Jason Badeaux

The future success of Tesla doesn’t depend so much on their products but rather on one thing: the Tesla Gigafactory.

With the right mechanisms in place, DERs will create a flexible grid by helping supply meet demand in a dynamic system. This represents a very exciting opportunity for electrification, with several software companies already developing solutions to make electricity demand digital and efficient.

Technology leadership is not defined by patents, which history has repeatedly shown to be small protection indeed against a determined competitor, but rather by the ability of a company to attract and motivate the world’s most talented engineers.

Elon Musk explained his commitment to the Model 3 launch, when he said: “The reason I slept on the floor was not because I couldn’t go across the road and be at the hotel, it was because I wanted my circumstances to be worse than anyone else at the company on purpose. Like whatever pain they felt, I wanted mine to be worse. That’s why I did it. And... See more

History is littered with examples of incumbent leaders who do not adapt to shifts in innovation from its competitors. Nokia’s failure to respond to Apple’s smart phone technology is an example.

The underlying theme across all 8 of these bullets, except perhaps the last, is that each drives scale of battery production.