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Tesla to dominate 2021, but other winners and losers in EVs to be determined
It is no secret that Tesla is expected to dominate 2021’s electric vehicle market as the company begins to show it has the robust nature it takes to grow in such a competitive market. After delivering just shy of 500,000 vehicles, according to its own Shareholder Deck via its Investor Relations website, Tesla is poised to increase that number even more this year, especially as two new Gigafactories are expected to take shape and begin rolling out EVs later this year.
Tesla’s undeniable dominance in the EV sector has been accredited to several things: hard work, strategy, luck, and seeing that EVs would be the future well before anyone really knew. Tesla has truly caused an entire industry to rethink its future strategies regarding the development of its products. Instead of slight revisions to an ICE model that has been in production for 40 years, automakers are scrapping the old-faithful vehicles that once ruled production processes for all-electric cars that are supplying the world’s brightest engineers and manufacturing experts with constant headaches.
But past the overwhelming importance for automakers to adopt EV strategies moving forward, 2021 will likely be a “make or break” year for some of the biggest names in vehicle production. While there are undoubtedly going to be winners who will join Tesla on the upward trend toward EV adoption, there are others that will fade away. Unfortunately, there is no way to look into the future and see who will win and who will lose, but the writing that currently appears on the wall will tell many investors of the EV movement who is making a commendable effort of trying to adopt new strategies and move toward sustainable transport. However, others are still stuck with the notion that there is time. However, the longer these companies wait, the further the lead will be for Tesla, who once sat in the shadows of automotive legacy, waiting for its chance to pounce.
Credit: teslaphotographer/Instagram
Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner upped his price target on Tesla stock on Thursday from $705 to $890, The Street reported. After already upgrading Tesla’s outlook once in 2021, Rosner is still convinced of the automaker’s dominance moving forward, looking at 2021 as the year of the EV.
But it’s not all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for Rosner because he believes that some automakers will eventually phase themselves out of the race to EV dominance. Although nearly every company in the world that makes cars has mentioned a possible adoption to electric transport, there are still some that sit with very vague plans. Interestingly, these companies claim that Tesla will eventually fall and that scalability and software will only last so long. Sure, but Tesla has software nearly perfected, while some of the most robust and refined companies in the world are still stuck with head-scratching as their only outlet to vent their frustration.
Rosner’s note says that 2021 “should indeed see a material acceleration of electric vehicle roll-outs, and provide much clarity on winners and losers from electrification.” It’s true. We will see more EV plans this year than ever before. Companies like Rivian and Lucid plan to launch their first deliveries later this year, Tesla will be opening Giga Berlin and Giga Texas, only increasing production outputs from the automaker, and Ford will eventually begin rolling out Mach-E models after an unexpected delay of hundreds of models. But as most of us know, there is a fine line between launching a product and launching a product successfully.
What will 2021 entail for the EV sector? Mostly good things if you believe that President Joe Biden will replace an emphasis on climate control and pollution reduction. The President reactivated the U.S.’ inclusion in the Paris Agreement yesterday, a move that will excite many of the environmentalists out there. EVs undoubtedly contribute to a cleaner world, but can automakers contribute to the global transition to sustainable passenger transport? Who will win and who will lose?
What do you think? Leave a comment down below. Got a tip? Email us at tips@teslarati.com or reach out to me at joey@teslarati.com.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk certainly tipped off some details of the Tesla Roadster event with a broadening of information regarding the company’s decision to delay the unveiling for two weeks.
For years, people have speculated about what the Roadster will be capable of. While there have been plenty of things said about what it *could* do, we have not seen or been told by Tesla what it will actually be capable of.
However, over the past few days, Tesla’s weather updates have truly pushed the speculation into Plaid Mode, basically all but confirming the car will have some sort of aerial capability — whether that would be hovering or fully flying remains to be seen — but it definitely seems that it will be able to leave the ground intentionally.
“Because this event can only be held outdoors…”
Tesla posted on Monday that it would delay the Roadster event until October 15, and it indicated that it had to do this because the event “can only be held outdoors.”
With the potential SpaceX collaboration to develop cold-gas thrusters that will help the vehicle go airborne, doing this indoors is probably not a safe, or even plausible, possibility.
Roadster event update
We’ve been tracking the weather closely with local meteorologists, but given the severe conditions predicted & because this event can only be held outdoors, we’ve made the difficult decision to reschedule.
New date is October 15. Additional details to…
— Tesla (@Tesla) September 28, 2026
FAA Airspace Restriction
The FAA gave Tesla a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) for 10,000 feet above ground level, much higher than the typical 2,000-foot restrictions that are usually placed at SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas site.
Tesla Roadster event requires restricted airspace, and the FAA obliges
Some have said that this massive increase is due to Tesla’s need to restrict unauthorized drone use for spying on the event.
Elon Admits High Winds
“Due to high winds, the new Roadster demo is postponed by 2 weeks,” Musk said in a post on X yesterday.
