Yeah, because his earnings have dropped - the workers be damned. I wish we’d stop giving morons like Musk airtime - they ain’t worth it, despite their talents. They are selfish, egocentric, and dyspathic.
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In one of the better alternative timelines, Henry Ford and Nikola Tesla teamed up and started mass-production of EVs roughly 110 years ago.
(Actually not that much of a stretch if you look into turn-of-the-century technological developments, say 1890ies to 1910s.)
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He’s basically bought and licensed almost all his battery tech, while claiming it’s all his own inventions. Battery companies are getting pretty sick of his bullshit. Much of the “battery tech” that are in Teslas are also available for other EVs on the market like the Leaf, it’s just the leaf isn’t targeting super trendy rich techbros who don’t know what to do with their options.
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Sigh - these people are losing the goddamn plot.
And now also dyspeptic, apparently.
No, their “plot” is making money… they are capitalist, however they dress it up.
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You sound angry. I am not. I am going to let you be angry by yourself now.
Ford, GM, Chrysler, Nissan, Toyota, and Honda all had electric cars for sale years before Tesla, even as early as the 90s, though they weren’t very good and didn’t sell very well. The Tesla Roadster was the first street-legal BEV with lithium batteries and decent range, but it too didn’t sell all that well; people who wanted range and low petrol consumption were buying hybrids instead. (It doesn’t meet your definition of “mass market”, for example.) By the time Tesla was making any headway cars like the Volt and the Leaf were way out in front (and I think the Leaf remains the best-selling BEV of all time).
Here’s a chart of US sales over the last 10 years:
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Oh see you missed the part where I said mass market electric vehicle company. Most of what Ford, GM, Chrysler, Nissan, Toyota and Honda sell are gas guzzlers, making them by definition not “electric vehicle companies.”
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Nice gaslighting.
I’m perfectly fine. I just don’t see the value in lionizing (ha!) billionaire sociopaths.
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You’re being a bit pedantic about it. Overall, it is good the other companies offer electric car options. It is also good that Tesla made a car that pushed the performance of electric cars, creating a new goal post for the other automakers.
This is the whole “competition breeds innovation” thing.
Certainly Musk is to be commended for many of his accomplishments. But he isn’t infallible (coughhyperloopbaloneycought).
His current tweet is indefensible.
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Being a rich dude and having lucked out with paypal, making him richer? Jumping on ideas that existed well before his “innovation”? If that’s “commendable”… 
As a society, we really need to stop worshiping the ultra rich. They don’t give two shits about the struggles of the rest of us.
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Oh! That’s a new one! Imma gonna steal that, if you don’t mind.
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OK, then please see the original question, with some boldfacing:
Tesla wasn’t the fist mass-market electric vehicle company, not by a longshot, just maybe the first one that didn’t sell anything else. How is that praiseworthy? And did Musk therefore become less praiseworthy when he diversified?
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My definition of an “electric vehicle company” is one that is mostly in the business of selling electric vehicles. Doesn’t even have to be the exclusive business – Tesla sells solar and batteries, too.
You are more than free to your own definition. 
Please do!
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This is an over-simplification. For example, I just installed 2 kW of solar on my rooftop (5 x 400 W chinese panels and american-made microinverters). Thanks to the development of the tech and economies of scale in production, it cost a measly $2000 (a few years ago it would have cost $20,000) and my net usage is now 0. This is “consumption”, but on a lifecycle basis it is highly beneficial consumption. Regulation had nothing to do with this.
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If Musk can invent a way to give the dead people back their lives, and the sick people back their health, then I say we can grant his wish and open up the country anytime.
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