
<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Tesla produced and delivered record numbers of vehicles during the first quarter of 2022, despite supply chain issues, Covid surges and health restrictions in China causing it to shut down production during the first few months of the year.</p>



<h2 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>Tesla delivered 310,048 vehicles from January through March, up 70% from the&nbsp;<a href="https://ir.tesla.com/press-release/tesla-q1-2021-vehicle-production-deliveries" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">same period in 2021</a>, and produced 305,407 vehicles, it said Saturday.</p>



<p>The Model 3 and Model Y accounted for the vast majority of deliveries in the quarter, which were up only slightly from the&nbsp;<a href="https://ir.tesla.com/press-release/tesla-q4-2021-vehicle-production-deliveries" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fourth quarter</a>&nbsp;of 2021, when it delivered nearly 309,000 vehicles.</p>



<p>Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1510288141495640070" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweet</a>&nbsp;it was an “exceptionally difficult quarter due to supply chain interruptions &amp; China zero Covid policy,” and applauded the work from the Tesla team and key suppliers that “saved the day.”</p>



<p>Wedbush Securities analysts Daniel Ives and John Katsingris wrote Saturday the first-quarter sales were a “positive step in the right direction,” noting that most investors will look past the slight miss on deliveries – Wall Street analysts were on average expecting 312,000, they said.</p>



<p>They believe delivery of roughly 20,000 to 25,000 units was pushed out of the first quarter into the second due to logistical and factory issues, “which makes this underlying demand number still look strong with a robust trajectory” for the rest of the year.</p>



<h2 id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Tesla is the largest electric vehicle seller in the world, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2022/01/02/tesla-says-it-delivered-record-936172-electric-vehicles-in-2021/?sh=70b2b7584d8b">reported a record</a>&nbsp;936,172 deliveries last year, but like all automakers, it is struggling with shortages of parts. The&nbsp;<em>New York Times</em>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/02/business/tesla-sales-electric-vehicles.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reports</a>&nbsp;Tesla has fared better than its competitors from the worldwide computer chip shortage because it was able to substitute chips needed for its vehicles. Covid-related shutdowns have also affected the company, as Tesla&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-suspends-production-shanghai-factory-4-days-comply-with-covid-curbs-2022-03-28/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;had to suspend production at its Shanghai factory for four days due to a staggered Covid-19 lockdown in the city earlier this week. The company has moved to open new factories, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2022/03/22/teslas-stalled-german-plant-opens-amid-chip-and-water-woes-rising-metal-costs/">the launch</a>&nbsp;of a “Gigafactory” in Germany last week. Tesla plans to host a&nbsp;<a href="https://austonia.com/cyber-rodeo-giga-texas" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“cyber rodeo”</a>&nbsp;as part of its grand opening of a vehicle production plant in Austin, Texas, next week.</p>



<h2 id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



<p>Tesla will&nbsp;<a href="https://ir.tesla.com/press-release/tesla-vehicle-production-deliveries-and-date-financial-results-webcast-first-quarter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announce</a>&nbsp;its financial results for the first quarter after market close on April 20.</p>



<h2 id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/03/28/tesla-shares-jump-as-electric-car-maker-seeks-stock-split/">Tesla Shares Jump As Electric Car Maker Seeks Stock Split</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2022/01/02/tesla-says-it-delivered-record-936172-electric-vehicles-in-2021/?sh=70b2b7584d8b">Tesla Says It Delivered Record 936,172 Electric Vehicles In 2021</a> (<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><strong>By <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/annakaplan/"></a>Anna Kaplan, Forbes Staff</strong></p>


Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and chairman of Tesla Motors at Tesla’s headquarters in San Carlos Tuesday Oct. 24, 3008.  Silicon Valley icon Musk became a billionaire founding PayPal, but he’s out to do something even more important – help humanity reach beyon

Tesla Delivers Record 310,000 Vehicles During What Elon Musk Calls An ‘Exceptionally Difficult’ First Quarter


<p>Tesla, the fastest-growing U.S. automaker, reported record deliveries of its electric vehicles in 2021’s final quarter and its best-ever total sales volume, getting 936,172 of its namesake cars and crossovers to global customers.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The company said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://ir.tesla.com/press-release/tesla-q4-2021-vehicle-production-deliveries" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>&nbsp;Sunday it delivered 308,600 units, led mainly by growth in Model Y hatchbacks and Model 3 sedans, with pricey Model S and Model X crossovers, which sell for about $100,000 each, accounting for a much smaller portion. Production for the quarter at Tesla’s plants in Fremont, California, and Shanghai totaled 305,840 units and 930,422 for the year.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The company doesn’t break down its sales by region, but China has been key to its accelerating volume growth, both in deliveries to customers there and as an export base to Europe and other markets. The quarterly delivery tally, up about 70% from a year ago, beat expectations of equity analysts including Deutsche Bank’s Emmanuel Rosner, who estimated deliveries would reach 282,000 units. Tesla’s full-year deliveries rose 87% from 2021.</p>



<p>Though the company fell just short of delivering 1 million vehicles last year, CEO Elon Musk has said he thinks Tesla can sell 20 million EVs annually by the end of the decade. That would be unprecedented since the world’s biggest automakers, including Toyota and Volkswagen, only sell about 10 million units worldwide annually. Certainly, Tesla should continue to see substantial growth throughout 2022 as it prepares to open new plants in Germany and Texas that will boost its total production capacity amid rising consumer interest in EVs.</p>



<p>“Musk &amp; Co. have navigated the chip supply shortages better than any automaker globally over the last six months, which is why Tesla is in a clear position of strength heading into 2022 with an inflection point year ahead,” Dan Ives, an equity analyst with Wedbush, said in a research note last week in which he raised his target price on the shares to as much as $1800. “The linchpin to the overall bull thesis on Tesla remains China, which we estimate will represent 40% of deliveries for the EV maker in 2022.”</p>



<p>The company is to release revenue and net income results in a few weeks.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Tesla shares fell 1.3% to $1,056.78 on Friday, the final trading day of 2021.</p>



<p><strong><em>By Alan Ohnsman, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Tesla Says It Delivered Record 936,172 Electric Vehicles In 2021


<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/?sh=627b29af7999">Elon Musk</a>, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the richest person in history, was named&nbsp;<em>Time</em>&nbsp;magazine’s&nbsp;<a href="https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2021-elon-musk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Person of the Year</a>&nbsp;for 2021 on Monday, capping a year of accomplishments and controversies for the billionaire.</p>



<h2 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>This year SpaceX completed the first all-civilian mission to space and was selected by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/as-artemis-moves-forward-nasa-picks-spacex-to-land-next-americans-on-moon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NASA</a>&nbsp;to build a new lunar lander, while Tesla’s market cap reached over $1 trillion after a deal with Hertz, making Musk the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/elizahaverstock/2021/10/26/elon-musk-nearing-300-billion-fortune-is-the-richest-person-in-history/?sh=345fd6081933">richest person ever</a>.</p>



<p>He also hosted&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2021/05/13/elon-musk-is-20-billion-poorer-since-hosting-saturday-night-live/?sh=1d3ff9c3fcb6"><em>Saturday Night Live</em></a>&nbsp;and continued his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/style/elon-musk-memes.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">meme-filled</a>&nbsp;Twitter reign.</p>



<p><em>Time</em>&nbsp;named&nbsp;<a href="https://time.com/entertainer-of-the-year-2021-olivia-rodrigo/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Olivia Rodrigo</a>&nbsp;as Artist of the Year for 2021, gymnast&nbsp;<a href="https://time.com/athlete-of-the-year-2021-simone-biles/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Simone Biles</a>&nbsp;as Athlete of the Year and the scientists behind the Covid-19 vaccines as&nbsp;<a href="https://time.com/heroes-of-the-year-2021-vaccine-scientists/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Heroes of the Year</a>.</p>



<p>The magazine did not release a shortlist of contenders for the Person of the Year position, unlike in years past.</p>



<p>Last year the magazine&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/12/11/joe-biden-kamala-harris-named-times-person-of-the-year-beating-out-trump-fauci-and-racial-justice-movement/?sh=1d00a60c6ba4">co-named</a>&nbsp;Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for the title.</p>



<h2 id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Musk is a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/05/08/elon-musk-snl-saturday-night-live-host-internet-controversy-485781" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">divisive</a>&nbsp;figure. While his&nbsp;<em>Time</em>&nbsp;profile makes clear he is widely considered a visionary, it also mentions that his companies have faced allegations of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/10/05/1043336212/tesla-racial-discrimination-lawsuit" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">racism</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-sued-by-second-female-worker-over-sexual-harassment-retaliation-2021-12-10/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sexual harassment</a>&nbsp;and been accused of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/18/tesla-workers-factory-conditions-elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">poor working conditions</a>, as well as extensive fines by regulators. As&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/13/media/slug-time-person-year-elon-musk/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CNN</a>&nbsp;pointed out,&nbsp;<em>Time</em>’s Person of the Year is “not necessarily considered an honor, since the selection could have wielded negative influence.” Past title holders include everyone from Greta Thunberg and Pope Francis to Vladimir Putin and even&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/08/19/fact-check-hitler-time-magazine-man-year-1938-not-honor/8149799002/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Adolf Hitler</a>.</p>



<h2 id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/?sh=627b29af7999">$265.4 billion</a>. That’s Musk’s net worth as of Monday, according to&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>.</p>



<h2 id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>The&nbsp;<em>Time</em>&nbsp;Person of the Year profile describes Musk a number of ways, including: “This is the man who aspires to save our planet and get us a new one to inhabit: clown, genius, edgelord, visionary, industrialist, showman, cad; a madcap hybrid of Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum, Andrew Carnegie and&nbsp;<em>Watchmen</em>’s Doctor Manhattan, the brooding, blue-skinned man-god who invents electric cars and moves to Mars.”</p>



<h2 id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p>“<a href="https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2021-elon-musk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Elon Musk: Person of the Year 2021</a>” (<em>Time</em>)</p>



<p>“<a href="https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2021-elon-musk-choice/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Why TIME Chose Elon Musk as the 2021 Person of the Year</a>&nbsp;(<em>Time</em>)</p>



<p>“<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/13/media/slug-time-person-year-elon-musk/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Time Person of the Year: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, named most influential of 2021</a>” (CNN)</p>



<p>“<a href="https://www.today.com/news/time-2021-person-year-elon-musk-t242943" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Time 2021 Person of the Year: Elon Musk</a>” (<em>Today</em>)</p>



<p>“<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/elizahaverstock/2021/10/26/elon-musk-nearing-300-billion-fortune-is-the-richest-person-in-history/?sh=345fd6081933">Elon Musk, Nearing $300 Billion Fortune, Is The Richest Person In History</a>” (<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p>“<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/time-person-of-the-year/3/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Complete list of every TIME Person of the Year for the last 25+ years, from Trump to Putin to Obama</a>” (CBS News)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/teakvetenadze/"></a><strong><em>By Téa Kvetenadze, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


