In many ways, these have been tough days for Tesla. Falling sales. Squeezed profit margins. Proposed changes in US government policy that could cost the company billions.

Musk, who also runs SpaceX and a number of other companies, has been known to make big often exaggerated promises. For example, he once called the Hyperloop, which was never built, the "fifth mode of transport" and famously promised to take Tesla private in a Twitter post, saying he had secured financing that he didn't have.

Elon Musk's activity as part of Donald Trump's new administration has been described as a "coup" by a leading political historian.