What Tesla’s massive image problem means for the world’s transition to EVs

Following its founding by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in 2003, Tesla became the world’s leading electric vehicle brand in less than a decade. In the company’s early years, including after investor Elon Musk became CEO in 2008, it put out a few hundred or a few thousand cars a year. But by 2015, Tesla made the best-selling electric car model worldwide — a title Tesla has now held for seven of the last 10 years. In 2023, the company delivered 1.8 million cars and controlled about 20 percent of the world’s EV market.