Tesla may be the world’s most valuable automaker by market cap and the undisputed leader in the electric vehicle market, but the company cannot make a complete transition from the auto industry to sustainability on its own. To achieve this, other automakers would have to go electrification. And if Elon Musk’s recent tweets are an indication, it looks like Tesla is ready to help speed up his mission even further.
According to Elon Musk, Tesla’s mission is not to crush rivals in the automotive market. Instead, the company’s true mission is to accelerate the advent of sustainable energy. The company would be willing to do what it can to achieve this goal, including supplying its own competitors with key components that enable them to produce electric cars that are comparable to the Tesla line.
“Tesla is open to software licenses and the supply of power trains and batteries. We are just trying to accelerate sustainable energy, not crush competitors! Musk wrote.
In a follow-up tweet, Musk stated that Tesla would also be willing to share its software with its competitors. Among these is Autopilot, which could provide a significant boost to the autonomous driving market. Tesla’s development of its autonomous driving suite relies heavily on real-world data from real drivers on the road, after all, so adding other non-Tesla cars using Autopilot would definitely be a huge plus. .
This is a point that Elon Musk has highlighted in the past. In 2018, Musk noted that Tesla’s Supercharger Network, widely regarded as one of the company’s “pits”, is not a “walled garden.” Speaking during the first-quarter 2018 earnings call, Musk stated that Tesla would be happy to partner with other automakers in the electric vehicle industry, as long as they pay and share costs commensurate with the use of their vehicles.
“We have always said that this is not intended as a walled garden, and we are pleased to support other automakers and let them use our Supercharger stations. They would just have to pay, you know, share the costs proportional to the use of their vehicle, and they would have to be able to accept our charging fee or at least our connector, at least have an adapter for our connector. This is something we are very open to, ”said Musk.
So far, only startup EV Bollinger Motors has publicly expressed its request to use Tesla’s Supercharger network for its B1 and B2 off-road vehicles. Neither Tesla nor Elon Musk have issued a public response to the request to date. That said, Tesla’s place in the auto industry today is much different than it was just a couple of years ago. Today Tesla is in much calmer waters, and may be well positioned to expand its business to that of a supplier to other automakers trying to make a viable electric vehicle.