TIME Person of the Year

Elon Musk Named Time Person Of The Year


<p><strong>TOPLINE</strong> Shares of Tesla, one of the past year&#8217;s best-performing stocks, continued to rack up massive losses Tuesday after Chief Executive Elon Musk over the weekend sparked concerns that he would sell 10% of his stake in the electric car maker, casting doubts on the long-term viability of the stock’s meteoric gains.</p>



<h2 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>After falling nearly 5% on Monday, shares of Tesla plummeted another 12% Tuesday to $1,023.50, pushing the firm’s market capitalization down by about $140 billion and marking the stock’s worst one-day drop since falling 21% on Sept. 8, 2020.</p>



<p>Fueling concerns on Tuesday, storied hedge fund investor Michael Burry, who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/opinion/04burry.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">famously predicted</a>&nbsp;the housing bubble that sparked the Great Recession,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/the-big-short-investor-michael-burry-says-elon-musk-may-want-to-sell-tesla-stock-to-cover-his-personal-debts-and-compares-the-current-market-to-the-dutch-tulip-bubble/ar-AAQuZMw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">emerged</a>&nbsp;from a Twitter hiatus to say Musk “NEEDS to sell” to help personal service loans he’s taken using Tesla shares as collateral.</p>



<p>Though Musk remains the richest person in the world, his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/">fortune</a>&nbsp;tanked by about $33.7 billion Tuesday,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2021/11/09/elon-musks-fortune-plunges-by-nearly-29-billion-tuesday-as-tesla-shares-slide/">falling</a>&nbsp;to $271 billion and racking up two-day losses of nearly $50 billion.</p>



<p>Triggering the two-day stock decline, Musk on Saturday&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1457064697782489088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1457064697782489088%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fembedly.forbes.com%2Fwidgets%2Fmedia.html%3Ftype%3Dtext2Fhtmlkey%3Dcfc0fb0733504c77aa4a6ac07caaffc7schema%3Dtwitterurl%3Dhttps3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Felonmusk%2Fstatus%2F1457064697782489088image%3Dhttps3A%2F%2Fi.embed.ly%2F1%2Fimage3Furl3Dhttps253A252F252Fabs.twimg.com252Ferrors252Flogo46x38.png26key3D8804248494c144f5b4765c41f66c6ed5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">called</a>&nbsp;on Twitter users to help decide whether he should sell 10% of his roughly 23% stake in Tesla in response to a short-lived proposal in Congress that would have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2021/10/27/new-billionaire-wealth-tax-targeting-assets-of-700-richest-americans-unveiled-heres-how-the-democratic-plan-would-work/">taxed</a>&nbsp;billionaires’ unrealized stock gains to help curb tax avoidance among the ultrawealthy.</p>



<p>Despite the selloff, analysts at both Wedbush and Jefferies increased their Tesla price targets on Monday to $1,800 and $1,400, respectively, with Wedbush’s Dan Ives saying the stock could soar as much as 65% over the next year thanks to better-than-expected profit margins unveiled in the third quarter.</p>



<p>But other analysts aren’t so sure: Tesla stock holds an average price target of $810 based out of 35 firms issuing such guidance, according to Bloomberg, representing about 25% downside to Tuesday’s closing price.</p>



<h2 id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p><strong>$1 trillion.</strong>&nbsp;That’s Tesla’s market value after the two-day plunge. Shares have slipped nearly 17% from an all-time high on Thursday, but are still up 150% over the past year, compared to 32% for the S&amp;P 500.</p>



<h2 id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Musk’s weekend tweets sparked investor concerns that Tesla’s stock could struggle to hold on to its recent gains amid a massive liquidation after the poll&nbsp;<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2021/11/07/elon-musks-twitter-followers-vote-for-him-to-sell-10-of-tesla-stock/">closed</a>&nbsp;with nearly 58% of the more than 3.5 million respondents voting in support of the proposal. Musk, who pledged in a separate tweet to “abide by the results of [the] poll,” owns about 23% of Tesla’s total shares. On Monday, Ives said investors should not be “overly concerned about” the possible transaction because it was already expected that Musk would sell about 6% of his stake to help pay a big tax bill coming due from stock options set to expire next August. In a note, Oanda analyst Ed Moya also chalked up Musk’s motivations to the impending tax bill.</p>



<h2 id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>“We would rather Musk rip the Band-Aid off now and sell this portion of stock rather than it lingering over the next year and feeding into any bear thesis,” Ives said Monday.</p>



<h2 id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>Since Tesla went public on the Nasdaq exchange in 2010, Musk has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2021/11/07/heres-how-much-elon-musk-would-pay-in-taxes-if-he-sells-10-of-his-tesla-stock/?sh=5c90d8c1115a">only sold</a>&nbsp;stock twice. In July 2010, Musk sold slightly more than 1.4 million shares for $24 million, and in 2016, he sold another 2.7 million shares for about $593 million.</p>



<h2 id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2021/11/09/elon-musks-fortune-plunges-by-nearly-29-billion-tuesday-as-tesla-shares-slide/">Elon Musk’s Fortune Plunges By Nearly $29 Billion Tuesday As Tesla Shares Slide</a>&nbsp;<em>(Forbes)</em></p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2021/11/07/heres-how-much-elon-musk-would-pay-in-taxes-if-he-sells-10-of-his-tesla-stock/">Here&#8217;s How Much Elon Musk Would Pay In Taxes If He Sells 10% Of His Tesla Stock</a>&nbsp;<em>(Forbes)</em></p>



<p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2021/11/07/elon-musks-twitter-followers-vote-for-him-to-sell-10-of-tesla-stock/">Elon Musk&#8217;s Twitter Followers Vote For Him To Sell 10% Of Tesla Stock</a>&nbsp;<em>(Forbes)</em></p>



<p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/11/06/elon-musk-says-hell-sell-10-of-his-tesla-stock-if-twitter-users-vote-for-him-to/">Elon Musk Says He&#8217;ll Sell 10% Of His Tesla Stock If Twitter Users Vote For Him To</a> <em>(Forbes)</em></p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/"></a><strong><em>By Jonathan Ponciano, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Tesla Stock Wipes $140 Billion In Worst One-Day Decline This Year After Elon Musk Teases Massive Sale


<p id="h-the-company-is-at-a-standoff-with-the-modi-government-which-wants-musk-to-commit-to-building-electric-vehicles-locally-before-providing-subsidies-or-waiving-tariffs-that-make-importing-teslas-prohibitively-expensive"><strong>The company is at a standoff with the Modi government, which wants Musk to commit to building electric vehicles locally before providing subsidies or waiving tariffs that make importing Teslas prohibitively expensive.</strong></p>



<p><em>by&nbsp;Aayushi Pratap&nbsp;and&nbsp;Alan Ohnsman</em></p>



<p>AFP PHOTO/ROBERTO SCHMIDT/PATRICK PLEUL/DPA-ZENTRALBILD/GETTY IMAGESGETTY IMAGES. DESIGN BY FORBES</p>



<p>W<strong>hen Tesla opened pre-orders</strong>&nbsp;for its Model 3 electric sedan in India in 2016, Arun Bhat, a businessman in the southern city of Bengaluru and an ardent Elon Musk fan, was among the first in the country to pre-book his dream car. Bhat even got rid of four luxury vehicles to make space for it.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“I thought Tesla would launch in India in the next couple of years,” Bhat says. “I just love the product and the minimalist interior.” Five years later, his wait continues.</p>



<p>The world’s most valuable automaker, with a market cap now topping $1 trillion that makes Musk the richest person in history, is at a high point, both in profit and global sales this year. The company has a shot at delivering a record 1 million electric vehicles worldwide in 2021. Yet after years of floating the idea of selling Teslas in India, Musk has yet to figure out how to do that, even as his focus on the market intensifies. In recent weeks the company has stepped up its push,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-lobbies-modis-office-india-slash-taxes-before-it-enters-market-sources-2021-10-20/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">led by the company’s local policy chief, Manuj Khurana</a>, to get a waiver of steep import fees that would almost double the price of imported Teslas. Instead, the Modi government wants Tesla to commit to local production.</p>



<p>India&#8217;s&nbsp;<a href="https://vahan.parivahan.gov.in/makermodel/vahan/dashboard.xhtml" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ministry of Road Transport and Highways</a>&nbsp;approved four Tesla variants for local sale earlier this year. And although Tesla has yet to announce a formal plan for India, it’s already secured retail space in Mumbai, registered an office in Bengaluru and is making key hires to support sales in the country. For now, things are at an impasse. Setting up local manufacturing would take at least a year and a hefty investment from Tesla, and starting with sales of imported vehicles is a non-starter without a tariff waiver. India’s “import duties are the highest in the world by far of any large country!” Musk told a local&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1418641920595791872?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fan on Twitter</a>&nbsp;in July. Without waiver relief, India’s import tariff means that a Tesla Model 3, which starts at about $44,000 in the U.S. would have to sell for about $80,000 in India for the company to turn a profit, according to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cardekho.com/cars/Tesla" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">local estimates</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large"><p>“India’s import duties are the highest in the world by far of any large country!”—Elon Musk via Twitter</p></blockquote>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<p>But that’s not the only hurdle. There’s limited electric vehicle charging infrastructure, a lack of significant incentives for electric car buyers and India’s road infrastructure presents challenges. Despite a massive population of 2.2 billion people, India is also a relatively small auto market, with sales of fewer than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ibef.org/industry/india-automobiles.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">3.5 million passenger and commercial autos in 2020</a>. There’s even less demand for both EVs and luxury autos. Only about 5,000 battery-powered vehicles were purchased in India last year, such as those made by Bangalore-based Mahindra Electric, accounting for less than 0.5% of total sales.</p>



<p>“It’s like what they used to say about China: ‘a billion people without money is not a market,’” says Michael Dunne, a long-time analyst and advisor on the auto industry in Asia who runs San Diego-based consultancy&nbsp;<a href="https://www.zozogo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Zozo Go</a>. “That&#8217;s kind of where we are with India. You have an active concentration of wealth and then everybody else who&#8217;s just scraping by. The median average price of a new car sold in India is going to be less than $10,000—a lot less than a Tesla.”</p>



<p>So why bother? Tesla is growing quickly throughout the world, expanding production and sales in China, awaiting German government permission to start building electric vehicles at its Giga Berlin plant and preparing to make Teslas in Austin, Texas.&nbsp;</p>



