause and reflect on that fact and all the claims we’ve seen along the way, while acknowledging how much Tesla production and sales have grown in that time.
Second, there’s no question that Tesla could have simply become an under-the-hood electric powertrain manufacturer supplying legacy OEMs. In theory, that could have been quite an undertaking. Of course, it wouldn’t have resulted in anything close to the scale and influence Tesla achieved 5 years ago, let alone today. It would also have been inconsistent with Tesla’s core mission of accelerating the transition to electric transportation and sustainable energy as much as possible† It would have accelerated the transition somewhat, making it easier and cheaper for older automakers to include hybrid and all-electric options, but it wouldn’t have pressured automakers, regulators or politicians to get really serious with massively competitive, immersive , popular electric vehicles. The CEOs of legacy OEMs who: didn’t want to to speed up the transition — who wanted? to slow down the transition – would have remained in the driver’s seat. And that would have been a disaster.
Ironically, it was Toyota and Daimler’s essentially cynical “compliance EV” approach that helped Tesla survive and grow at such a young age.
Image courtesy of Tesla Shuttle.
For some fun and a throwback to another EV era, see my 2019 article “50 Ways to Slow Down the Electric Vehicle Revolution – A Complete Idiot’s Guide”, which is an update of my 2016 article “22 Ways to Slow the Revolution”. of electric cars.” One of the biggest things that has changed in the 10 years since the Model S came out is that old automakers have come up with all sorts of reasons why EVs aren’t the future (and have so much concern among consumers about that) to now actually trying to produce the best electric cars on the market. I don’t think there is an automaker today that doesn’t realize that the future of the auto industry is electric. Heck, 21% of new car sales in Europe and 31% in China are now plug-in vehicle sales, and all-electric has quickly increased their share of those feet. In short, we have moved from almost no automakers looking to build electric vehicles to everyone who wants to be at the forefront of electric vehicles. (Of course you’re not the leader if you haven’t) LED†
Tesla Model S covered in snow in Poland. Photo by Zach Shahan, CleanTechnica†
The Model S is still one of the best electric cars on the market, if not the most technologically advanced EV (at least there’s a lot more discussion about it now). It is also still packed with thousands of tiny batteries. Incidentally, the first Model S to cover 1 million miles recently reached that milestone. The batteries have reportedly held up phenomenally. However, the owner has gone through 7 electric motors and is on his 8th† Perhaps the most disappointing thing about this is that the first motor lasted by far the longest (778,000 kilometers), while the next 6 only lasted about 200,000 kilometers (~124,000 miles) each and Tesla has indicated that they don’t seem to have a solution to extend the life of the engine. extend the engine.
Right off the bat, in 2012, there was a lesson that many would have wisely learned back then – it’s often not a good idea to bet against Elon Musk. Musk won a $1 million bet with motoring journalist Dan Neil when the Model S hit the market because Neil was convinced that “the Model S [not] be built, within the technical specifications that Mr. Musk has drafted before the end of 2012.” And it didn’t even come close. The Model S arrived in June! (Musk donated $1 million to charity despite winning the bet.) Thinking about the billions and billions of dollars spent shorting Tesla stock [NASDAQ:TSLA] over the years, the early Model S bet seems particularly relevant. (That’s not to say Musk isn’t doing anything wrong — there’s a significant list of predictions that Musk has also been wrong. But when it comes to betting on Tesla vehicles, Tesla engineering, and Tesla business success, I can. not saying I would ever advise that.)
Line of Tesla Model 3s in Florida. Photo by Zach Shahan, CleanTechnica†
Line of Tesla Model Y, Model 3, Model S and Model X EVs in Florida. Photo by Zach Shahan, CleanTechnica†
In terms of Tesla itself alone, the biggest changes in the past decade have been Tesla’s fulfillment of its dream of producing a low-cost mass-market electric car (the Tesla Model 3) and even a more mass-market electric crossover. /SUV (the Tesla Model Y). Honorable mentions are Tesla Full Self Driving (but we’re waiting for that to actually reach its robotaxi-level goal), the introduction of the Tesla Semi and Tesla Cybertruck (although, again, we’ll have to wait for their arrival to market), and the massive scale and rapid growth of its factories and battery production (although that’s really just the other side of the coin from the Model 3 and Model Y).
Across the industry, aside from the shift to electric powertrains, there has also been a mandatory shift to make cars more connected, with good over-the-air updates being the pinnacle of that; there’s a big improvement in infotainment systems, which Tesla is still leading the way in (unless you count a few Chinese automakers that are more or less on the same level – some say better, some don’t); and a race to fully autonomous driving is underway.
Tesla FSD Beta in action. Photo by Zach Shahan, CleanTechnica†
I’m sure there are plenty of other things that people might notice, but these are the changes that have stood out to me over the past decade. The last point I want to put extra emphasis on is emissions policies for transportation around the world. In Europe and China, and gradually in more locations, policymakers have demanded that automakers take serious steps to reduce emissions. The world’s largest automakers have made concerted efforts for a number of years to pressure policymakers to weaken rather than strengthen these policies. Tesla made it clear that electric cars can be an extremely competitive, exciting mass market. Policymakers unsure whether to accept legacy automakers’ excuses as to why they couldn’t move to electric cars soon and why consumers didn’t want them were met with concerns exploded with the popularity of Tesla and especially its large Tesla Model 3. The company and its groundbreaking product convinced policymakers around the world that the auto industry could indeed do more. It all started with the great design, engineering, production and popularity of the Tesla Model S ten years ago.
There are certainly more creatively packaged Teslas on the road than hydrogen fuel cell cars. Photo by Zach Shahan, CleanTechnica†
Oh yeah, and what about those hydrogen fuel cell cars?
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