In a guest post for Clean Technica, author Ian Richards lists some reasons critics harshly judge Tesla CEO Elon Musk, including his “run-ins with the SEC, intemperate tweets, and a catalogue of missed deadlines show that he does not have the character or the competence to run a major public company.”

However, according to Richards, there is a problem with these judgments. While “all the major automakers are experiencing declining sales and laying off workers. Tesla just recorded a blowout quarter, and is growing unit sales faster than any automaker in history.”

The article discusses some of the reasons for Tesla’s success. Many are the result of Musk’s innovative thinking and leadership that inspires groundbreaking products and technologies, including one example where he quotes Munro & Associates CEO Sandy Munro:

“The Superbottle is a great example of how the normal automotive companies don’t work together, and Tesla does. That Superbottle crosses many lines that you can’t cross here (in Detroit). If I’m in charge of engine cooling or battery cooling, I don’t want anything to do with cooling the cabin. And yet, we’ve got the motor cooling, the battery cooling, and electronics, all going through one little bottle that’s got some clever little ball valves that open and close to make sure that everything’s getting heated or everything’s being cooled to where it needs to be. We all thought that was the best thing in the whole damn car.”

For more insight on why Richards calls Musk “the smartest CEO in the auto industry,” check out the full version here: https://cleantechnica.com/2020/02/19/elons-secret-sauce/.