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$97.7 billion revenue. $9 billion from selling carbon credits to polluters. lithium mines draining the driest desert on earth. here's what nobody's reading.
Tesla, Inc. is led by CEO Elon Musk, headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2024, Tesla reported total revenue of US$97.7 billion and delivered approximately 1.79 million vehicles. Despite selling fewer cars than Toyota sells in a single quarter, Tesla's market cap hovered around US$800 billion to over US$1 trillion, worth more than Toyota, Volkswagen, GM, Ford, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, and Stellantis combined.
Tesla made electric vehicles desirable. Before the Model S in 2012, the EV market was golf-cart-adjacent city cars. Tesla proved an electric car could be fast, good-looking, and road-trip viable. That forced every major automaker to accelerate electrification.
The Supercharger network exceeds 60,000 connectors globally. In 2024, Ford, GM, and Rivian adopted Tesla's NACS charging standard. Tesla's Megapack deployed 31.4 GWh of energy storage in 2024, more than double the prior year. The Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia saved consumers A$150 million in its first two years.
Tesla has delivered over 7 million electric vehicles since 2012. Lifecycle analyses consistently show EVs produce significantly fewer emissions than petrol or diesel vehicles.
Every Tesla battery contains lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese. Lithium extraction in Chile's Atacama Desert consumes approximately 2,000 litres of water per kilogram of lithium. Indigenous Atacameno communities have reported falling water tables, dying flamingo populations, and degradation of salt flat ecosystems.
Amnesty International has documented child labour in DRC cobalt mines. Tesla's LFP cells contain no cobalt, but higher-range variants still use nickel-cobalt-manganese chemistries. Nickel mining in Indonesia has driven deforestation and toxic waste dumping.
Tesla claims one crash per 7.63 million miles with Autopilot versus one per 670,000 miles nationally. The name "Full Self-Driving" remains Level 2 driver-assistance requiring constant human supervision.
In December 2023, Tesla recalled over 2 million vehicles after NHTSA found the driver monitoring system insufficient. The California DMV settled with Tesla over misleading FSD advertising.
A Reveal investigation found Tesla had a pattern of underreporting workplace injuries at Fremont. Tesla is the only major U.S. automaker without a unionised workforce. The NLRB found Tesla unlawfully fired a union organiser and restricted union insignia.
In 2023, a California jury awarded US$3.2 million to a former Black employee who experienced racial harassment. A broader lawsuit from California's Civil Rights Department alleged systemic racial discrimination at the facility.
Tesla has earned a cumulative US$9 billion+ in regulatory credit revenue since 2009. In 2024, credits contributed approximately US$2.07 billion.
Tesla's credit revenue depends on other companies continuing to sell polluting vehicles. Stellantis was historically one of Tesla's largest credit buyers, purchasing credits so it could continue selling large SUVs in Europe. The net emissions reduction from this arrangement is zero. The credits redistribute who gets to pollute, not whether pollution happens.
Tesla is a component of the S&P 500, added in December 2020, typically among the top 10 holdings by weight. If you have Australian super with international equity allocations, you almost certainly own Tesla.
Your retirement savings are exposed to a company that simultaneously accelerated the global EV transition and sells carbon credits to companies that haven't. A company with a genuine clean energy business and documented racial discrimination lawsuits. A company whose CEO's public conduct has become a material risk factor investors openly discuss.
In 2022, Tesla shares fell 65%. In 2023, they recovered 102%. That is not a stock priced on fundamentals. Knowing what you own, and what the asterisk is. That's just reading the fine print.
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