How Elon Musk Plans On Reinventing The World

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There is an interview with Elon Musk posted today over at GQ that is rather interesting. It's worth the click just to read Musk's definition of "BFR and the BFS." ;)

One of his companies is trying to upend the auto industry. Another of his companies is trying to put people on Mars. Yet another is trying to bring electricity to everyone who needs it. Elon Musk wants to reinvent the world in a single lifetime. But is the future ready for Elon Musk?
 
We have a Tesla supercharger station in the parking garage next to my apartment building and for a long time it was rarely used at any given time of day or night but that was in the past - I just walked outside before making this post and there were 9 Teslas hooked up so, apparently somebody can afford those vehicles. It's pretty cool when they pull out of the garage because you can't really hear 'em at all aside from the noise the tires make on the pavement as it rolls past - it's like a traditional car permanently in neutral with a low idle or something.

As for some of the other stuff he's interested in, especially the Hyperloop, I would think perhaps instead of moving objects at incredibly "ludicrous" speeds they'd spend more time researching teleportation but that's just me. :D
 
Teslas are getting to be the Camrys of the west coast, it's kind of shame that it will never scale down to Model 3 (no matter how you run the numbers Tesla can't sell a 30K car due to the support infrastructure). Still, I give Musk huge props for having huevos to do what no one else was willing to do. I really wish him the best with Mars, but I just don't see the business case for it. Even if you say that the world is ending and we need to move, money won't be allocated unless you can show ROI in the short term. Businesses would rather take the one hit depreciation of the end of the world than invest in a possible future with no ROI.
 
Elon Musk sounds like a fragrance used during the dear hunting season.
 
EchtoGammut said:
Teslas are getting to be the Camrys of the west coast, it's kind of shame that it will never scale down to Model 3 (no matter how you run the numbers Tesla can't sell a 30K car due to the support infrastructure). Still, I give Musk huge props for having huevos to do what no one else was willing to do. I really wish him the best with Mars, but I just don't see the business case for it. Even if you say that the world is ending and we need to move, money won't be allocated unless you can show ROI in the short term. Businesses would rather take the one hit depreciation of the end of the world than invest in a possible future with no ROI.
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Why not? They sell the Model S a 70k. A smaller less powerful car less luxury options can't be sold at 30k?
 
dbu8554 said:
Why not? They sell the Model S a 70k. A smaller less powerful car less luxury options can't be sold at 30k?
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They can but the evolution had to happen slowly and over time to accumulate the resources required to get an all electric car in that price range. The opening of the Gigafactory is part of why the ~30k Model 3 will be set to hit the streets sometime in 2017 (or 2018+ given the Tesla delays).

Starting at a 30k car would not have been at all possible for Tesla and it's precisely why they started at the 100k+ range with the Roadster.
 
Sonicks said:
They can but the evolution had to happen slowly and over time to accumulate the resources required to get an all electric car in that price range. The opening of the Gigafactory is part of why the ~30k Model 3 will be set to hit the streets sometime in 2017 (or 2018+ given the Tesla delays).

Starting at a 30k car would not have been at all possible for Tesla and it's precisely why they started at the 100k+ range with the Roadster.
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He said it would "NEVER" scale down.
 
dbu8554 said:
He said it would "NEVER" scale down.
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Yeah, he did. And I think he may be making two wrong assumptions.

First, he's betting against Musk. I don't like those odds.

Second, perhaps he imagines that the S is selling for some kind of normal margin of profit compared to other car companies, and he doesn't see how the price can be cut by more than half if that's true.

But Musk has been very open that he is selling the S at a heavy markup in order to fund three things--R&D for fast future improvements, building of more production capacity, and rollout of Supercharger infrastructure. Once he hits saturation in manufacturing and chargers, he can cut margin heavily and still turn a healthy profit. Combine this with downscaled features and smaller size, and the Model 3 is probably more easily within reach than is being assumed. I just hope the range doesn't take a huge hit.
 
Elon Musk is cool and all but things that will change the world are not what he's talking about. Things like CRISPR and anti-ageing technology will change the world. Right now washington is having a talk about CRISPR because it's gotten so good that it's usable on humans.
 
fundamentally change energy storage solutions (aka batteries) then everything will change.
 
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