The wheels haven’t come off Tesla just yet, but a funny rattling noise is coming from the engine (James Dean writes). For the first time, the noise appears to be drowning out Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive and top cheerleader.
Mr Musk, 47, a Silicon Valley technology entrepreneur, is at Tesla’s head. He believes that the Model 3, Tesla’s newest and cheapest car, will be a smash hit that ensures a profitable future for his loss-making company. Tesla, founded in 2003, makes more electric vehicles than anyone else — close to 200,000 in the United States last year, compared with about 36,000 for Chevrolet, maker of the Bolt and the Volt.
The problem is that Tesla’s business and production models are untried and untested