<p>India, although it’s the world’s second-most populous country, isn’t a particularly attractive market today, but it has a growing, tech-savvy middle class. And like China, its consumer market has massive long-term potential. India’s government is also starting to take steps to encourage EV sales to curb toxic emissions, offering buyers enticements including lower registration fees and road taxes—though it isn’t offering the kinds of incentives seen in the U.S. and Europe that can knock thousands of dollars off the purchase price.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Geopolitical tension between India and China is a further complication as Tesla lobbies the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-lobbies-modis-office-india-slash-taxes-before-it-enters-market-sources-2021-10-20/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Modi government</a>&nbsp;for tariff relief. Road and Transportation Minister Nitin Gadkari has warned the carmaker against shipping vehicles built at its Shanghai plant for sale in India, telling Musk to build locally. “You should manufacture electric cars in India and also export cars from India,” he said in media interviews this month. If Musk agrees to do that, Gadkari said he assured the CEO that Tesla will receive significant government support.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Mercurial billionaire Musk has teased the possibility of Indian production—as an enticement for a tariff waiver. “If Tesla is able to succeed with imported vehicles, then a factory in India is quite likely,” Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1418656085267865602?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted in July</a>. But the Modi government hasn’t bent in its demand for the company to commit to local production before it considers a waiver or subsidies. Tesla didn’t respond to email inquiries on the matter, and Tesla executives didn’t provide an update on the company’s plans for the country during its quarterly earnings call in October.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large"><p>“You (Musk) should manufacture electric cars in India and also export cars from&nbsp;India”.–Nitin Gadkari, India’s Road and Transportation Minister</p></blockquote>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<p>India would be a compelling base to build vehicles for other markets Musk has yet to enter, including much of Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, says Dunne of Zozo Go. Tesla may want to follow the path of Hyundai Motor, which has turned its Indian operations into a massive source of exports, shipping&nbsp;<a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/auto/cars/story/hyundai-exports-2020-21-creta-venue-i20-verna-nios-others-1791729-2021-04-16" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">more than a 1 million cars and crossovers to 88 international markets</a>&nbsp;during its last fiscal year.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>In the years to come an Indian export base could also become “a counterbalance or counterweight to all the eggs (Musk) currently has placed in China,” Dunne says.</p>



<p>Despite some eager local fans, auto analyst Bakar Sadik Agwan with GlobalData in Hyderabad, India, sees significant local hurdles for Tesla. Notably, there are so few charging stations that using a Tesla to travel between cities will be impossible unless the company sets up its own network. “They will need a strong sales network, they need a service network and as well as they need their own charging infrastructure,” says Agwan.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Pricing is also a big hurdle. In the U.S. the cheapest Tesla Model 3 starts at $40,000. Even if Musk gets a tariff waiver, that&#8217;s too expensive for the vast majority of locals, putting Tesla in the luxury car bracket. In 2020 Indians bought just 30,000 luxury vehicles, Agwan says.</p>



<p>As a result, Tesla might sell fewer than 150 cars in its first five years in India, according to Soumen Mandal, a Counterpoint Technology Market Research analyst in Gurugram, India.</p>



<p>Local roads are yet another challenge. Many aren’t mapped on GPS and traffic in dense cities is often blocked—in some places by stray&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-08-23/stray-cattle-india-get-glow-dark-horns-prevent-crashes-vehicles" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cattle and dogs</a>. Tesla’s Autopilot feature “where you just plug in the address from point A to point B won&#8217;t work in India,” says Jay Shah, a businessman in Ahmedabad in western India who has also pre-booked his Tesla. “The roads are not marked, there are animals on the road, there are two-wheelers on the roads, so it is next to impossible.”</p>



<p>Long-time Tesla fan Bhat is optimistic he’s close to finally getting his vehicle. (He’s now more interested in a Model Y compact SUV than the Model 3 he pre-ordered.) To ensure that Musk knows he’s got local support, Bhat created a Twitter page with fellow enthusiast Nikhil Chaudhary to “pester” their hero and share the latest on Tesla’s India plans. In 2020, when other fans asked Musk on Twitter whether there was progress on the local launch, the American CEO replied “next year for sure.” The phrase has become an inside joke between Bhat and Chaudhary.</p>



<p>Even if Bhat has to pay a steep price for his Tesla, he says it will be worth it was given the long-term fuel savings. But mainly he just really wants one.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“We have everything figured out,” Bhat says. “Only the car is missing.”<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/aayushipratap/"></a><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/aayushipratap/">Aayushi Pratap</a>. </p>


Billionaire Elon Musk Receives Axel Springer Award

Tesla’s India Fans Are Eager To Buy Elon Musk’s Cars, But Politics Is Getting In The Way


<p>Tesla’s robust deliveries of electric Model Ys and 3s helped the Elon Musk-led carmaker post record net income of $1.6 billion in the third quarter, despite component sourcing headaches that have slowed the entire global auto industry, as it prepares to open massive new plants in Germany and Texas.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The&nbsp;<a href="https://tesla-cdn.thron.com/static/TWPKBV_TSLA_Q3_2021_Quarterly_Update_SI1AKE.pdf?xseo=&amp;response-content-disposition=inline%3Bfilename%3D%22TSLA-Q3-2021-Quarterly-Update.pdf%22" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">company said</a>&nbsp;earnings per share for the three months that ended on September 30 rose more than fourfold from a year ago to $1.44 on a GAAP basis or to $2.09, excluding certain items. Consensus analyst expectations were for $1.67. Quarterly revenue was $13.8 billion, up 57% from a year ago and in line with analysts’ expectations of as much as $13.9 billion. Sales regulatory credits to other automakers, a long-time source of free money, dropped 30% to $279 million.</p>



<p>“We were also able to achieve an annualized production run rate of over 1 million cars toward the end of the quarter. That increase in production rate has primarily been driven by further ramping of the Model Y at our Shanghai factory,” Tesla CFO Zack Kirkhorn said during an earnings call. Still, “due to part shortages and logistics variability we have not been able to run our factories at full capacity.”</p>



<p>The company is in a transition phase this year as it prepares to dramatically boost global production. Tesla is awaiting approval in Germany to begin building vehicles at its new Giga Berlin factory and also will soon begin production at its Gigafactory Texas near Austin. The addition of both facilities should boost its global production footprint by more than 50% in 2022.</p>



<p>“We believe the current supply chain issues have taken roughly 40,000 cars off the annual numbers for Tesla,” Dan Ives, an equity analyst with Wedbush Securities, said in a research note. “Despite this dynamic Musk &amp; Co. should near the 900,000 mark for 2021 with a 1.3 million to 1.4 million unit bogey for 2022.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>Tesla previously reported&nbsp;<a href="https://ir.tesla.com/press-release/tesla-q3-2021-vehicle-production-deliveries" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">delivering 241,300 vehicles</a>&nbsp;worldwide in the quarter, the most ever, and built 237,823 cars at its plants in California and China. So far this year the company, which is shifting its headquarters to Austin, Texas, has delivered 627,427 vehicles to global customers.</p>



<p>The company’s Fremont, California, plant, which built more than 430,000 EVs in the last four quarters, currently can produce as many as 600,000 units. Meanwhile, its new Shanghai, China, plant, a major source of vehicle exports, accounted for much of the volume growth during the quarter. Tesla estimates it can produce more than 450,000 Model 3s and Ys annually.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“China is the star of the show after headwinds earlier this year,” said Ives, who has an Outperform rating and $1,000 target price on Tesla shares.</p>



<p>Still, during the quarter Tesla said it “saw a continuation of global supply chain, transportation and other manufacturing challenges. We continue to run our production lines as close to full capacity as conditions allow.”</p>



<p>The company expects final approval to begin German production of the Model Y before the end of the year, though high-volume output will takes months to achieve, Kirkhorn said. The Austin plant will also initially build Model Ys and, eventually, the polarizing Cybertruck electric pickup.</p>



<p><strong>A Musk-less Results Call</strong></p>



<p>Notably, Musk didn’t participate in the earnings call with analysts (as he said would likely be the case earlier this year). Earlier in the week he lashed out on Twitter at Duke University professor of engineering and computer science Missy Cummings, who’s been tapped to serve as a senior adviser to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal agency that regulates automotive rules. Cummings has pointed out shortcomings in Tesla’s Autopilot system and taken issues with its so-called Full Self-Driving feature.</p>



<p>“Objectively, her track record is extremely biased against Tesla,”&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1450653942938054656?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Musk tweeted</a>&nbsp;to his 61 million followers. Cummings responded that she’s happy to sit down and with him anytime.</p>



<p>During the earnings call, however, Tesla executives said they supported NHTSA’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2021/08/16/us-launches-broad-investigation-into-tesla-autopilot-over-numerous-crashes/?sh=a72aeda58b59">increased scrutiny of its partially automated</a>&nbsp;driving system, while avoiding any comment on Musk’s tweets.</p>



<p>“We expect and embrace the scrutiny of these products and know that the truth about their performance and the innovations our products have will ultimately be all that matters,” said Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of engineering.</p>



<p>Kirkhorn, in a very non-Musk response, said NHTSA’s review “is a great thing” for Tesla.</p>



<p>The stock was little changed in Nasdaq trading on Wednesday, rising 0.2% to close at $865.80.&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;estimates Musk’s net worth, as Tesla’s biggest shareholder, is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/?sh=32792d197999">$219.9 billion</a>.</p>



<p>&nbsp;<strong><em>By Alan Ohnsman, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


GERMANY-AUTOMOBILE-TESLA-MUSK

Tesla Notches Record $1.6 Billion Quarterly Net As It Readies Global Production Push


<p>Tesla, born in Silicon Valley in the early 2000s, is moving its headquarters to Texas where the electric-car maker’s billionaire CEO Elon Musk already lives, though it will continue building vehicles in the San Francisco Bay Area.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Musk made the announcement Thursday evening at the company’s annual shareholders meeting, held at Tesla’s nearly complete Texas Gigafactory near Austin. He didn’t specify the precise timing of when the current headquarters in Palo Alto would close, though the move is not entirely unexpected.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“To be clear though, we will be continuing to expand our activities in California,” Musk said. “This is not a matter of Tesla leaving California. Our intention is to actually increase output from Fremont and from a gig in Nevada by 50%.”</p>



<p>Though California remains Tesla’s biggest market in the U.S. and largest source of vehicle production, Musk has soured on the state in recent years, most notably after health officials in Alameda County, where the company&#8217;s Fremont factory is located, set restrictions to protect worker safety and health during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Musk, whose views have grown more libertarian over the years, moved to Austin in 2020.</p>



<p>California Governor Gavin Newsom, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-gavin-newsom-tax-returns-20170509-htmlstory.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tesla owner</a>, had&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/19/gavin-newsom-not-worried-about-elon-musk-moving-tesla-from-california.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told CNBC</a>&nbsp;in May 2020 interview that he wasn’t “concerned about Elon leaving anytime soon” after Musk initially threatened to do so.</p>



