elon musk 2010 Tesla IPO - Vault by CNN
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In 2010, Elon Musk had big plans for Tesla. Listen to his predictions
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elon musk 2010 Tesla IPO - Vault by CNN
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In 2010, Elon Musk had big plans for Tesla. Listen to his predictions
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Tesla head Elon Musk arrives to have a look at the construction site of the new Tesla Gigafactory near Berlin on September 03, 2020 near Gruenheide, Germany.
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Tesla Model 3 cars are displayed during the Tesla China-made Model 3 Delivery Ceremony in Shanghai. - Tesla CEO Elon Musk presented the first batch of made-in-China cars to ordinary buyers on January 7, 2020 in a milestone for the company's new Shanghai "giga-factory", but which comes as sales decelerate in the world's largest electric-vehicle market. (Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUT (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)
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New York CNN Business  — 

Tesla has become the most valuable and (by some measures) the most profitable automaker in the world, But a short while ago it nearly toppled into bankruptcy.

CEO Elon Musk tweeted this week that the company was within a month of filing for bankruptcy when it was struggling to bring its best-selling vehicle, the Model 3 sedan, to market.

“Closest we got was about a month,” he said when asked via Twitter how close Tesla got to bankruptcy. “The Model 3 ramp was extreme stress & pain for a long time — from mid 2017 to mid 2019. Production & logistics hell.”

Tesla was in a serious cash crunch as losses mounted and it struggled to hit various production targets for the Model 3. But Musk hadn’t previously disclosed the company was close to filing for bankruptcy – although he did joke about a bankruptcy filing in a separate tweet on April Fool’s Day in 2018.

A Tesla car sits parked at a Tesla Supercharger on September 23, 2020 in Petaluma, California. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order directing the California Air Resources Board to establish regulations that would require all new cars and passenger trucks sold in the state to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035. Sales of internal combustion engines would be banned in the state after 2035. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
A Tesla car sits parked at a Tesla Supercharger on September 23, 2020 in Petaluma, California. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order directing the California Air Resources Board to establish regulations that would require all new cars and passenger trucks sold in the state to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035. Sales of internal combustion engines would be banned in the state after 2035. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Related article Tesla shares sink 7% despite record car sales

Today, Tesla’s struggles seem to be ancient history.

Tesla (TSLA) has recently reported record, sustained profits, an industry-leading profit margin and strong cash flows. And the stock has responded in kind, with shares of Tesla (TSLA) soaring more than 400% this year.