Due to high winds, the new Roadster demo is postponed by 2 weeks https://t.co/dV3ojDh1iT
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 30, 2026
A reply reading, “What’s strong wind got to do with a car demo with four grounded wheels?” was directly below Musk’s post, satirically and sarcastically probing for more details.
All signs are pointing toward an aerial demonstration for the Roadster.
Tesla has secured $30 billion in fresh credit lines from Citibank and Wells Fargo in an effort to scale its biggest current projects.
Tesla agreed to a $20 billion three-year delayed-draw term loan facility from Citibank, it announced on Tuesday. Additionally, it signed a five-year, $8 billion revolving credit facility and a $2 billion, 364-day term credit facility with Wells Fargo.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that it “may draw” from the $20 billion delayed-draw term “from time to time” and “no more than ten times during the 18 months following the closing date.” This loan matures on September 29, 2029.
The five-year revolving facility from Wells Fargo will also be accessed by Tesla “from time to time,” and will become due and payable on September 29, 2031. Tesla can request two separate one-year extensions.
On the $2 billion, 364-day revolving loan, it becomes due and payable on September 28, 2027. Tesla can also increase its additional commitments to an additional $4 billion across the Revolving Facilities. This would increase the total facilities to $14 billion. Tesla said it does not plan to utilize any of these loans in 2026.
Tesla plans to utilize the money to help prop up its ambitions to scale its biggest products, each of which is either in early launch phases or still in development. Of course, we’re talking about Cybercab and Semi, which have launched, and Optimus, which is still under heavy development and working toward initial release.
All three Tesla products have one thing in common: they’ve all required Tesla to build new manufacturing lines for them.
For the Semi, Tesla built a brand new factory in Sparks, Nevada, adjacent to the Tesla Gigafactory. For Optimus, Tesla sunset Model S and X production at the Fremont Factory, which brought an end to the two flagship models, thus creating manufacturing space for the humanoid robot. Finally, Cybercab is being built at Gigafactory Texas and officially entered production earlier this year.
The cash will help Tesla bolster its finances for the continuing development of these products. Tesla said that it forecasts its CapEx to be over $25 billion, up from just over $8.5 billion last year. These loans surely help with that spending.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk and Trump are closer than ever, and Tesla could be the big winner
Elon Musk sat beside Trump as AI leaders signed a voluntary White House safety accord.
Elon Musk had the seat right next to President Donald Trump on Tuesday as the White House hosted the leaders of America’s biggest artificial intelligence companies for a lunch that ended with a voluntary industry accord on AI safety.
A seating chart Trump posted on Truth Social placed Musk at the president’s left in the East Room, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on his right, according to an Associated Press reporter. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also attended, along with Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
🚨 Elon Musk is currently speaking to the media alongside President Trump after a meeting with AI Leaders in Washington today
Trump says AI is now being called “Super Intelligence” or SI pic.twitter.com/woJJqUVP9B
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 29, 2026
After the lunch, Trump told reporters outside the West Wing that the executives had signed “The White House Accord on Superintelligence: A Joint Commitment on Frontier SI Responsibilities.” Johnson described it as a voluntary statement of principles built on “robust internal controls and layers of internal and external review,” while Zuckerberg said company boards would independently review reports from outside auditors. Trump called the document “morally binding,” said he would name a new AI czar within days, and signed an executive order formally renaming artificial intelligence “super intelligence,” CNBC reported.
Musk was not in the room for Tesla alone. Since SpaceX absorbed xAI, he runs the company behind Grok and one of the largest AI training operations anywhere. On September 25, he said another 220,000 Nvidia GB300 chips would come online at Colossus 2 within a week, with more expected in November and December.
“I think it is worth highlighting the positive benefits of A.I. … S.I., pardon me.”
“Thank you.”@elonmusk catches his own slip after calling the technology “A.I.” while speaking alongside President Trump and other tech leaders, quickly correcting himself to “super… pic.twitter.com/fH7CFileNb
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 29, 2026
SpaceX confirms third massive compute deal at Colossus data center
Musk also used the trip to restate his energy ambitions. “SpaceX is aiming together with Tesla to do 200 gigawatts of solar production per year,” he said at an event in Washington. It is the same combined target he laid out that feeds directly into Terafab, the Tesla and SpaceX chip venture that will need enormous amounts of power.
The showing between Musk and Trump has come a long way, since the two had the very public split in mid 2025 after Musk opposed the “Big Beautiful Bill” and left DOGE. They reconciled at Charlie Kirk’s memorial that September, and Trump later called their relationship “good”. Since then, Musk has joined Trump’s China delegation in May and attended last week’s White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping.
For Tesla, that access to government official could pay dividends. As Teslarati noted in January, federal autonomy rules, NHTSA oversight and a single national standard for driverless vehicles all run through an administration Musk can more easily reach directly as Tesla works to scale Robotaxi and Cybercab beyond Texas.
Elon Musk weather update tips Tesla Roadster speculation into Plaid Mode
Tesla snags $30B in fresh credit lines for expanding its biggest projects