<p>Yet Musk has increasingly bristled at strict rules in California while warming to the appeal of cheaper, less-regulated Texas. In September, after the state passed a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/09/02/biden-vows-action-against-texas-abortion-ban-with-whole-of-government-effort/?sh=2426ab856acf">strict abortion law</a>, and following its tighter rules on voting and loosening of gun regulations, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the billionaire entrepreneur “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2021/09/02/elon-musk-likes-the-social-policies-in-texas-according-to-governor-amid-abortion-furor/?sh=2ec74fea6649">likes the social policies</a>” there.</p>



<p>“California is the birthplace of innovation, the 5th largest economy in the world and home to the biggest ideas and companies on the planet—that success is not despite our progressive policies, but because of them,” said Erin Mellon, a spokesperson for Newsom.</p>



<p>“We stand up for our workers, public health, and a woman’s right to choose. These are California’s fundamental values, and we’ll continue creating more jobs than any other state, outpacing the nation’s economic recovery, and maintaining the lowest COVID-19 case rates in the country,” she said.</p>



<p>Tesla’s headquarters move is the first by an automaker in the state since Toyota similarly announced plans to move its North American headquarters from suburban Los Angeles to suburban Dallas.&nbsp;Electric vehicle startups Lucid Motors, Fisker Inc. and Rivian currently are based in California.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img decoding="async" src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F615f80929b080124edd0d297%2FTesla-leaving-california-for-texas%2F0x0.jpg%3FcropX1%3D78%26cropX2%3D1521%26cropY1%3D0%26cropY2%3D752" alt="Tesla-leaving-california-for-texas"/><figcaption>Tesla&#8217;s Texas Gigafactory is to begin vehicle production by the end of 2021.&nbsp;<small>TESLA</small></figcaption></figure></div>



<p>“We believe this was a smart strategic move for Tesla as the company is aggressively building out its Austin footprint and over time with Cybertruck and more Model 3/Y production Musk is now doubling down on its Texas footprint with capacity ramping into 2022,” Daniel Ives, an equity analyst for Wedbush Securities, said in a research note. “While Fremont will continue to be a key for Tesla around Model 3 production, we believe this was the first step towards Tesla making Austin its domestic and global foundational location over the coming decade with its recent frustration with California officials likely accelerating this move.”</p>



<p>Among the issues Musk cited were the company’s need for additional space, expensive home prices in the Bay Area and long commutes for workers.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“We’re here in Austin and our factory is like five minutes from the airport, 15 minutes from downtown,” Musk said. “We&#8217;re going to create an ecological paradise here on the Colorado River. It’s gonna be great.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>Tesla shares rose 1.4% in Nasdaq trading on Thursday to $793.61.</p>



<p><strong><em>By Alan Ohnsman, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


gettyimages-490597722-594×594

Musk Is Moving Tesla’s Headquarters From California To Texas


<p><strong>It’s been a rollercoaster year among the very wealthiest, with Musk, Jeff Bezos and LVMH’s Bernard Arnault all vying for the number one spot.</strong></p>



<p>Athree-way race for the title of wealthiest person in the world intensified Thursday as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/">Elon Musk</a>, worth an estimated $177.4 billion at the day’s end, overtook French luxury magnate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bernard-arnault/">Bernard Arnault</a>&nbsp;for second place. Arnault, who held pole position to start the week, got nearly $21 billion poorer over the past two days as LVMH shares tumbled 12.6%. That led to Amazon founder&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jeff-bezos/">Jeff Bezos</a>&nbsp;reclaiming the top spot with a fortune estimated at $185.5 billion.</p>



<p>It’s been a rollercoaster year atop the billionaire ranks. Since January, the three have periodically jockeyed for the lead on&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>’&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/">real-time tracker</a>&nbsp;of the world’s richest people, with each coming out on top—and losing the title—multiple times over the past eight months.</p>



<p>The constant shuffling is unusual. Over the first three decades after&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;began tracking billionaires’ net worths in 1987, only six people held the title of world’s richest person. In the early years, two Japanese real estate moguls—Yoshiaki Tsutsumi and Taikichiro Mori—topped the list, until&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/">Bill Gates</a>&nbsp;came along in the late 1990s. From 1997 to 2017, Gates dominated the list, save for a single year when&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/warren-buffett/">Warren Buffett</a>&nbsp;took the top spot (2008) and a three-year stint when Mexico’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/carlos-slim-helu/">Carlos Slim Helu</a>&nbsp;wrested the title (2010 through 2013). (Spanish retailer&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/amancio-ortega/">Amancio Ortega</a>&nbsp;also grabbed the top spot for a few hours in 2015, and a couple days in 2016.)&nbsp;</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h3 id="h-race-to-the-top">RACE TO THE TOP</h3>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1024" height="750" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screenshot-2021-08-20-at-13.39.52-1024x750.png" alt="" class="wp-image-52223" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screenshot-2021-08-20-at-13.39.52-1024x750.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screenshot-2021-08-20-at-13.39.52-300x220.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screenshot-2021-08-20-at-13.39.52-768x563.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screenshot-2021-08-20-at-13.39.52-1536x1125.png 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screenshot-2021-08-20-at-13.39.52.png 1540w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Forbes.com</figcaption></figure>



<p>In recent years, the longtime Microsoft chief, has found himself firmly outside the top three thanks to gifts of stock to his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, transfers of at least $5 billion worth of shares in public companies to his ex-wife&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/melinda-french-gates/">Melinda French Gates</a>—and the meteoric rise of Bezos, Musk and Arnault.</p>



<p>Since early 2017—when Gates topped the World’s Billionaires list with an $86 billion net worth—Bezos has added more than $110 billion to his fortune on the back of skyrocketing Amazon stock, Arnault has ridden LVMH shares’ 225% climb to more than quadruple his net worth and Musk has had the steepest climb in history, gaining more than $150 billion in four years as Tesla has become the most valuable carmaker on the planet.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h2 id="h-jeff-bezos"><strong>Jeff Bezos</strong></h2>



<h3 id="h-net-worth-185-2-billion">Net worth: $185.2 billion</h3>



<h3 id="h-gain-in-past-12-months-6-6-billion">Gain in past 12 months: $6.6 billion</h3>



<h3 id="h-weeks-this-year-ended-at-no-1-26">Weeks this year ended at No. 1: 26</h3>



<p>Bezos, the longtime Amazon CEO and now executive chairman, has been the world’s richest for most of 2021. Bezos began the year in first place and, after briefly dropping to No. 2, he&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2021/01/16/jeff-bezos-once-again-the-worlds-richest-person-after-rollercoaster-week/">regained the No.1 spot</a>&nbsp;for about four months from mid-January until May. Bezos&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2021/06/10/after-two-weeks-at-no-2-jeff-bezos-is-once-again-the-richest-person-in-the-world/">returned to the top spot</a>&nbsp;on June 10, and maintained the lead for 50 days before losing footing when Amazon announced disappointing quarterly earnings in late July, which wiped $13.9 billion from his net worth in a single day. Even as Amazon’s stock continues to falter, an even shakier performance by the stock of Arnault’s LVMH helped Bezos to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrickcai/2021/08/18/jeff-bezos-again-richest-person-in-world/">once again become the richest person</a>&nbsp;on Wednesday.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h2 id="h-elon-musk"><strong>Elon Musk</strong></h2>



<h3 id="h-net-worth-177-1-billion">Net worth: $177.1 billion</h3>



<h3 id="h-gain-in-past-12-months-110-9-billion">Gain in past 12 months: $110.9 billion</h3>



<h3 id="h-weeks-this-year-ended-at-no-1-1">Weeks this year ended at No. 1: 1</h3>



<p>Musk’s fortune has grown by more than $100 billion in one year, thanks to an extraordinary rise in the stock price of electric vehicle maker Tesla. After a brief drop at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, shares rocketed in subsequent months. On January 8, 2021—with Tesla shares up more than 1,000% from the pandemic-period low—Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2021/01/08/elon-musk-is-now-the-richest-person-in-the-world-officially-surpassing-jeff-bezos/">first became</a>&nbsp;the world’s richest person, overtaking Bezos. For about a week, the two&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2021/01/11/elon-musk-falls-to-second-richest-person-in-the-world-after-his-fortune-drops-nearly-14-billion-in-one-day/">traded places</a>&nbsp;on a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2021/01/12/elon-musk-is-back-at-no-1-richest-person-in-the-world-after-tesla-stock-rebounds/">near-daily</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2021/01/13/elon-musk-falls-to-worlds-second-richest-person/">basis</a>, but as Tesla stock began to fall, Bezos solidified his position once again. Musk, meanwhile, was overtaken by Arnault and dropped down to third place for months beginning in April.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



<h2 id="h-bernard-arnault">Bernard<strong>&nbsp;Arnault</strong></h2>



<h3 id="h-net-worth-173-2-billion">Net worth: $173.2 billion</h3>



<h3 id="h-gain-in-past-12-months-61-9-billion">Gain in past 12 months: $61.9 billion</h3>



<h3 id="h-weeks-this-year-ended-at-no-1-6">Weeks this year ended at No. 1: 6</h3>



<p>Through <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2019/10/31/the-100-billion-man-how-bernard-arnault-stitched-together-the-worlds-third-biggest-fortune-with-louis-vuitton-dior-and-77-other-brandsand-why-hes-not-done-yet/">predatory instinct</a>, Arnault has built a luxury empire that is the largest company in Europe by market capitalization. His LVMH owns dozens of brands, including fashion mainstay Louis Vuitton, alcohol producer Hennessy and cosmetics retailer Sephora. Earlier this year, LVMH completed a $15.8 billion acquisition of jeweler Tiffany &amp; Co., victorious after a contentious saga that began with an unsolicited takeover bid. Arnault <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2021/05/21/french-luxury-tycoon-bernard-arnault-is-now-tied-with-jeff-bezos-for-richest-person-in-the-world/">first became the world’s richest person</a> in May and, after <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddawkins/2021/05/24/bernard-arnault-becomes-worlds-richest-person-as-lvmh-stock-rises/">some days</a> of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2021/05/27/bernard-arnault-becomes-the-richest-person-in-the-world-for-the-third-time-this-week/">jostling</a>, he managed to hold Bezos off for about two weeks. When shares in Amazon fell in late July, Arnault <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hanktucker/2021/07/30/bernard-arnault-once-again-the-worlds-richest-person-after-jeff-bezos-loses-nearly-14-billion-in-one-day/">reclaimed the number one position</a> and held on for most of August, before threats of Chinese wealth redistribution tanked European luxury stocks and caused Arnault’s fortune to plunge by more than $20 billion this week.</p>



<p><strong><em>By Kenrick Cai, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Elon Musk Visits Site Of New Tesla Gigafactory In Germany

