By
Svetlana Soroka
April 18th, 2024
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recalls the moment when the odds were against him and how they managed to pull Tesla from bankruptcy and helped it to become the most-valued automobile company on earth.
Elon Musk, the controversial as well as one of the most sought-after leaders in the business world, is popular for taking bold decisions. Right from Tesla, SpaceX, Boring Company, Hyperloop, and others, Musk has been running the most diverse businesses successfully. In his latest conversation on Twitter, the Tesla CEO spoke about how his electric car company was just a month away from bankruptcy.
Although Tesla shot to fame in the last 12 months, it was a wild ride before that. Musk had the most difficult times of his career managing Tesla’s operations and holding up investors. The company faced major roadblocks in figuring out the mass production of its Model 3 cars.
During a recent Twitter discussion, a follower asked Musk about Tesla’s fundraising history. The follower was particularly interested in knowing how Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) managed to pull itself out of bankruptcy during the Model 3 mass production. Responding to it, Musk said that he had been through extreme stress for two long years between 2017-2019. The closest that Tesla was through bankruptcy was a month.
Closest we got was about a month. The Model 3 ramp was extreme stress & pain for a long time — from mid 2017 to mid 2019. Production & logistics hell.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 3, 2020
Elon Musk is popular among the business fraternity for going to any lengths to make his business ideas work. In the past, Musk has made huge fortunes and liquidated it every time to give birth to new business ideas. In more than a decade of Tesla’s existence, Musk has been through several phases of nightmares. He recalls the period of 2008 when Tesla raised $40 million just three days before facing bankruptcy.
That funding round completed 6pm on Christmas Eve in 2008. Last hour of last day possible, as investors were leaving town that night & we were 3 days away from bankruptcy. I put in all money I had, didn’t own a house & had to borrow money from friends to pay rent. Difficult time.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 3, 2020
Musk’s Big Push for Tesla Model 3 Mass Production to Avoid Bankruptcy
With the affordable Model 3 launch, Tesla was shifting the game to high-volume production of electric vehicles. By 2019, Tesla was manufacturing over 63,000 Model 3 cars per quarter. The company has raised billions from institutional investors and heavily promoting self-driving features.
Over the last year, the company has successfully managed to come out of the productions and logistics hell. Over the last 18 months, Tesla has been reporting a consistent surge in production and deliveries every quarter.
Tesla stock has been Wall Street’s top-performer for 2020 giving over 300% returns year-to-date. As of Tuesday closing, TSLA is trading at a price of $423 with a market cap of $401 billion. Tesla has surpassed all the industry behemoths like General Motors Company (NYSE: GM), Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU), Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), Volkswagen AG (OTCMKTS: VWAGY), Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE: TM), and others to become the most-valued automobile company on earth.