Elon Musk, the Man Who Has Been Revolutionizing the World of Transportation for the Past 20 Years

A look back at the new model he invented in the world of transportation with Tesla.

Having become the richest man in the world over the year, Elon Musk has been in the news a lot in 2021. It started with Tesla's Bitcoin purchase at the beginning of the year, and then it continued with a stellar year for Tesla in the stock market, before Elon Musk made a huge splash by supporting the cryptocurrency Dogecoin on numerous occasions.

Elon Musk went on to have great success with SpaceX, gaining a decisive advantage over his great adversary Jeff Bezos in the conquest of space. Jeff Bezos has decided to leave his position as CEO of Amazon to have more time to devote to Blue Origin, which is behind SpaceX.

The war for the conquest of space between these multi-billionaires will be a hot topic in the years to come.

For all that Elon Musk has accomplished in 2021, but also for all the noise that constantly surrounds him, he was voted Time's Personality of the Year. This is an opportunity to look back at the new model that Elon Musk has invented in the world of transportation over the last twenty years.

Cars sold without a store with a custom repair service at home

Tesla has seen its sales figures explode over the past two years. Yet, have you ever seen a photograph or even an image of a Tesla sales store? If you say yes, I'd be surprised since these stores don't exist! Unlike other electric car brands, Tesla skips the dealer box. Tesla's vehicles are only sold through the Internet.

Since there is no Tesla dealer, you have to wonder how to change a wheel or find a mechanic who is used to the brand? Here again, Elon Musk has imposed a radical change. It is not the customer who goes to the garage to have his car repaired, but Tesla technicians who come to the customer, to his home.

Same thing for batteries: with Tesla, you have your chargers at home.

Control the chain, from the raw material to the exit of the factory

It's no wonder that Tesla's new way of thinking about the market is now being studied in every business school. Tesla has outdone the traditional car manufacturers. It is a brand that appeared in 2003 and is based on the charisma of founder Elon Musk. Its strong point is to think of the market globally. For example, by making its patents available to its competitors to create new vehicles with them, or even infrastructures and sources of supply of raw materials.

Tesla has just signed an exclusive agreement with the raw materials company Prony Resources New Caledonia. Prony Resources itself has signed an agreement with engineers from the École Française des Mines de Paris. This 5-year program will focus on research related to the production of automotive batteries. The challenge is to find new ways of assembling metals and minerals around the extraction of nickel and cobalt, particularly from the Goro deposit in New Caledonia.

The raw materials are used for the cathode of batteries. The cobalt, lithium, and other components are used to produce electrical current charges that can be stored. One of the most common technologies used in electric cars is produced from an oxide of cobalt, lithium, and manganese.

For Tesla, it is a matter of securing its supply without disengaging from countries like China, for example. Because the minerals are not available in China. Instead, they are imported and processed there. This is the case for cobalt ore, which will become cobalt metal.

Elon Musk took advantage of the Chinese market to accelerate Tesla's growth

After his first factory in Texas in America, Elon Musk rushed to the Chinese market. This was a successful move, as Tesla has long held the top spot in the market for electric car sales. Elon Musk's presence in China was achieved by signing partnerships with Chinese subcontractors and privileged relationships with the government.

To reduce costs, Elon Musk is constantly seeking to simplify manufacturing. He encourages his engineers, for better or worse (accidents have occurred on vehicles sold in the United States). This is one of Elon Musk's strengths.

Thanks to new technologies (in design, in automotive tools), Elon Musk manages to reduce costs. In China, for example, only the top-of-the-range models are entitled to elaborate batteries. The rest of the fleet, the middle-class cars, run on cheaper components.

Tesla's communication relies exclusively on Elon Musk

But in the last two years, Beijing has reduced its favorable loans. The government has also limited the number of local brands to make them real competitors. Today, Tesla is only in second or third place. This will become a problem in the years to come.

Tesla is always looking for ways to keep costs down and has no communication budget. Tesla is undoubtedly one of the only car brands in the world that can do without spending money on communication. All Tesla's advertising is done by Elon Musk, who is present every day on social networks.

He is present every day on social networks: Facebook posts, comments on Twitter, where he has more than 65 million followers, and videos of the opening of new large factories, such as the famous Shanghai Gigafactory in China.

Today, Tesla assembles its vehicles in China and exports them to Europe. This is the case for its most famous model, the Model Y. But perhaps this is about to change. A Giga-Factory is expected to open in 2022 in Berlin, Germany.

One of Elon Musk's promises is to make his manufacturing processes as simple as possible with a workforce of trained and loyal employees. 

Starting in 2022, Elon Musk plans to manufacture 20 million cars per year.  But then again, the man is known for his strategy: talk, talk, talk to make sure success is assured. The most touching side of this jack-of-all-trades is to recognize when goals are not met.

But to move forward, all the same, starting from the failures. This is how to innovate, as Elon Musk frequently reminds us:

“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”

The Boring Company: Elon Musk's other transportation company that the general public doesn't know about

If everyone associates Elon Musk with Tesla or SpaceX, the general public is less aware that Elon Musk owns another transportation company, specialized in tunneling! It is The Boring Company, intended in particular for the projects of self-supporting capsules of the “Loop” circuits.

But since the failure of the first tests (not fast enough) Elon Musk has turned to the transport of goods and vehicles. One of the ideas would be to divert traffic jams by making roads under the roads of the world's largest cities.

Again, Elon Musk sets no limits for himself, especially not those that the company takes for granted. That's his genius, and that's why you can be sure that Elon Musk will never stop surprising you.