Musk did it because, at first, it was brilliant. His domestic competitors were feckless. Mostly they still are. Tesla's high valuation made it possible to leap

Musk did it because, at first, it was brilliant. His domestic competitors were feckless. Mostly they still are. Tesla's high valuation made it possible to leap from being a specialty car maker to being a major manufacturer. His competitors have to spend billions on ads while Tesla had a referral program copied from the SaaS software industry. It was all pretty great until it wasn't.