It was back in 1769 that humans first created the first steam-powered automobile. And it was only at the beginning of the next century that humans first invented internal combustion engines.
For centuries after that, humans mainly relied on fossil fueled and piston powered engines to run cars. It was during those times that automakers were heavily developing the power plant to pack even more pistons, more compression, and more, which resulted in increasingly thirstier engines.
Just when the world got darker due to pollution that humans realized that combustion engines were playing a significant role in greenhouse effects, which warms Earth.
Since then, automakers started to tweak their engines to have smaller capacity, with more reliance on super induction, to maintain a high rate of power. At the same time, automakers are also trying to reinvent the wheel, by developing electric-powered vehicles which have no emission.
Tesla is one of them.
Founded by serial entrepreneur Elon Musk, who also founded OpenAI, SpaceX, The Boring Company, and more, Tesla has had a rough start. But as it took off, it took off real fast.
In 2020, the company is regarded as the most valuable company in the world.
This happened as Tesla's share price surged more than 7% to hit $1,000 for the first time ever.
This followed an internal memo from the company that signaled an increased production of its electric Semi trucks.
“It’s time to go all out and bring the Tesla Semi to volume production,” said Musk in the memo. “It’s been in limited production so far, which has allowed us to improve many aspects of the design. Production of the battery and powertrain would take place at Giga Nevada, with most of the other work probably occurring in other states.”
With Tesla reaching an all-time high, the company is worth more than Ford, General Motors, Honda and Fiat Chrysler put together.
Musk couldn't be happier at this time.
According to Tesla‘s SEC disclosure, Musk owns 34,098,597 Tesla shares, meaning that at $1,000 each, Musk's stock is worth more than $34 billion. Musk gained $2 billion in just a matter of hours after the trading closed.
Having stock in other companies he founded, Musk has a net worth of $42.9 billion, making him slightly richer than Alibaba founder Jack Ma, one of China's richest man who sits on a $44.1 billion fortune.
Founded in 2003, Tesla, Inc. is an American electric vehicle and clean energy company based in Palo Alto, California.
The car maker specializes in electric vehicle manufacturing, battery energy storage from home to grid scale and, through its acquisition of SolarCity, solar panel and solar roof tile manufacturing. The company's main goal however, is to eventually offer electric cars at prices affordable to the average consumer.
All-electric, Tesla cars are essentially Internet of Things (IoT) devices. in which the vehicles are literally connected to the internet.
When it was first founded, most people had a hard time understanding the automaker's goal in setting the standards of technology of electronic vehicles, as well as things that surround IoT.
At the time, IoT gadgets were new, and consumers saw the technology as superfluous in actually improving lives. But Tesla was able to move the technology outside of people's homes to the driveway, and make its cars the lifeline of their owners.
It's also IoT that provides the possibility Tesla to tailor services to its customers, and respond in real-time to unforeseen events.
And by collecting data from its cars through the internet, Tesla can optimize their performance going forward.
Tesla, the automaker is determined to shift the world to environmentally friendly cars, and in the process, reaching an all-time high at $1,000 per share makes it have a market capitalization of $190 billion in June 10, 2020.
For his part, apart from his financial gains, Elon Musk has his own share of controversies.
As a public figure, he frequently tweet his thoughts and opinions regarding something, which can at times and occasions, oppose others.
"Twitter is a war zone. If somebody's going to jump in the war zone, it's like, okay, you're in the arena. Let's go," he once said
Musk once said that he was "always crazy on Twitter," but there were times that his tweets cost his shareholders billions, and it's hard not to take him seriously. From dark memes he posted for revitalizing the space race, Musk once wiped $14 billion off Tesla's value with one tweet, when he said that the company's share was priced "too high."
Musk also once drove Tesla's stock price down by 5% when he smoked marijuana in a live podcast appearance.
Previously, he offended British diver Vernon Unsworth, who was a diver in the Thailand cave rescue operation to save a group of stranded boys, when he called him a pedophile.
And among others, Musk also sparked meme on the internet when he and his partner, singer Claire Elise Boucher (Grimes), announced that their newborn son would be named X Æ A-12 Musk