I've spotted a trend with Elon Musk : he's the king of over-promising. If he were to be believed, the Model X is now available for all to buy, but it's not - it's been delayed now to the end of this year, after previously being delayed to the end of 2014.
He promised that supercharger stations would all be solar-powered by the end of 2014. Of the 280 installed around the world, only two are solar powered.
In 2013 he promised that battery-swap stations would be commonplace by the end of 2014. Not a single one has been built for public use (despite last week's announcement about an upcoming pilot program).
There's the much-demonstrated and over-promised autopilot system in the P85D which - despite all the cars (allegedly) having the hardware to support it - is still very much vaporware.
There's the CHAdeMO DC charging station adapter which has been "coming soon" since the Model S first appeared.
There's the empty promise of a battery upgrade for Roadster owners - something else due to happen by 5 days ago and something else we're still waiting for.
And finally the Gigafactory which - whilst grand in scale and intent - could take a decade to prove itself.
Tesla is successful, and Musk is a hyper-billionaire, but take everything he and the company say with a grain of salt because they have an established history of over-promising and under-delivering. If investors and customers weren't still blinded by the shiny bright light of the Model S, they'd have ditched the company 12 months ago with a performance record like that.
