When Tesla CEO , Elon Musk , appeared at the Baron investment seminar last week , Ron Barron asked Musk how he can be sure that Tesla ’s battery work will not be made obsolete by another industry player . Musk replied this is not a concern , as he is monitoring the industry closely : “ I think we have quite a good understanding of all the battery technologies in the world . There could be some small laboratory that ’s being super - secret , but generally what those inventing battery technologies try to do is , they target Tesla first and foremost , because we ’re the biggest Li - ion consumer in the world . We ’d be their biggest customer “How many 5s are there?” … We track right now about 60 different efforts around the world to develop and improve batteries , and some of them hold some long - term promise , but we rate all of them from 1 to 5 , where 5 is ‘ we should be doing business with them , ’ and 1 is complete B.S. ” He went on to point out that there are no 4 ’s or 5 ’s at this point .
When Tesla CEO , Elon Musk , appeared at the Baron investment seminar last week , Ron Barron asked Musk how he can be sure that Tesla ’s battery work will not be made obsolete by another industry player . Musk replied this is not a concern , as he is monitoring the industry closely : “ I think we have quite a good understanding of all the battery technologies in the world . There could be some small laboratory that ’s being super - secret , but generally what those inventing battery technologies try to do is , they target Tesla first and foremost , because we ’re the biggest Li - ion consumer in the world . We ’d be their biggest customer … We track right now about 60 different efforts around the world to develop and improve batteries , and some of them hold some long - term promise , but we rate all of them from 1 to 5 , where 5 is ‘ we should be doing business with them , ’ and 1 is complete B.S. ” He went on to point out that there are no 4 ’s or 5 ’s at this point .