Business | A new model

Tesla’s surprising new route to EV domination

Become more like the industry you disrupted

Tesla vehicles at the Tesla Gigafactory in Gruenheide, Germany.
Image: Getty Images

IN 2011 TESLA stated an aim of becoming “the most compelling car company of the 21st century, while accelerating the world’s transition to electric vehicles”. At the time this was easy to dismiss as crackers. In the eight years since its founding in 2003 the firm had manufactured a piddling 1,650 EVs. Its first big-selling car, the Model S, had yet to hit the road.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “The swerve”

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