Tesla Motors

Tesla Motors was not really challenged the way other innovative ideas have been in the past, however it was repeatedly dismissed. Before the Roadster came out people put the idea of an practical electric auto into the boondoggle category. After it came out detractors denounced it as a niche market car. Belittled Tesla Motors by implying they had only succeeded in editing a Lotus Elise into an electric go-kart.

After the Tesla Model S was released the tune changed drastically. For the first time in decades, the gas-rich automotive industry was terrified of losing it stranglehold on the automotive market. Granted, the Toyota Prius had already been released, but in that case electricity was merely supplemental to the star of the show gasoline.

The Tesla Model S showed people that one could feasibly own an electric car that

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This will yield one of two eventual effects. Either gasoline loving automakers will find ways to keep petrol alive (which I greatly would appreciate because electric cars are not as fun lacking gears to shift) by making it more efficient and environmentally friendly, or they will not and gasoline will go the way of coal in the US.

The latter is highly unlikely to happen anytime soon for a few reasons. First, gas is only moderately more expensive (see thorium) than the dirt they have to drill through to accrue it, due to innovative new drilling techniques. Thus, Tesla Motors does not pose an imminent enough threat, people are more parsimonious (by necessity) than they are principled (which is first a world luxury).

Even if that were not the case, it would still be a struggle for Tesla and electric cars to assume market dominance. The oil and gas Lobby will fight tooth and nail to make sure that the electric infrastructure is implemented as slowly as humanly possible, while steal being