Tuesday, 14 May 2013

Elon is the new Steve


Last year I met Elon Musk at Economist’s Innovation awards, where he was picking up the No Boundaries’ category. What with Richard Branson calling him out in Time Magazine’s 100 most influential and Iron man 3 with Robert Downey Jr basing Tony Stark on him, there’s no shortage of shout outs at the moment.

As some of you will know I’m a big fan, but have had my doubts on the whole Tesla take up. With the recent launch of Rimac’s Concept_One , coming in at the super car end of the spectrum and the mainstream manufacturers getting their act together with cool offerings such as the Mercedes Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive and Audi with their A3 E-Tron. Granted most are not cheap, but part of the challenge I see a lot when commercialising IP is getting the timing right.  One could argue that the opportunity was passing the great man by as he was focusing on getting to Mars safely.

My faith in the Elon followership (only for Tesla – it never waned on Space X) is slightly restored after reading this innovation story brought to you via @timkastelle  What will your next choice of car be? I have to admit I’m still rather partial to the Tesla Roadster and as the electric vehicle infrastructure is more available, in my home city of Düsseldorf, CGI are bringing this to life, we'll have to see if Tesla is the new Apple.  

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