I don't think Tesla or Elon have ever said their goal was to make money. Their mission statement has always been "To accelerate the adoption of sustainable tran

I don't think Tesla or Elon have ever said their goal was to make money. Their mission statement has always been "To accelerate the adoption of sustainable transportation." "Whenever you have an unpriced externality you can't quite rely on the market to do the right thing. So in order to have electric vehicles come sooner than they otherwise would... electric vehicles were always going to be the long-term transportation mechanism, but to make that day come sooner, you have to bridge the gap with innovation. That was the goal with Tesla is to try to serve as a catalyst to accelerate the day, the day of electric vehicles. And I think when all is said and done, I am hopeful that historians will look back on Tesla and say that Tesla advanced that by at least 10 years, which that would be a huge victory of mine... in my mind." - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpcJ3jX-2DA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpcJ3jX-2DA It's the same with SpaceX, even though its been profitable I don't think they have ever celebrated that. They keep aiming to burn money towards getting to Mars which itself is another money pit. I think Elon is genuine, he's actions do follow his words. He doesn't care about money, he cares about advancing humanity for the thrills and exploration.