Reasons why Tesla can scale where others have failed

Tesla Roadster.
If you think it looks familiar, you're right. It's based on the Lotus Elise. In fact, the Roadster was a rolling chassis, supplied by Lotus, with Tesla drive train.
Credit: Discover

Between the end of 2010 & 2013, Tesla stock increased in value by over 500%. They sell all the cars they can make, & are allegedly, the only company making a profit from manufacture of electric vehicles. Tesla has plans in train to build a Gigafactory, which will effectively double world production of LiIon battery capacity.

So, what are they getting right that everyone else is getting wrong? My take is that part of it is Elon Musk's commitment to something important outside himself — nothing less than conversion of the car industry to a sustainable technology. Bob Lutz has admitted that the Tesla Roadster was his inspiration to push General Motors into development of the Volt EV. Venture Beat has some more ideas:

http://venturebeat.com/2014/07/27/3-reasons-why-tesla-can-scale-where-others-have-failed/ / Tesla rocked plans build 5 GW lithium ion battery plant 5 GW giga Watt gigaWatt battery production double global battery manufacturing industries scale battery companies A123 Valence Technology filed for bankruptcy supplier qualification supply chain economics electric vehicle demand production capacity electric vehicle EV manufacturers battery suppliers expensive part assemble battery packs Panasonic small cylindrical battery cells assemble assembled cell thermal management system software electronics mechanical enclosure quarter cost battery pack Tesla assembling volumes rise designs mature cost optimization third party battery vehicle engineering time and resources communication hiccups BMS battery management system designs optimize battery time and resourcebattery integration radical technology disruption battery cell technology research and development R&D testing groundbreaking scaled to production performance quality safety targets Panasonic 18650 cells laptop computers second-generation cell design secure patient capital quick buck Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk /