When you look at product lines like this it makes you realise the scale and breadth of Elon Musk's influence and even if only half of his endeavours prove to be as successful as they seem like they will be he will be written about extensively in history books.
[1] https://electrek.co/2019/07/25/tesla-plans-massive-productio...
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/07/24/liveblog-tesla-q2-2019-...
Their plan can fail, but I don't see any better plan.
Most of Musk's company goals are aspirational, and the means to the end often change. For example, Falcon 9 first stage was supposed to be reusable by landing it in the ocean with a parachute, but they found it didn't work. Instead, they lengthened the first stage booster dramatically so it would have the propellant margin to land propulsively.
[1] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1156005185656782848?s=20
Dan Telvock, a local reporter in Buffalo who covers the solar gigafactory which taxpayers bought for Tesla, is already calling out Musk on his "aspirational" BS. https://mobile.twitter.com/DanTelvock/status/115621452719479...
Regardless of which one is correct, the fact remains that they are scaling up a new technology. Both 200 and 1000 are ambitious goals, and both contradict your implication that the solar department is "a shell of its former self". It has dramatically shifted directions (from market standard solar panels on roof, to integrated solar roof tiles).
Of course normal companies, with a level of corporate governance ranking somewhere above "drunken frat house," publish these sorts of production forecasts in official channels after careful vetting and consideration. It is neither admirable nor acceptable for a public company CEO like Musk to simply pop off on Twitter with "ambitious goals" on which investors might rely for trading decisions if they have no basis in fact. Which is why questions are already being asked about whether Musk's tweet violated the terms of his amended SEC settlement agreement, which requires legal pre-approval for any public statements he makes about matters relevant to Tesla, including production forecasts. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-30/musk-twee...
First let me say Musk has a habit of doing big, new things that the experts and the fossil-fuels-forever gang said were absolutely impossible.
That being the case, what are your views on global climate change? Do you think it is a huge danger and it is urgent we get off fossil fuels as soon as possible? Or do you think it is the greatest hoax in the history of the human race? Or what?
With the essential help of enormous government subsidies, Musk succeeded in creating a cult brand around EVs and little else. It's an achievement of celebrity and branding, not engineering or manufacturing. Which is not to take away from it necessarily, he has proved the EV concept, but he has yet to show that EVs can be financially sustainable over the long run without constant public money injections.
Meanwhile, his application of Silicon Valley management techniques to industrial manufacturing is a total disaster of scrapped alien dreadnought plans and cars being taped and zip-tied together in a tent. The machine-learning-on-wheels he calls "Autopilot" is dangerous and undercooked, and could be easily rolled out by any of Tesla's competitors if not for the fact that they have at least some scruples about beta testing their software on public roads. His impact on home solar generation has probably been net negative as Solar City was a debacle which had to be bailed out by Tesla shareholders and has been in a tailspin ever since, despite massive subsidies forked over to build the Buffalo Gigafactory by the state of New York.
If the whole point is to build a green energy future, why has Musk used Tesla as a piggy-bank to prop up his celebrity billionaire lifestyle by borrowing enormous sums against the value of his Tesla stock? It has created perverse incentives harmful to the long run health of Tesla itself. A restructuring to shed debts and shore up its balance sheet would be the best possible move they could make if the goal is to remain a viable entity replacing ICE vehicles with EVs into the indefinite future. But Musk will never do this voluntarily, because his goal is to keep the stock price propped up.
And where the only bad person is Elon Musk.
>could be easily rolled out by any of Tesla's competitors if not for the fact that they have at least some scruples about beta testing their software on public roads.
The problem was the EV's at the time were not remotely up to the job. Where Musk comes in is that, thanks to his brilliant efforts, we are getting there many years earlier than we would have otherwise.
The people who nonetheless are screamingly angry at Musk and Tesla seem to fall mostly into three classes. One is global climate change deniers who think we should stay on fossil fuels forever. The second is shorters who don't care if the world goes to hell, and only want to make money. The third is haters, by which I mean people who are not happy unless they have someone to spend their life hating.
My impression from your comment is that you are in the third class.
It's based on a novel battery. One of the interesting claims about XNRGI's battery is that it can be manufactured at scale for a much lower capital cost because you can use existing semiconductor wafer manufacturing infrastructure:
So let's see if Cross Border Power's grid battery works. It'll be good if it does.
He is piloting and testing them all as colonization building blocks here first.
However - I wish that he would start by building a moon base first...
https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html
As an aside, they have some really wonderful long form content. I love the 1 to Graham's number posts (a two parter) https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/11/from-1-to-1000000.html