The E-Car producer Tesla is the first junk-rated company in the trillion dollar club — a rarefied level previously reached only by Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet. Tesla is worth more than virtually every other major carmaker in the world combined, although its sales and earnings are far lower than others.
Introduced more than 100 years ago, electric cars are seeing a rise in popularity today. As electric vehicles came onto the market, so did a new type of vehicle – the gasoline-powered car. While gasoline cars required a lot of manual effort to drive, electric cars didn’t have any of these issues. They were quiet, easy to drive and didn’t emit a smelly pollutant like the other cars of the time. Electric cars quickly became popular with wealthy urban residents.
The biggest barrier to electric cars was the lack of infrastructure. Sound familiar? At the turn of the century, most homes, even those of wealthy families, lacked electricity. Yet, it was Henry Ford’s mass-produced Model T that dealt a blow to the electric car. Introduced in 1908, the Model T made gasoline-powered cars widely available and affordable. By 1912, the gasoline car cost only $650, while an electric roadster sold for $1,750. That same year, Charles Kettering introduced the electric starter, eliminating the need for the hand crank and giving rise to more gasoline-powered vehicle sales.
Source:
Michael J. Fox, Christoher Lloyd: Back to the Future Part II by Robert Zemeckis, 1989
bloomberg.dom, David Caleb Mutua, 25.10.2021
energy.gov,25.10.2021
motortrend.com, Michael Brian Schiffler, 2020