Tesla has single-handedly transformed the landscape of the automobile industry worldwide in less than two decades. Before it, almost no car companies were seriously invested in developing all-electric vehicles (EVs).

Now, automakers around the world are racing to catch up to Tesla, completely overhauling their R&D to prioritize EVs.

And we think Tesla and the cars it makes are good.

Yes, it’s had its fair share of controversy and drama over the years, from accusations of sexual harrasment at the company to CEO Elon Musk’s infamously mercurial behavior on Twitter (and his efforts both to outright buy it and then get out of buying it). Tesla was also recently de-listed from the S&P 500 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) index, which struck many people as odd for a company whose raison d’être is to eliminate fossil fuel emissions.

Setting aside all that recent news to look at Tesla’s cars themselves, the Models S, 3, X, and Y are truly groundbreaking in the EV space because they were the first cars to do everything that a gas-powered car can do without asking drivers to sacrifice style and luxury. And people have been lining up in droves to buy them. So, despite the controversies, the company seems to be doing an admirable job of hewing to its mission to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”

We’ve recently gotten really interested in the materials that make up our world, and so we started to wonder: what are Tesla’s cars actually (Read more...)