VW mocked Tesla. History had other plans.

VW CEO in 2017:

"Let me say a few words about Tesla. With all due respect, there are world champions of making announcements - I won't name names. There are companies struggling to sell 80,000 to 100,000 cars a year, while Volkswagen sells 11 million. Volkswagen earns €13-14 billion in annual profit. And if I'm correctly informed, Tesla is burning hundreds of millions of euros every quarter. They throw employees out whenever they feel like it. So when it comes to social responsibility, I don't know where that is. Let's keep things in perspective and stop comparing apples and oranges."

The audience burst into loud laughter. Less than a decade later, nobody at Volkswagen is laughing anymore.