Elon Musk Is Now The Second Richest Person In The World


<p>Elon Musk was in court in Delaware last week defending his role in Tesla’s acquisition of failing solar panel installer SolarCity in 2016. That questionable decision – SolarCity was founded by his cousins; Musk was its biggest shareholder and served on the board of both companies – triggered a shareholder lawsuit. Of course, not all of Musk’s misguided notions land him in Delaware Chancery Court, but many don’t pan out precisely as planned. “If I wasn’t optimistic I don’t think I would have started an electric car company or a rocket company,” <a href="https://twitter.com/WillOremus/status/1415012678020513794?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">he told the court</a>.In the case of the $2.6 billion SolarCity deal, the solar roof revolution he predicted in 2016 hasn’t materialized. But neither has an affordably priced Tesla, an all-electric semi, a robotaxi network or next-gen low-cost, high-capacity batteries. Ahead of a ruling in the SolarCity case, here’s a roundup of some of Musk’s bigger swings – and misses – from the last five years.  </p>



<h2 id="h-35-000-model-3"><strong>$35,000 Model 3</strong></h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/GettyImages-1008732814-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-51852" width="379" height="252" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/GettyImages-1008732814-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/GettyImages-1008732814-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/GettyImages-1008732814-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/GettyImages-1008732814-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/GettyImages-1008732814-2048x1366.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 379px) 100vw, 379px" /><figcaption>The general assembly of the Tesla Model 3 at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California, on Thursday, July 26, 2018. (Photo by Mason Trinca for The Washington Post via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



<h4 id="h-the-35-00-price-point-was-touted-for-years-as-the-model-3-s-key-appeal-no-longer-just-a-auto-for-the-rich-telsa-would-finally-make-a-mass-market-car-but-after-model-3-went-into-production-it-was-only-available-at-that-price-intermittently-before-being-scrubbed-currently-the-cheapest-version-starts-at-40-000-and-after-taxes-registration-and-add-ons-usually-sells-for-closer-to-50-000-meanwhile-starting-prices-for-tesla-s-bigger-model-s-and-x-have-risen-to-85-000-and-95-000-respectively-and-they-really-cost-more-than-100-000-with-options-taxes-and-delivery-charges">The $35,00 price point was touted for years as the Model 3’s key appeal. No longer just a auto for the rich, Telsa would finally make a mass-market car. But after Model 3 went into production it was only available at that price intermittently before being scrubbed. Currently the cheapest version starts at $40,000 and after taxes, registration and add-ons usually sells for closer to $50,000. Meanwhile, starting prices for Tesla’s bigger Model S and X have risen to $85,000 and $95,000, respectively, and they really cost more than $100,000 with options, taxes and delivery charges.</h4>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F60e8c1aec3268da90bbd4e49%2F0x0.jpg%3FcropX1%3D820%26cropX2%3D3181%26cropY1%3D0%26cropY2%3D2362" alt="Tesla-Semi_IR_8219-14-Courtesy Tesla" width="-471" height="-471"/><figcaption>TESLA</figcaption></figure></div>



<h2><strong><br>Tesla Semi</strong></h2>



<h4>Musk’s ambitions go beyond passenger vehicles and in November 2017 he unveiled his futuristic electric truck, promising it would go 500 miles per charge and be available around the end of 2019. As of July 2021, Tesla hasn’t announced a firm launch date or production site for the Semi and in June Jerome Guillen, the long-time head of the truck program, unexpectedly resigned.</h4>



<h2><strong>Tesla Roadster</strong></h2>



<h4>Unveiled in November 2017 along with the Semi, Musk said the Roadster would arrive in 2020, be the fastest production car ever made and go as far as 620 miles per charge. The anticipated tech wonder is expected to cost about $200,000 but there’s no firm launch date. </h4>



<h2><strong>Tesla Giga Berlin</strong></h2>



<h4>Musk wanted Tesla’s first European battery CK plant to open in July 2021. While much of the physical construction is complete, the plant lacks regulatory approval to begin operations, has stoked opposition from local environmentalists and faces fines related to water and sewerage issues. The current hope is that the plant will be open by early 2022.</h4>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/GettyImages-1270253742-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-51854" width="697" height="465" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/GettyImages-1270253742-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/GettyImages-1270253742-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/GettyImages-1270253742-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/GettyImages-1270253742-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/GettyImages-1270253742-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 697px) 100vw, 697px" /><figcaption>2: A sign marks Tesla Strasse (Tesla Street) at the construction site of the new Tesla Gigafactory near Berlin on September 02, 2020 near Gruenheide, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure></div>



<h2><strong>Tesla Full Self Driving&nbsp;</strong></h2>



<p>In October 2016 Musk announced that all Teslas were being built with the necessary computing power, sensors and cameras to allow them to eventually operate autonomously. At that time, he estimated that Full Self Driving capability would arrive in two to three years. The $10,000 feature, an enhancement of the company’s Autopilot system, was released in beta form in July, but after a series of horrific, fatal accidents Tesla now warns drivers that it “<a href="https://twitter.com/tesla_raj/status/1413764413165772803" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">may do the wrong thing at the worst time</a>” and that they need to use it with “additional caution”–suggesting that it isn’t ready for primetime.</p>



<h3><strong>Tesla Robotaxi Network</strong></h3>



<p>Musk said at Tesla’s Autonomy Day in October 2019 that by the end of 2020 “for sure, we will have over a million robotaxis on the road. … The fleet wakes up with an over-the-air update. That&#8217;s all it takes.” As a result of that capability, Tesla owners would be able to earn money from their vehicles by making them available for an autonomous, on-demand ride service the company would oversee. That hasn’t happened and there’s no indication that will be possible–or legal– in the near term.</p>



<h3><strong>Tesla Next-Generation Battery Cells</strong></h3>



<p>Musk touted a larger, beer-can size 4680 lithium battery cell in September 2020 that he claimed would be 56% cheaper and have five times the energy of the company’s current cells. He said pilot production of small batches at a lab in Silicon Valley was underway and that the company might be able to scale up to high-volume production within a year or two. Timing for production is unclear, but delays in manufacturing the cell appear to be part of the problem with launching Tesla’s Semi and Roadster. </p>



<h3><strong>Tesla Solar Production And Jobs&nbsp;</strong></h3>



<p>New York spent $950 million to build and equip a solar panel factory in Buffalo that SolarCity had big plans for. In exchange for the state’s generosity, the company was to create at least 1,460 jobs there. The future looked promising after Tesla purchased SolarCity in late 2016 and in December of that year Tesla said it “entered into a long-term agreement with Panasonic to manufacture photovoltaic cells at our Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, New York, with negotiated pricing provisions and the intent to manufacture 1 gigawatt of solar panels annually.” But in the years since, output of panels at the plant has been unclear. In 2020 Tesla reported delivering just 205 megawatts of solar panels, a quarter of what SolarCity installed in 2016. Tesla has also had difficulty maintaining the required headcount at the factory. Panasonic abandoned the facility last year, further reducing employment at the facility. Tesla has been given numerous extensions by the state. As of Memorial Day, it had 1,058 employees at the plant, and has until the end of 2021 to meet the 1,460-worker target or pay a $41 million penalty.</p>



<p><strong><em>By Alan Ohnsman, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Elon Musk’s Biggest Tesla Blunders Of The Last Five Years


<p><strong>After promising to sell nearly everything he owned last year including six mansions in California, Tesla’s billionaire CEO has taken up residence in a studio-apartment sized rental – here’s what it looks like inside and out.</strong></p>



<p>If you’re looking for the world’s third-richest person, you won’t find him living among the billionaires. After selling off most of his real estate assets and moving to Texas in the past year, Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1402718368633745410?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed</a> in early June that he now only owns one house (in the Bay Area)—and that his primary residence is a tiny box house that he says he rents from his rocket company, SpaceX. </p>



<p>The house, which is around 400 square feet, is located in Boca Chica, Texas, where SpaceX produces its Starships. Musk, who has a net worth of $169.8 billion according to&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>, rents a “<a href="https://www.chron.com/news/space/article/elon-musk-texas-house-boca-chica-16278768.php" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">foldable, prefabricated home</a>” made by Boxabl, a housing startup company. The house, which Musk tweeted sells for about $50,000, typically has a setup akin to a small studio apartment: One large room partitioned into a living room area, bedroom area, kitchen and bathroom. In contrast to many other billionaires who own lavish mansions, Musk lives in an easily transportable 20&#215;20 foot unit.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“It’s kinda awesome though,” Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1402718368633745410?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> on Twitter last month.</p>



<p>The 50-year-old mogul&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1256239554148724737?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first announced</a>&nbsp;plans to sell all of his homes and most of his possessions last year, in response to criticism of his massive wealth. Musk has now nearly made good on his promise to do so,selling six of his seven properties.</p>



<p>“Only house I own is the events house in the Bay Area. If I sold it, the house would see less use, unless bought by a big family, which might happen someday,” Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1402718368633745410?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;on Twitter last month.&nbsp;</p>



<p>A few days later, he&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1404336639938154497?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">confirmed</a>&nbsp;he had put it up for sale: “Decided to sell my last remaining house. Just needs to go to a large family who will live there. It’s a special place.”</p>



<p>The 47-acre property is located in Hillsborough, California—around halfway between San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The “over 100-year-old mansion” is a 16,000 square foot house that boasts nine bedrooms and ten bathrooms. It’s the last piece of real estate that Musk owns: He has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/891-Crystal-Springs-Rd_Hillsborough_CA_94010_M24423-37895" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">listed</a>&nbsp;it on the market for $37.5 million, having originally bought it for $23.4 million in 2017.</p>



<p>Musk has offloaded his Los Angeles real estate in the past year, often at slim profit margins—if any. He&nbsp;<a href="https://nypost.com/article/elon-musks-houses-homes-sold/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sold</a>&nbsp;his first mansion, located on Chalon Road, for $29 million in June 2020; he had purchased it for $17 million in 2012.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In October, he sold a 2,700 square foot ranch-style house that used to belong to Willy Wonka actor Gene Wilder for $7 million (Musk bought it for $6.75 million in 2013), with the&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1256255619239038977?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stipulation</a>&nbsp;that the house “cannot be torn down or lose any [of] its soul.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>In December, Musk sold&nbsp;<a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2020-12-30/elon-musk-sells-three-bel-air-homes-for-a-combined-40-9-million" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">four Bel Air properties</a>&nbsp;for a combined $61.89 million; He originally spent nearly $55 million on those properties, purchasing them between 2015 and 2019. Overall, Musk has made an estimated profit of $19.2 million on his six home sales over the past year.</p>



