2008 occurred when TSLA was insignificantly small. Most had never even heard of it, and they started selling the roadster in 2008 - by 2012 they sold 2200 cars.

2008 occurred when TSLA was insignificantly small. Most had never even heard of it, and they started selling the roadster in 2008 - by 2012 they sold 2200 cars. Point being they were small enough that a couple of investors, or Musk by himself, can support the company through the storm. If the financial crisis would hit today, Musk couldn’t keep it afloat by himself for long and would have to raise serious amounts of capital to keep a company its size. So no. Tesla, as a serious car company, has yet to live through a financial storm. Not as anything other than a niche vanity project.