{"id":10526,"date":"2016-11-04T00:51:16","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T04:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/tesla-and-the-electric-vehicle-revolution\/"},"modified":"2016-11-04T00:57:51","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T04:57:51","slug":"tesla-and-the-electric-vehicle-revolution","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/tesla-and-the-electric-vehicle-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cTesla and the Electric Vehicle Revolution\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe can break our dependence on oil\u2026and become the first country to have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. [1]\u201d \u2013 Barack Obama<\/p>\n

The impact of pollution is severe, and a 2011 study by MIT found that automobile emissions cause 53,000 premature deaths in the United States every year [2]. Approximately 99% of carbon in auto fuel is emitted as CO2 when burned in an engine and these greenhouse gases harm the environment [3]. In order to combat pollution, in 2009 President Obama revitalized the \u2018Recovery Act\u2019 by offering billions of dollars in tax credits to clean energy companies [4]. To specifically tackle auto emissions $2.4 Billion in funding was dedicated to subsidize development and innovation in the electric vehicle (EV) market [5]. Specifically, the Department of Energy dedicated $1.5B to focus on the development of batteries and $900M on the development of EV\u2019s [6].<\/p>\n

The tax credits were designed to incentive the rapid growth of the EV industry. As evidenced by the specific areas covered under the Recovery Act, the three major areas pinpointed by the U.S. government for large scale EV innovation were batteries, vehicle production, and charging stations.<\/p>\n

In 2003, Elon Musk incorporated \u2018Tesla Motors\u2019, a company on a mission to \u201caccelerate the world\u2019s transition to sustainable transport\u201d [7]. Tesla grew rapidly by mixing stylish designs with true EV innovations. Musk saw the opportunity to build a new type of auto company invested in a gasoline free future for automobiles. Today, Tesla has positioned itself as a market leader in innovation and social good.<\/p>\n

Tesla\u2019s operating model was impacted by the trend of increasing government spending on clean energy solutions. Tesla commenced a rapid expansion beyond manufacturing EV\u2019s into tangential clean energy markets such as lithium-ion batteries, electric charging stations, and solar panels.<\/p>\n