<p>Musk’s offloading of real estate comes after a battle with the state of California. The billionaire criticized the state’s coronavirus-related restrictions on operations at the Tesla factory in the Bay Area last year—<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/05/20/tesla-drops-lawsuit-against-alameda-county-over-factory-reopening/?sh=766e1f59c1bf">leading to a lawsuit</a> that Tesla later dropped—and also claimed that the state takes entrepreneurs for granted. In early December 2020, Musk <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/elanagross/2020/12/08/elon-musk-confirms-hes-moving-from-california-to-texas/?sh=421191e44948">confirmed</a> that he was moving to Texas, citing the fact that two of his biggest projects—Tesla’s new factory and a SpaceX facility-are located there.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Starbase, Texas <a href="https://t.co/mt4IpqqmjF">pic.twitter.com/mt4IpqqmjF</a></p>&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1368915472142401540?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p>It remains unclear whether Musk is renting any other houses in Austin, though. It’s also unknown if he stays with his girlfriend, 32-year-old singer Grimes (who&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1362064129377394694?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lives</a>&nbsp;in Austin) and their 10-month-old child, X AE A-XII. Musk has five other children with his first wife, Justine Wilson, but it’s unclear where they live.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F60df37ed215a75b9afaa4e5b%2F0x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale" alt="Musk Somera II by Fererico Winer for Forbes"/><figcaption>Somera Street Elon&#8217;s Homes from left to right 954 958 955&nbsp;<small>FEDERICO WINER FOR FORBES</small></figcaption></figure>



<h2 id="h-954-somera-rd-los-angeles">954 Somera Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<h5 id="h-sold-december-22-2020-for-29-719-000">Sold December 22, 2020 for $29,719,000</h5>



<h5 id="h-purchased-september-30-2016-for-24-250-000"><strong>Purchased September 30, 2016 for $24,250,000</strong></h5>



<h2 id="h-955-somera-rd-los-angeles">955 Somera Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<h5 id="h-sold-december-22-2020-for-4-443-000">Sold December 22, 2020 for $4,443,000</h5>



<h5 id="h-purchased-july-10-2015-for-4-300-000"><strong>Purchased July 10, 2015 for $4,300,000</strong></h5>



<h2 id="h-958-somera-rd-los-angeles">958 Somera Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<h5 id="h-sold-december-22-2020-for-6-774-500">Sold December 22, 2020 for $6,774,500</h5>



<h5 id="h-purchased-january-15-2019-for-6-400-000"><strong>Purchased January 15, 2019 for $6,400,000</strong></h5>



<h2><strong>10947 Chalon Rd, Los Angeles</strong></h2>



<h5><strong>Sold December 21, 2020 for&nbsp;</strong>$20,948,500</h5>



<h5><strong>Purchased July 28, 2015 for $20,000,000</strong></h5>



<h2><strong>10930 Chalon Rd, Los Angeles</strong></h2>



<h5>Sold October 8, 2020 for $7,000,000</h5>



<h5><strong>Purchased October 24, 2013 for $6,750,000</strong></h5>



<h2>10911 Chalon Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F60df2aafbd04bc615f446fdb%2F1960x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale" alt="10911 Chalon Rd by Dylan Stewart-Newscom"/></figure>



<h5>Sold June 12, 2020 for $29,000,000</h5>



<h5><strong>Purchased December 21, 2012 for $17,000,000</strong> </h5>



<p><strong><em>By Sergei Klebnikov, Forbes Staff</em></strong></p>


Where Elon Musk Lives Since He Pledged To Ditch ‘Almost All Physical Possessions’


<p><strong>Unexploded World War II bombs, protests over trees, water and animal habitats, union scrutiny and a labor review have hindered Tesla&#8217;s Berlin Gigafactory plans — but the biggest hurdle may come in the form of strict German regulations.</strong></p>



<p class="has-text-align-center"><strong>By Alan Ohnsman, Forbes Staff &amp; Sofia Lotto Persio, Forbes Staff</strong></p>



<p>Tesla had hit its stride in November 2019 when&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2019/11/12/willkommen-elon-musk-says-next-tesla-gigafactory-will-be-in-germany/?sh=163614f68b03">Elon Musk announced a massive electric car plant in Germany</a>, the heart of European auto-manufacturing. His Silicon Valley company was riding a booming share price fueled by the start of a string of quarterly profits and, more importantly, its Shanghai Gigafactory was coming together at an astonishing pace: It was about to begin making Model 3s just 11 months after the groundbreaking.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Emboldened by that success and cash from an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/7a3c8d9a-57bb-11e9-a3db-1fe89bedc16e" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">emissions credit sales deal with Fiat Chrysler</a>&nbsp;to fund it, the carmaker’s billionaire CEO and cofounder aimed to replicate it in leafy Grünheide, Germany, site of the future $4.9 billion (€4 billion) plant 24 miles east of Berlin. “Giga Berlin will come together at an impossible-seeming speed,” Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1287598172508958721?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>&nbsp;in July 2020. It hasn&#8217;t worked out that way.</p>



<p>Physical construction is nearing completion, but the plant may not start making Model Ys until 2022, months after an initial target of July 1–or even later, pending environmental approval from the state of Brandenburg. Tesla has had a much harder road than Musk envisioned. The company had to remove unexploded World War II shells at the site. It’s faced stiff opposition from environmentalists over chopping down hundreds of acres of trees, the plant’s voracious water needs and the disruption of bat and animal habitats. The plant is being <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/top-union-sets-sights-works-council-teslas-german-gigafactory-2021-05-07/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">eyed for organization by IG Metall</a>, Germany’s biggest labor union. The project is also under scrutiny for a possible <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/authorities-open-labour-probe-german-182635315.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">violation of labor laws during construction</a> and may be fined for installing sewer pipes without permission.</p>



<p>“Although things looked good regarding the Tesla facility up to a few weeks ago, a different reality can lie behind a facade,” says Matthias Schimdt, an independent auto analyst based in Berlin. He sees the project unfolding much like the capital city’s new airport, which was built quickly but saw its opening delayed nearly a decade as it struggled to win final approval to operate from German authorities. “This mustn&#8217;t be a carbon copy situation for Tesla, which is located just a stone&#8217;s throw from the new airport that eventually came into service last year,” Schimdt says. “It just goes to highlight that things aren&#8217;t easy in ‘bureaucratic hell’ Germany.”</p>



<p>Delays fulfilling Musk’s quest to tap the lucrative European market complicate the electric-car impresario’s efforts to stay ahead of mounting competition in battery-powered vehicles, especially from German automakers like Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW. Tesla may be the world’s most valuable carmaker, but it’s far from the biggest, having just a fraction of the production capacity of German, U.S., Japanese and Korean auto giants, delivering just under 500,000 vehicles last year versus VW’s 9.3 million. And while the company’s plant in China was a critical addition to its long-time production base in Fremont, California, Tesla can’t meet Musk’s long-held goal of producing millions of electric vehicles annually without Giga Berlin and a second U.S. auto-assembly plant under construction near Austin, Texas.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>“It just goes to highlight that things aren&#8217;t easy in &#8216;bureaucratic hell&#8217; Germany.”</p><cite>Auto analyst Matthias Schmidt<br></cite></blockquote>



<p>“Coming off the incredibly fast build of the Shanghai factory, they might have miscalculated how quickly they could get Berlin up and running–perhaps not fully accounting for the significant differences in regulatory and environmental standards,” says Garrett Nelson, senior equity analyst at CFRA Research. Construction also happened amid logistical and supply chain headaches related to the Covid-19 pandemic, he says. “Tesla is doing everything possible to stay on track with its guidance, but the reality is that first production could be delayed until early 2022.”</p>



<p>The company hasn’t confirmed reports that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/teslas-berlin-gigafactory-to-be-delayed-another-6-months-report-11619992994" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Musk agreed to a six-month delay</a>&nbsp;for the plant a few days after reassuring investors and analysts on Tesla’s April 26 results call that “both Texas and Berlin are progressing well.”</p>



<p>“We expect to have initial limited production from those factories this year and volume production from Texas and Berlin next year,” Musk said on the call. But during a surprise visit to the Grünheide construction site&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/elon-musk-visits-teslas-delayed-european-gigafactory-state-minister-says-2021-05-17/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Monday he told reporters</a>&nbsp;&#8220;I think there could be less bureaucracy. That would be better.&#8221;</p>



<p>&#8220;There should be some kind of active process for removal of rules. Otherwise, over time, the rules will just accumulate and you get more and more rules until eventually you can&#8217;t do anything,&#8221; Musk said, according to Reuters.</p>



<p>Analysts have already adjusted their models for Tesla to reflect the slowdown. “Giga Berlin is an early 2022 story,” says Dan Ives, an equity analyst for Wedbush. “Given the red tape in Europe this timeline remains bumpy but needs to be running by March 2022–otherwise production issues would be hampered.” </p>



<p>Germany’s role as a global auto powerhouse, with its strong parts supply base and reputation for high-quality engineering, lured Musk over other countries he eyed as sites for Tesla’s European plant. (He&nbsp;<a href="https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/tesla/108395/tesla-gigafactory-europe-to-be-built-in-germany-not-uk-as-elon-musk-blames-brexit" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">considered the U.K.</a>, but uncertainties related to Brexit ultimately proved too big a gamble.) Aside from selling vehicles in Germany, Tesla planted its flag there in 2016 with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2016/11/08/tesla-buying-germanys-grohmann-engineering-to-automate-accelerate-production/?sh=100c31523354">acquisition of Grohmann Engineering</a>, rebranded Tesla Grohmann Automation. The chance to square off against the country’s auto giants–which are also now aggressively focused on closing the electric vehicle gap with Tesla–on their home turf added to its appeal. For Economics Minister&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-02/germany-promises-musk-whatever-he-needs-for-tesla-berlin-plant" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Peter Altmaier</a>, Tesla’s decision to “build a highly modern factory for electric cars in Germany is further proof of the attractiveness of Germany as an automotive manufacturing base,” he said when the project was announced in 2019.</p>



<p>Given the headaches he’s run into, Musk may be “wondering whether that ‘Made in Germany’ stamp on the underbody of each model leaving the factory was worth it,” says analyst Schmidt.</p>



<p>Grünheide, in the state of Brandenburg, sits in what was East Germany, which&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/11/06/east-germany-has-narrowed-economic-gap-with-west-germany-since-fall-of-communism-but-still-lags/ft_19-11-01_eastwestgermanyecon_3/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">remains poorer than the rest of the country</a>&nbsp;since reunification 30 years ago. Local politicians were thrilled at the prospect of a project that would bring thousands of jobs and prestige to the area. “The whole region can look forward to new opportunities of development now thanks to the Tesla project which has really put Grünheide on the map globally,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gruenheide-mark.de/m/politik/person/31026/pamela-eichmann" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pamela Eichmann</a>, chair of the Grünheide (Mark) local council, told&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dw.com/en/locals-views-on-german-tesla-plant-irreconcilable-as-production-start-faces-delay/a-57405731" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Deutsche Welle</a>&nbsp;this month.</p>



