New Delhi: Elon Musk has returned to a comic book-like character in a new video that is now going around X, portraying him as a man who is at his lowest ebb at one of the worst moments in the history of Tesla. The clip of December 2008 stands as a reminder of the company’s early days and how it is now.
The video is of Musk explaining himself the thinking behind the Tesla Roadster, which was the first car Tesla ever made. He says if he could sell a Roadster, it would help fund the development of more affordable electric vehicles. He also explains to the room that the only salary he receives is a minimum wage and he doesn’t receive any dividends from the corporation. The idea was straightforward: that the proceeds from a high-priced sports car would fund lower-priced cars that would be more affordable to most people.
The clip is more eye-catching because of the timing. Tesla was close to running out of cash in late 2008. The world economic downturn was making it difficult for all businesses to get credit, and the young carmaker was spending more money than they were making. A summary of what has been posted on X says that the company was on the verge of running out of cash on Christmas Eve, but a late-stage funding round came through. If it didn’t happen, Tesla would likely have fallen short with payroll and the company would have been finished.
Musk’s plan as he described it in the video is sometimes referred to as the “Master Plan.” Tesla would begin by making a high-priced sportscar, then manufacture a medium-priced sedan, then finally a mass-market model. The pattern is evident in the company’s lineup, 18 years later. The Roadster was succeeded by the Model S, and later by the Model 3 and 3 Model Y, which are now among the world’s top-sellers.
Those who watched the clip describe it as “a very vulnerable future for a company, as seen from the inside.” There is a lot of writing about the difference between the small room in which the party was held and the magnitude of what ensued. Others cite the claims by Musk about his pay as evidence of his own risk-taking at the time. It’s also important to note that the time period was tough for SpaceX as well, the company being run by Musk himself. That firm was almost out of business at that time and won a huge NASA contract at the end of 2008. Both companies made a success of it and both became industry leaders.
Reaction online has been mixed, but primarily positive. The video is seen as an example of how to be persistent and a reminder to early-stage companies that they may not look like they’re doing well until they are. Other users report that they watch it as a motivational reminder when their own projects get stuck. As is the case with the type of content that gets posted about him, critics have taken his spotlight to highlight other nonrelated issues about his politics, management style, and public statements. Those debates take place outside of the historical record of the clip.
There’s a warning about the spread of the story. The driving summary behind the renewed interest has been produced by the AI assistant embedded in X, named Grok, and warned that it may be incorrect and readers should double check its results. The interview itself seems like an accurate video, but the specifics about financing conditions, how close payroll got to failure, etc., are secondhand posts and should be verified against legitimate reporting of Tesla’s history. Reports from these days and Tesla’s own reports provide more solid ground than capsulated social media updates.
The clip does record a founder who is trying to articulate a long-term plan, when the short-term ones were bleak. After that Christmas Eve, Tesla wasn’t in profit. The company had to overcome years of production challenges, additional capital raising and scepticism from analysts in order to grow to this size.
For many who are observing it today, that’s the part they’re interested in. Few people could have afforded a sports car, and prefiguring that, the video argues that it should have paved the way to affordable cars.
