FT names Elon Musk as its ‘Person of the Year’

Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends the Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory groundbreaking ceremony in Shanghai, China January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

Dec 15 (Reuters) – The Financial Times newspaper has followed the Time magazine in naming Elon Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc(TSLA.O), as its “Person of the Year”, commending him for the work done in transforming the electric vehicle industry.

Tesla, the global EV leader, has pushed many young consumers and legacy automakers to shift focus to electric vehicles.

In a column, the FT’s editor, Roula Khalaf, credited Musk for demonstrating that EVs could replace cars fueled by gasoline, and called him a revolutionary in the industry.

Tesla, which currently has a market capitalization of over $1 trillion, is more valuable than renowned automakers Ford Motor (F.N) and General Motors (GM.N) combined.

“For a long time, the rest of the auto industry was basically calling Tesla and me fools and frauds,” the newspaper quoted Musk as saying in an interview.

“They were saying electric cars wouldn’t work, you can’t achieve the range and performance. And even if you did that, nobody would buy them.”

From hosting NBC sketch comedy show “Saturday Night Live” to dropping tweets on cryptocurrencies and meme stocks that have triggered massive movements in their value, Musk has dominated the headlines and amassed over 66 million followers on Twitter.

“For all the eccentric and provocative tweets that strike some as childish, he is one of the most transformational business figures of the era. For that reason, the FT is making him its Person of the Year for 2021,” Khalaf added.

Reporting by Rhea Binoy and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Maju Samuel

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