'Person of the Year' title

The head of the US company Tesla, Elon Musk, was named person of the year by the British Financial Times on Wednesday, thanks to his efforts to bring about "a historic automotive industry transition to electric vehicles".

The business publication stressed that the entrepreneur, who started producing electric cars about 10 years ago, has also helped major players in the car market to invest more heavily in producing greener personal vehicles. "For a long period of time, the auto industry called Tesla and me personally fools and liars," Musk told the Financial Times. They said electric cars wouldn't work."

As the newspaper pointed out, the businessman has already radically changed the entire global auto industry, which will have "profound implications for governments, investors and the climate". Musk himself said he decided to create Tesla to show the possibility of an effective transition to electric cars. "We did Tesla mainly out of desperation. Not because we thought it could make a profit, but because we just wanted to show that such production is possible in principle," added the head of the company, who on Monday was also named person of the year by the editors of US magazine Time.

Tesla was founded by Elon Musk in 2003. Its headquarters is located in Austin, Texas. At first the firm specialised solely in producing electric cars, but later it began to create solar panels and other energy storage systems as well. Musk is also the founder of SpaceX, which makes space technology and orbital launches.

On November 1, Musk became the first person in history whose fortune, according to Forbes magazine's billionaire ranking, exceeded $300 billion. Currently the publication estimates his fortune at $252 billion. Tesla stock began to fall in value after Musk asked Twitter users a month ago if he should sell his stake in the company, reaching 10%.

It is worth noting that the Financial Times has been awarding the title of person of the year for more than 50 years. In 2020, the title was shared between two men the co-founders of German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, Ugur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, who led research to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus.