Elon Musk Has Turned Tesla's 'Failing' Into Winning

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Anyone Googling the phrase “Tesla failed” is immediately inundated with the purported shortcomings of the multinational automotive and clean energy company's zero-emission, electric vehicles, workplace culture, business practices, occupational safety and, especially, its controversial Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk. In times like these, it's appropriate to recall what Gertrude tells her son Hamlet in Shakespeare's most famous play: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

When it comes to Tesla Inc., such criticism is little more than a sideshow. No other carmaker comes close to matching its performance, which includes posting record revenue each year since it began reporting financial results in 2007. With a stock market value of $659 billion as of Friday, Tesla is worth more than Toyota Motor Co., Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Volkswagen AG, BMW AG, General Motors Co., Stellantis NV and Ford Motor Co. combined.

And while everyone thought Musk's entanglement with Twitter Inc. would be damaging to Tesla, the results prove otherwise. Tesla is now turning every $100 of revenue into an industry-leading $26 of profit after production costs -- the widest gross margin since the Austin, Texas-based company started selling more than 50,000 cars annually in 2015. Tesla also scores the highest profit margin among the 10 largest automakers, providing a huge competitive advantage by allowing it to invest more money into improving its cars and developing new products than its peers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Musk teased as much in recent weeks, saying Tesla will reveal more details about its smaller, cheaper next-generation electric-vehicle platform at its investor day on March 1. Given the company's already