Musk, who also runs SpaceX and a number of other companies, has been known to make big often exaggerated promises. For example, he once called the Hyperloop, which was never built, the "fifth mode of transport" and famously promised to take Tesla private in a Twitter post, saying he had secured financing that he didn't have.

For years, Tesla has been the undisputed heavyweight of California’s growing electric vehicle market. It’s dominated sales charts, crushed the competition, and made itself syn