Elon Musk Rants On Twitter, Says He Started Tesla Because Big Auto Companies Killed The Electric Car

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he started his company because major automakers tried to “kill” the electric car, he said on Twitter Friday.

Musk explained why he and other Silicon Valley engineer started the electric car company, which was founded in 2003.

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“Few people know that we started Tesla when GM forcibly recalled all electric cars from customers in 2003 & then crushed them in a junkyard,” Musk said referencing the time when General Motors took its electric car EV1 off the market. “They was done against the will of their owners, who held a candlelight vigil all night to protest the death of their cars.”

The recall was documented in the movie “Who Killed The Electric Car?” by Chris Paine years later in 2006.

“Since big car companies were killing their EV programs, the only chance was to create an EV company, even tho it was almost certain to fail,” added Musk.

Musk, who is also CEO of the Boring Company and SpaceX, then clarified that the launch of Tesla had nothing to do with government subsidies or “making money.”

A Twitter user asked Musk if he considered Tesla to now be a "complete success" and the CEO replied that the company still has a “long way to go, but we've convinced most of the auto industry to start EV programs & gave them all our patents to help, so that's something.”

Read: Tesla Working Conditions: Employees Passing Out At Factory To Meet Production Goals, Report Says

Another user on Twitter pointed out that he had seen more Teslas and electric cars in a week in Oslo, Norway than he had in the last five years in the U.S. and Canada.

“I love Norway, which is the world leader in EV adoption! Great example for the rest of the world,” said Musk, who recently left President Donald Trump’s business advisory councils after he pulled out of the Paris climate agreement.

“Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world,” Musk said when he announced his departure.

Tesla Superchargers

Musk revealed Friday that Tesla plans to disconnect “almost all” its supercharger from the electricity grid and that “all superchargers are being converted to solar/battery power.”

His announcement came after a Twitter user criticized Tesla saying superchargers use electricity from coal power plants.

Musk’s revelation comes after the company announced in April it was bringing more charging locations to drivers this year. As of now there are 5,000 superchargers worldwide that Tesla has installed for car owners. The company plans to double that number by the end of the year. The superchargers will be built along busy routes and will be made large enough to fit many cars at once.