After Time magazine named Elon Musk Personality of the Year, it was the Financial Times' turn to name the Tesla CEO Personality of the Year for his work in electric mobility.

In a story published by Reuters (conditional access and in English), Financial Times editor Roula Khalaf describes him as "one of the most transformative business figures of the era" despite "all the eccentric and provocative tweets that may even seem childish to some." Khalaf adds that Musk's credit is due to the fact that he revolutionized the electric vehicle industry.

"For a long time, the rest of the auto industry was basically calling both me and Tesla an idiot and a fraud, the newspaper quoted Musk's interview (conditional access and in English). "They were saying that electric cars would not work, that it was not possible to have the autonomy and performance; and even if it was possible, that nobody would buy them," he added.

Elon Musk is also founder and CEO of SpaceX, leads brain chip startup Neuralink and infrastructure company The Boring Company. This year, Tesla's market value reached a billion dollars, ranking alongside giants such as Google, Alphabet and Amazon.