Writing this book has been the greatest challenge of my professional career. Tesla’s story not only sprawls across a broad variety of complex subjects, it’s also permeated with nuance that tends to get lost in the polarized public debates it inspires.
To say that this story had a few twists and turns in the years since I started working on this book would be a wild understatement. To the company’s fans, Tesla has always appeared on the brink of total domination, while to its skeptics, it has always been on the edge of complete collapse. Each new development, positive and negative, tends to send perceptions and expectations soaring or sinking and can easily appear to reshape the narrative arc of Tesla’s history.
The auto industry is one of the most complex and challenging businesses possible; new entrants face particularly steep obstacles. That worldview has always informed my coverage of all automakers, not just Tesla. But, perhaps misunderstanding my cautious perspective, Tesla fans have often categorized me as a “hater” and characterized my work as an attempt to destroy the company they love. Almost as soon as I began seriously writing about Tesla, I received heated attacks, first from its fans and investors, and later (just as I was starting to work on this book) from the company itself.
I usually avoid injecting myself into my writing because I want my work to stand or fall on its merits alone (and also partly because I don’t believe I am particularly interesting). But because the majority of these attacks focus on my perceived motivations rather than the substance of my reporting and analysis, I feel that I have little choice but to explain how I came to my perspective on this story. In hopes of limiting this distracting speculation about my motivations, I will share my personal experiences at times in this book.
Tesla’s ruthlessly personal approach to public relations, and the similarly aggressive fan culture it has inspired, also explains why there are essentially no named sources in this book. Hundreds of hours of interviews with then current and former Tesla employees, executives, directors, and partners went into this book, and almost every one asked for some form of anonymity out of fear of retribution by the company. Numerous anecdotes and data points have been left out at their request, lest they betray a source’s identity.
As frustrating as it is not to be able to share some of these richly illustrative (and often wildly entertaining) stories or show how well-informed these sources are, I can’t blame any of them for speaking only on the condition of anonymity. Having seen so many actual and potential Tesla whistleblowers smeared, sued, and intimidated, I believe their fears are reasonable. Under the circumstances, the fact that any of them risked their personal and professional well-being to share their stories with me at all speaks to their courage and conviction. I owe them all the deepest thanks, and I only wish they could receive the credit they so richly deserve.