<p>While the town’s leaders might be rooting for the factory, plenty of others are not. The plant occupies a space between the A10 highway and Fangschleuse railway station, but it’s also a few miles from the Löcknitztal nature reserve that’s had protected status since 1984 and been registered as a fauna-flora-habitat area (FFH) since 1998. Grünheide literally translates as “Green Heath” from German.</p>



<p>So when one of the first steps to ready the 300-hectare site for Musk’s gigafactory was&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/joergstb/status/1227992011699052545?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">chopping down about 430 acres of forest</a>, it wasn’t the best start–particularly for a company whose motto is “accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”</p>



<p>Environmentalists temporarily blocked tree-cutting operations in early 2020, but Tesla <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/21/tesla-gets-german-court-approval-to-chop-down-trees-for-gigafactory-4.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">won court approval,</a> initially to remove 92 hectares of trees, and then 82.8 hectares more. Musk downplayed the quality of the trees he cut down, tweeting in January 2020 that “this is not a natural forest—it was planted for use as cardboard &amp; only a small part will be used for” the Berlin gigafactory. The company has also pledged to <a href="https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-gigafactory-berlin-reforestation-video/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">plant three times</a> as many trees as it cut down, though <a href="https://www.zmescience.com/science/agriculture-science/cutting-down-trees-and-planting-new-ones-is-wrecking-the-soil/#:~:text=Continuously%20cutting%20down%20forests%20and,crucial%20minerals%2C%20new%20analysis%20shows.&amp;text=It's%20always%20a%20good%20idea,you%20cut%20some%20old%20ones." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">scientists generally warn</a> that planting new trees is not as effective as a carbon-capture strategy as maintaining existing ones. Local environmental groups were also concerned about the disruption deforestation would <a href="https://www.loecknitztal.de/home/stellungnahme-zu-tesla/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cause to animals</a> inhabiting the forest. Site preparation in Grünheide <a href="https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/tesla-searches-bats-and-resettles-ants-preparation-german-gigafactory" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">included relocating bats and ants</a> living in the forest and removal of <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/germany-defuses-wwii-bombs-at-tesla-gigafactory-site/a-52157407" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">seven unexploded bombs dropped by the U.S. during World War II</a>.</p>



<p>The amount of water the plant will use and its impact on the region also concern local environmentalists, “because most of the factory ground belongs to a drinking water protection area and very close to the factory are two nature protection areas which are very sensitive to changes in the ground water level,” says Christiane Schroeder, managing director at the Brandenburg branch of NABU (Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union), one of the oldest and largest environmental non-profits in Germany, and a leading opponent of the Gigafactory.</p>



<p>Making matters worse, Tesla ran afoul of the district’s water authority, which discovered water pipes that had been installed without its permission. Tesla was allowed to continue construction work on April 12 after a brief suspension, but still faces a potential fine for the infraction, the Brandenburg Ministry for Agriculture, Environment and Climate Protection tells&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>. Separately, the State Office for Occupational Safety and other agencies are&nbsp;<a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/authorities-open-labour-probe-german-182635315.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported to be investigating whether Tesla violated rules</a>&nbsp;for minimum wages, working hours, conditions and worker housing during plant construction.</p>



<p>Ultimately, the plant won’t be permitted to begin production until it has secured all necessary permits, a process that can grind on, Schmidt says.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>“Very close to the factory are two nature protection areas which are very sensitive to changes in the ground water level”</p><cite>Environmentalist Christiane Schroeder<br></cite></blockquote>



<p>IG Metall, Germany’s biggest labor union with 2.2 million members, represents workers at Tesla’s engineering unit there and initially&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-tesla-gigafactory-germany-idUKKBN1XM2M0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">welcomed the company’s gigafactory plan</a>. It had previously attempted to organize Tesla’s Grohmann unit, but the company boosted salaries there to block the effort. The union intends to set up a works council and organize future employees at Giga Berlin, union chief Joerg Hofmann&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/top-union-sets-sights-works-council-teslas-german-gigafactory-2021-05-07/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told Reuters this month</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>That’s anathema to anti-union Musk. In California he’s worked to keep the United Auto Workers out of Tesla’s Fremont plant–a union factory in its previous incarnations as both a Toyota-General Motors joint venture and GM facility. Tesla was found to have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/case/32-CA-220777" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">engaged in unfair labor practices by the National Labor Relations Board</a>, including efforts to interrogate workers it suspected were part of the union push at Fremont. That 2019 ruling was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/25/tesla-nlrb-ruling/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">upheld in March 2021</a>&nbsp;and Musk was ordered to delete a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/998454539941367808?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2018 tweet</a>&nbsp;discouraging Fremont workers from joining the UAW. (He has yet to do so.)</p>



<p>For now, IG Metall is waiting for operational details for the Grünheide facility, including whether Tesla intends to follow the round-the-clock, three-shift approach used in the U.S. and China, and adhere to German wage and working condition rules. “We give Tesla the benefit of the doubt regarding what the labor standards will look like in the long run,” says Birgit Dietze, IG Metall’s regional head. </p>



<p>Long-time China auto analyst (and Tesla owner) Michael Dunne, whose ZoZo Go consultancy works with auto and parts makers across Asia, thinks Tesla’s exceptionally fast start in China led it to move too quickly in Germany. “I imagine Tesla thinking something like, ‘China is rife with regulations, licenses and government intervention, but we sorted that out in less than a year. Bring on Berlin!” he says. Powerful government allies eased the way for Tesla in China, that’s not an option in Germany, Dunne says. “One’s a democracy, the other one’s not. It’s rule by whim in China. Unlike in Germany, there&#8217;s no court of public opinion.”</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>“I imagine Tesla thinking something like, ‘China is rife with regulations, licenses and government intervention, but we sorted that out in less than a year. Bring on Berlin!”</p><cite>Zozo Go founder Michael Dunne<br></cite></blockquote>



<p>In Germany, groups like Schroeder’s NABU have a right to make their opposition known. The environmental activist tells&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;the group has discussed their concerns with Tesla, but that the company has only been receptive to some of the issues raised, the easiest to accommodate. “I think Elon Musk is more into his own business and into new technology than really in preventing climate change,” she says. “He sees a great opportunity to sell his inventions as ‘part of the solution’ but doesn’t realize that he creates new problems as a side effect.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>In retrospect, Musk might have been better off building the plant in adjacent EU countries, says analyst Schmidt. “Perhaps they are slowly starting to ask themselves if they really should have looked just a few kilometers further east toward the Polish or Czech borders, where things would have have been more freewheeling,” he says. “There’s good reason Porsche decided to manufacture the Cayenne SUV–one of their most profitable models–in Slovakia!” &nbsp;</p>


The Rules Even Elon Musk Can’t Break


<p><strong>TOPLINE </strong>Billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk stirred up the cryptocurrency market with his Twitter account again Sunday when he appeared to hint Tesla would cast out its bitcoin holdings, a move that saw the cryptocurrency plunge.</p>



<h3 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



<p>When a Twitter user&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/CryptoWhale/status/1393981793813078017?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">speculated</a>&nbsp;Sunday Musk would ditch bitcoin over the hate the billionaire had received after announcing Tesla would&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/05/12/tesla-will-stop-accepting-bitcoin-as-payment-due-to-environmental-worries-musk-says/">no longer accept the cryptocurrency</a>&nbsp;as payment last week, Musk replied with one word: “<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1394001894809427971?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Indeed</a>.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>The vague message was enough to push cryptocurrency investors to sell off their bitcoin, and the price dipped nearly 8.5% down to $44,395 a coin Sunday.</p>



<p>Cryptocurrency is notoriously volatile, but Sunday’s dip was bitcoin’s biggest slump in more than three months and represented one of its biggest drops in value since the price first began to rapidly ramp up in January.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Last week, Musk said Tesla would no longer accept the cryptocurrency until bitcoin, which requires colossal amounts of electricity to work with, shifts to&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1392602041025843203" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">more sustainable energy use</a>,</p>



<p>Musk said at the time Tesla would not sell off the bitcoin it already had.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Indeed</p>&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1394001894809427971?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<h2>BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p><strong>$1.5 billion</strong>. That’s how much Musk spent on buying bitcoin just&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/08/tesla-buys-1point5-billion-in-bitcoin.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">three months ago</a>, in preparation for using the cryptocurrency at Tesla.</p>



<h2>SURPRISING FACT</h2>



<p>Running bitcoin uses&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56012952" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">more electricity</a>&nbsp;than some countries, according to a University of Cambridge study published in February. Researchers said the cryptocurrency burns through 121.36 terawatt-hours annually, roughly the equivalent of used by countries like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56012952" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Argentina and Norway</a>.</p>



<h3>KEY BACKGROUND</h3>



<p>Just two months ago,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/03/24/bitcoin-surges-as-elon-musk-says-it-can-be-used-to-buy-teslas/?sh=4e37216b3cb2">bitcoin prices soared</a>&nbsp;when Musk announced Tesla would accept the cryptocurrency as payment for Tesla’s pricey electric vehicles. Musk’s quick reversal last week to suspend Tesla bitcoin payments and the cryptocurrency’s loss of value soon after angered many bitcoin investors, who said the billionaire was&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/PeterMcCormack/status/1393971202738302986?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">misinformed</a>&nbsp;about bitcoin’s energy consumption. Musk has&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1393995872413888518?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bickered</a>&nbsp;with and&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1393246529498976258?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">made fun of</a>&nbsp;the bitter investors on Twitter in recent days.</p>



<h3>TANGENT</h3>



<p>Musk is no stranger to playing the cryptocurrency market with his tweets. His current cryptocurrency of choice, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/05/14/dogecoin-stages-a-comeback-amid-cryptos-300-billion-crash-soaring-30-as-elon-musk-and-coinbase-signal-confidence/?sh=258f1752672f">dogecoin</a>, is regularly boosted by the eccentric CEO’s Twitter memes and public enthusiasm. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="und" dir="ltr">👀</p>&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1383103246470811652?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<h3>FURTHER READING</h3>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/05/12/tesla-will-stop-accepting-bitcoin-as-payment-due-to-environmental-worries-musk-says/?sh=39f2924f6e9f">Tesla Will Stop Accepting Bitcoin As Payment Due To Environmental Worries, Musk Says</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2021/05/12/elon-musk-says-tesla-stops-accepting-bitcoin-for-car-purchases-due-to-carbon-energy-use/?sh=34e39d386f85">Bitcoin Tanks After Elon Musk Says Tesla Stops Accepting It Due To Carbon Energy Use</a> (<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><em><strong>by Carlie Porterfield, Forbes Staff</strong></em></p>


gettyimages-1130598362-594×594

Elon Musk Sends Bitcoin Tumbling With A One-Word Tweet


<p id="h-topline"><strong>TOPLINE</strong>&nbsp;Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed he has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2021/05/09/elon-musk-reveals-he-has-aspergers-on-saturday-night-live/?sh=6832e336f640">Asperger’s syndrome&nbsp;</a>during his opening monologue while hosting Saturday Night Live, but is far from the first billionaire businessman to divulge he is neurodivergent.</p>



