The Verge 2018 tech report card: Tesla
In 2018, Tesla turned its biggest ever quarterly profit, and its first profit in two years. The company shipped close to some 100,000 Model 3s in the first full year of production of the most affordable vehicle it makes. SpaceX, one of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s other companies, successfully launched its brand new Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time ever — and Musk used it to send one of the original Tesla Roadsters into space. By those measures, 2018 was a wild success for Tesla.
Of course, there’s more to the story: a failed plan to go private, announced by Musk on Twitter; a beef with the SEC; difficulty retaining top executives not named Elon Musk; and a close call with death. There were questions about the safety of Tesla’s cars, the...