When a judge was hearing testimony last fall on federal labor-law allegations against Tesla Inc., lawyers posed perfunctory questions to witnesses, including asking them what Tesla is. One response from a vice president was unlike others in its effusiveness.
“It’s everything. Wow -- it’s so much,” Jonathan Chang testified in a U.S. courthouse hearing room in Oakland, California. “I’ve never thought of it as just a car company,” he said, adding that Tesla’s mission “has changed from accelerating the advent of sustainable transport, to accelerating the advent of sustainable energy.”
The comments cast Chang as a true believer in ...