<h3 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



<p>Fellow billionaire and investment management firm founder Bill Gross revealed in 2019 he too had been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2019-03-01/bill-gross-on-his-asperger-s-diagnosis-and-its-advantages-video?fbclid=IwAR1H-gbsnDylCQB2hPCnkaQt15MQqS71DtsQMBU2O_jHjpUWqm3HUX_xlLE&amp;sref=q1G25G4a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">diagnosed with Asperger’s</a>, telling Bloomberg he believes the condition makes him a better investor: “It allows you to focus on longer-term things without getting mixed up in the details,” Gross said.</p>



<p>Gross, estimated by&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;to be worth about&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gross/?sh=6d33e30235b9">$1.5 billion</a>, also said the diagnosis likely explains his trouble maintaining eye contact and his almost obsessive interest in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-07/bond-guru-bill-gross-to-sell-42-2-million-stamp-collection" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">collecting stamps</a>.</p>



<p>Richard Branson, estimated by&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;to have a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/richard-branson/?sh=5a09c9836ff5">$4.2 billion</a>&nbsp;fortune, opened up about being dyslexic in a 2018 blog post, writing that as a child he was labeled “<a href="https://www.virgin.com/branson-family/richard-branson-blog/my-top-three-strategies-dyslexic-children" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lazy and dumb</a>” for struggling in school: “Dyslexia is just a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.virgin.com/branson-family/richard-branson-blog/my-top-three-strategies-dyslexic-children" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">different, creative way of thinking</a>,” Branson said, adding he thinks the condition makes him&nbsp;<a href="https://www.virgin.com/branson-family/richard-branson-blog/dyslexia-and-imagination" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">more imaginative</a>.</p>



<p>Charles Schwab, who founded the nation’s largest brokerage firm and has an estimated&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/charles-schwab/?sh=71652fdc2e4b">$11.4 billion</a>&nbsp;fortune, has also had lifelong troubles&nbsp;<a href="https://stanfordmag.org/contents/charles-schwab-s-secret-struggle" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reading and writing</a>&nbsp;because of dyslexia.</p>



<p>Late Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, estimated by&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;to be worth as much as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maxjedeurpalmgren/2018/01/28/ingvar-kamprad-founder-of-ikea-dead-at-91/?sh=6e3f452c4972">$28 billion</a>&nbsp;between 2005 and 2010, was dyslexic and even decided to give Ikea products their&nbsp;<a href="https://qz.com/1191091/ingvar-kamprad-and-his-ikea-empire-nine-intriguing-facts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">distinct Swedish names</a>&nbsp;because his diagnosis made working with typical inventory numbers difficult for him.</p>



<p><em>By Carlie Porterfield, Forbes Staff</em></p>


Key Speakers At The Satellite 2020 Conference

It’s Not Just Elon Musk — These Billionaires Are Also Neurodivergent


<p>Billionaire Elon Musk saw his net worth fall on Monday, as shares of his electric car company dropped following reports that two people died in a fatal Tesla&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/tesla" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TSLA</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/tesla">-3.4%</a>&nbsp;crash over the weekend.</p>



<p>Shares of Tesla were down 3.8% as of 3:45 p.m. EST on Monday, shaving $5.6 billion off Musk’s fortune.&nbsp;He’s now worth $174.1 billion, according to&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;estimates. The Tesla CEO and cofounder is the third-richest person in the world—behind Amazon&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/amazon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AMZN</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/amazon">-0.8%</a>&nbsp;CEO Jeff Bezos, who has a net worth of $195.9 billion, and French luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault, who is worth $180.3 billion.</p>



<p>Tesla’s stock fell on Monday amid&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/two-dead-tesla-crash-texas-that-was-believed-be-driverless-wsj-2021-04-18/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reports</a>&nbsp;that two men died after their 2019 Tesla Model S crashed into a tree north of Houston on Saturday night. Local authorities said that they believed the vehicle was operating without anyone in the driver’s seat—with one of the men reportedly in the front passenger’s seat and the other in the back seat of the Tesla. The vehicle was traveling at high speeds along a curve before veering off the road and bursting into flames at around 11:25 p.m., police said.</p>



<p>Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman told the media in a statement that it took emergency crews about four hours to put out the Model S fire, saying that the team even contacted Tesla for help. While electric vehicles are not necessarily more dangerous than gas-powered vehicles, high-voltage lithium batteries like the ones used in Tesla can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-studies/Documents/SR2001.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reignite even after an initial fire is put out</a>, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Two men killed after Tesla that may have been in autonomous driving or self driving mode didn’t adhere to a curve, slammed into a tree then burst into flames in the Woodlands, officials say. Firefighters say they had to call Tesla to figure out how to oust the blaze. <a href="https://twitter.com/KPRC2?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KPRC2</a> <a href="https://t.co/nmhDxKeTHT">pic.twitter.com/nmhDxKeTHT</a></p>&mdash; Deven Clarke (@KPRC2Deven) <a href="https://twitter.com/KPRC2Deven/status/1383791730575638542?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p>The crash also raises further questions about Tesla’s Autopilot feature. Authorities were not yet certain if Autopilot was active during the crash which killed the two men, aged 59 and 69, respectively. Nonetheless, the company’s semiautomated driving system has faced mounting scrutiny following a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-crash-suspected-of-involving-autopilot-draws-investigation-11616030206?mod=article_inline" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">series of accidents</a>&nbsp;involving Tesla vehicles in recent months. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said last month that it had launched more than two dozen investigations into crashes of Tesla vehicles, and on Monday&nbsp;<a href="https://news.yahoo.com/fatal-tesla-crash-driverless-200259765.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;that it would also be investigating the most recent crash north of Houston.</p>



<p>Tesla, which does not have a media relations department, does not appear to have issued any statements in the wake of the accident. Both the company and its billionaire CEO, however, have repeatedly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tesla.com/VehicleSafetyReport" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">touted the safety</a>&nbsp;of Tesla vehicles and the Autopilot feature. Musk, who is active on Twitter with nearly 52 million followers,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1383548841438236674?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">posted</a>&nbsp;on Saturday afternoon prior to the accident that a Tesla with Autopilot engaged is nearly ten times less likely to be involved in an accident than an average car.</p>



<p><em>Update 6:45 pm EST, April 19</em>: Later on Monday, Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1384254194975010826?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">posted</a>&nbsp;on Twitter denying that Tesla’s Autopilot feature was involved in the crash. Data logs recovered from the accident “show Autopilot was not enabled” and that the car did not purchase Full Self-Driving (FSD), the Tesla CEO said in his tweet. “Moreover, standard Autopilot would require lane lines to turn on, which this street did not have,” Musk wrote.</p>



<p><em><strong>By <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sergei Klebnikov</a>,Forbes Staff</strong></em></p>


Elon Musk’s Fortune Falls Nearly $6 Billion After Tesla Crash Leaves Two Dead


<p id="h-topline"><strong>TOPLINE</strong> Billionaire Elon Musk has approached officials of a Texas county where SpaceX has a private launch site and rocket production facility about incorporating a new city to be called Starbase, officials said.</p>



<h3 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



<ul><li>Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño <a href="https://www.cameroncounty.us/spacex-incorporation-inquiry/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> Tuesday Elon Musk’s private spaceflight company, SpaceX, reached out about Musk’s interest in incorporating Boca Chica Village, where SpaceX is building its Starship rocket. </li></ul>



<ul><li>Treviño indicated the county is <a href="https://www.cameroncounty.us/spacex-incorporation-inquiry/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">open to incorporation</a>, but that the process must abide by all state incorporation statutes and said the county will process any petitions in line with the law.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Musk said Tuesday he’s hoping to incorporate “an area <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1366859619461570561?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">much larger </a>than Boca Chica.” </li></ul>



<ul><li>Musk previously posted <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1366848696298561536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1366848696298561536%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fembedly.forbes.com%2Fwidgets%2Fmedia.html%3Ftype%3Dtext2Fhtmlkey%3D3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935schema%3Dtwitterurl%3Dhttps3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Felonmusk%2Fstatus%2F1366848696298561536image%3Dhttps3A%2F%2Fi.embed.ly%2F1%2Fimage3Furl3Dhttps253A252F252Fabs.twimg.com252Ferrors252Flogo46x38.png26key3D3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a mysterious statement</a> about creating a Texas city called Starbase on Tuesday, and later added it would be dog-friendly and led by <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1366857632372256770?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the Doge</a>, a reference to the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2021/02/04/i-am-become-meme-destroyer-of-shorts-dogecoin-soars-again-as-elon-musk-returns-from-self-imposed-twitter-exile/">Dogecoin</a> meme cryptocurrency he endorsed last month.</li></ul>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Creating the city of Starbase, Texas</p>&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1366848696298561536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 2, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<h3>KEY BACKGROUND</h3>



<p>Musk, who&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;estimates is worth nearly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/elon-musk/?sh=4bcf1dae7999">$164 billion</a>, is expanding his footprint in the Lone Star State. SpaceX also has a site in McGregor, a city halfway between Austin and Dallas, and this week, a job posting revealed the company is looking to build&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/03/02/elon-musks-spacex-to-open-a-factory-in-austin-job-posting-reveals/?sh=4720c17d383b">a manufacturing facility</a>&nbsp;in Austin. The Boring Company began hiring in the Austin area in November, and the city was named the location of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/07/22/teslas-next-gigafactory-will-be-in-austin-texas-and-musk-says-it-will-be-stunning/">Tesla’s next gigafactory</a>. Musk confirmed in December he was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/elanagross/2020/12/08/elon-musk-confirms-hes-moving-from-california-to-texas/?sh=41c0c6124948">moving to Texas</a>&nbsp;from California.&nbsp;</p>



<h3>FURTHER READING</h3>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2021/03/02/elon-musks-spacex-to-open-a-factory-in-austin-job-posting-reveals/?sh=4720c17d383b">Elon Musk’s SpaceX To Open A Factory In Austin, Job Posting Reveals</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/elanagross/2020/12/08/elon-musk-confirms-hes-moving-from-california-to-texas/?sh=41c0c6124948">Elon Musk Confirms He&#8217;s Moving From California To Texas</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2020/12/07/elon-musk-reportedly-relocated-his-foundation-to-texas-fueling-rumors-hell-move-there-too/?sh=2fd905c94f2a">Elon Musk Reportedly Relocated His Foundation To Texas, Fueling Rumors He’ll Move There Too</a> (<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><em><strong>By Carlie Porterfield, Forbes Staff</strong></em></p>


Tag: Elon Musk Tesla

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA