When Tesla was founded in 2003, the goal of decarbonizing transportation emissions was sacrosanct.
CEO Elon Musk detailed in an online climate manifesto how the Roadster had fewer carbon emissions across its life cycle than the hybrids of that era. He expressed passionately the ambitions of Tesla and Solarcity—which later got incorporated into Tesla Energy—and how they would combat global warming.
The manifesto existed for nearly two decades, but now Tesla has quietly taken it down from its website, Forbes first reported. Titled “The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (just between you and me),” it laid out a vision for zero emissions road transport, written by the CEO himself.
“The overarching purpose of Tesla Motors (and the reason I am funding the company) is to help expedite the move from a mine and burn, hydrocarbon economy towards a solar-electric economy, which I believe to be the primary but not exclusive sustainable solution,” he wrote.
Among his goals were: “Build a sports car. Use that money to build an affordable car. Use that money to build an even more affordable car. While doing above, also provide zero emission electric power generation options,” Musk wrote. “Don’t tell anyone,” he concluded.
There was also a “Master Plan Part Deux,” which has also been removed. As per this second plan, Tesla would expand into all major car segments, develop self-driving tech that's 10 times safer than manual driving and “enable your car to make money for you” when you’re not using it.
Since then, Tesla has spearheaded the EV revolution, forcing legacy automakers into a frantic race to catch up. While competitors scrambled to develop their own EVs, Tesla not only built America’s most extensive and reliable charging network—now being opened to non-Tesla EVs—but also expanded its solar energy and Powerwall businesses.
In many ways, Tesla delivered on its initial vision, including the bumpy but ultimately successful rollout of the mass-market Model 3 and then the Model Y which was 2023’s best-selling car. But now rivals are quickly catching up and Tesla's EV market share is sliding.
The second plan about making self-driving cars safer than human drivers was written nearly a decade ago. Even though FSD seems to be improving, it's far from safe. It is causing legal nightmares for the company following fatal accidents allegedly involving Autopilot and FSD systems. The crashes were so severe and frequent that they prompted U.S. Justice Department investigations. At least one of Tesla's own employees, who The Washington Post described as a "devoted fan of CEO Elon Musk" was killed in fiery crash when FSD was allegedly on.
Now the vision that guided Tesla to become an EV market leader is fading. Whatever remains is now juxtaposed with cultural hubris and rancor.
Musk's bromance with Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump has raised eyebrows. For the longest time, Trump has been anti-EV. In the past, he has said things like “nobody wants to buy EVs,” and that “the cars don’t go far enough. They’re very, very expensive. They’re also heavy.” He has vowed to expand the dirty oil and gas industry.
Yet, Musk has agreed to donate $45 million per month to a pro-Trump Super PAC.
After Musk’s endorsement, Trump softened his stance on EVs. And Musk has softened his views on the oil and gas industry—an industry he once aimed to wage a war against.
He’s no longer the climate hero he once was. “My views on climate change and oil gas […] are pretty moderate,” Musk said during a two-hour long interview with Trump early this month. “I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry and the people that have worked very hard in those industries to provide the necessary energy to support the economy,” he added.
Tesla's new goals include building out the world's most powerful "AI supercomputer clusters" that would be the backbone for robotaxis and humanoid robots. Whether these goals are realistic, or if it's a bubble about to burst, is something we'll find out in due course.
Now the oldest blog on Tesla’s website dates back to 2019. Everything before that is gone, as if it never existed. But thanks to published reports and archived fan pages, you can still access much of it. Either way, Tesla may want to forget its past and what it once stood for. But the world certainly won't let that happen.
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