By now you can’t ignore the brand, but there were times when all was not so well with Elon Musk and Tesla. In 2009, they began production of the Tesla Roadster: basically a converted, electrified Lotus Elise. Production of the small electric two-seater was extremely difficult. It’s almost unbelievable that Tesla has become what it is today when you watch this scene<\/a> from the 2011 documentary Revenge of the Electric Car<\/a>. In the scene, a visibly panicked Musk inspects brand new Tesla Roadsters, which are broken before they even leave the Tesla factory.<\/p>\n How things turned out with Tesla after that, we don’t have to tell you. Drive onto the highway and chances are you’ll be driving directly in front of, next to or behind a Model 3. Incidentally, when Musk started production of the Model 3 in 2017, he also almost had a nervous breakdown, as everything seemed to go wrong once again. A year after production started, the automaker still did not manage to build more than 5,000 Model 3s per week. There are automakers that do that job as early as Monday morning. But Musk persevered and, thanks in part to the Model 3, he was awarded the title of “the richest man on earth” in 2021 and Tesla became the most valuable car brand in the world.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Tesla has factories all over the world. Not only in California, Texas and Germany, but also in Shanghai, there is a so-called Tesla Gigafactory. There, the millionth car has now rolled off the assembly line. Musk announced this on Twitter<\/a>. In the photo accompanying the tweet, we see the millionth Chinese Tesla: a red Model Y. Funny detail: the millionth Tesla <\/a>was also a red Model Y, and rolled off the assembly line in 2020. <\/p>\nModel 3<\/h2>\n
Tesla Gigafactory<\/h2>\n