Elon Musk Recalls Billionaire Who Once Said Tesla Would Fail

Tesla produced 305,840 vehicles in the fourth quarter, a 70 per cent increase over the previous year

Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Image: Getty

New Delhi: Tesla CEO Elon Musk has revealed that billionaire investor and vice-president of Berkshire Hathaway Charlie Munger once told him that Tesla would fail.

On Wednesday, the 98-year-old investor said cryptocurrencies should have been banned and likened it to "venereal disease".

Responding to his comments, Musk, a crypto supporter, recalled the time when Munger said Tesla could fail. "I was at lunch with Munger in 2009 where he told the whole table all the ways Tesla would fail," said Elon Musk in a reply tweet.

"Made me quite sad, but I told him I agreed with all those reasons and that we would probably die, but it was worth trying anyway," he added further.

Now, after a decade, Tesla is one of the world's top automakers, and Musk is one of the world's richest people.

Musk recently said that 2021 was a breakthrough year for Tesla and for electric vehicles in general, as the EV maker ended last year with $5.5 billion in net income, compared to $721 million in 2020.

Tesla produced 305,840 vehicles in the fourth quarter, a 70 per cent increase over the previous year.

In 2021, the company delivered 936,172 vehicles, just short of the promised 1 million vehicles but still an increase of 87 per cent over the previous year.

Meanwhile, India asked Tesla Inc to commit sourcing at least $500 million of auto components from India for the electric carmaker’s request for an import tax cut on its vehicles to be considered, Bloomberg reported quoting a source in the know.

According to the report, Tesla would need to agree to ramp up Indian parts purchases by around 10 per cent to 15 per cent a year until a satisfactory level was achieved, the person said, asking not to be named because the discussions are private.

The Centre has formally told Tesla to ramp up domestic sourcing, but is yet to relay a procurement target to the company, the person said. Tesla in August claimed it sourced around $100 million in parts from India.