The Tesla Tipping Point / Musk Masterplan To Date
The Musk Masterplan has only just begun...
A 21st Century Cavalry, assembled to rescue the world from the unintended consequences of the Industrial Revolution...
And if anyone's about to make their 'last stand' - be assured it will not be the US 'Freemont
Regiment'...
Sobering to note the oldest bit of Musk's Enterprises (Tesla) has only been 12 years in the making.
From start-up scratch in the sand to multi-billion $ enterprise.
12 Years compared to well over 100 for the established Auto Industry...
A man used to sleeping on friends sofas - to now shaping a mission to Mars.
Living day by day to the adage of the American Scientist Alan Kay...
The best way to predict the future...is to invent it!
The best way to predict the future is to invent it! 'General Musk' has circled the wagons around his 3 core businesses - Space X, Tesla, & Solar City, and he sure is fixin' for a bust-up! - Good job someone is I say!
In case you're now wondering at this point if I'm in the employ of any of it - I am not. At this time I am a Professional Independent EV Consultant helping out a number of people with projects in the arena.
Without doubt, Tesla are EV's MVP and they continue to generate excitement and interest that keeps the profile of electric vehicles flying high - and make no mistake - they are dragging a recalcitrant auto industry away from internal combustion to the land of the electron.
ICE2NICE is my # for all that.
The fixing and fudging carries on of course...but inexorably - as that bearded bloke at Virgin mentioned back in the summer - the days are numbered for the good folks at Suck-Squeeze-Bang-Blow Inc. As a timely and comprehensive update, JB Straubel shared the WIP (Work In progress) of the Tesla proposition last week at The University of Nevada. If you're not familiar with the Tesla journey thus far - sit back in a comfy chair, pour yourself a JD and and let JB tell you the story... Some great Q&A rounds it all off - so wait for that too. OK?
I had the good fortune to ride and drive the Model S last year ( a few times in fact) - and should my consultancy business continue to progress well - that's the one for me sometime soon hopefully. Inevitably there are a few bits and pieces that might need a tweak as recent reports have suggested - but without doubt, Tesla's customers are their best salespeople (a turn of phrase not an absolute of course!) - and advocacy for the brand hollers loud and clear!
Meanwhile...
Of course the Model X is now with us...
Or maybe I should/will/must wait for Model 3
So the Musk Masterplan in a nutshell is to progress and develop benign renewable energy with Solar City, manage it efficiently through a 21st Century Utility grid, and tap into it for motive power in Tesla Automobiles. Add a sprinkling of Mobility over Ownership - Driverless over Driven - and you have a plug and pay proposition to replace the Old Auto way of things. Handy to know that the big boys around the corner (Apple/Google/UBER/Facebook) will always bail you out should it all go 'tits up'
But If all that fails...jump in the rocket ship that Space X build - and set the controls for Mars Central.
And as to the Tesla Tipping Point?...
Without doubt, the arrival in 2017/18 of the mass market Model III will be when it truly kicks off. That product and the market segment it encounters is the rich seam of business that has been successfully mined for many years by BMW, Audi, Mercedes and others - up until now.
I reckon Apple will be ready around that time to...
For the millions who've still never heard of Tesla, wouldn't know Elon Musk if they saw him busking in the middle of London's Covent Garden, and think EV's are some kind of flash in the pan. That product, that price, that promotion will change everything.
A latter day Model T Moment - just as Elon envisaged...
Meanwhile there are many in the 'traditional' auto industry that know a momentous moment is fast approaching, and some of them will be ready and waiting with competitive offers to attract us and compete - I hope so.
In truth, nothing would please me more than to see a Voltswagen Vision emerge from Wolfsburg and for Audi to Vorsprung durch Elektrisch a lot quicker. Virtue for the future might just wash away some sins of the past...
However, far too many seem too set in their ways to ever change - it's combustion or bust for them...
Critical to it all too are the infrastructure players - utility companies et al - who've also sniffed out a massive market just around the corner. Tesla are there too of course with their own 'nacsent' international network of Superchargers. Early adopters have been rewarded with free-fuel-for-life - but the quid pro quo for that was always going to be an opening up of the service to all comers. Recurring revenue - if not from engine friction parts - has to come from somewhere folks!
So without doubt it's all joining up before our eyes - and the 'Musk Masterplan' is a key catalyst - which hopefully means tomorrows's World will resemble Nikolas's future vision far more than Henry's ever did.
Such as what's joining up then?...
Such as Apple cooking up a 21st Century recipe...
Such as well funded new market entrants like NEXTEV and Faraday Future...
Such as iconic brands like McLaren Technology Group and Aston Martin nailing their electric vehicle colours to the mast.
Such as Williams Advanced Engineering harvesting a crop of environmental technologies and solutions - including EV stuff - great article here on Jaolpnik on all that...
Such as Season 2 of the FIA Formula E race series back on the grid this weekend in China...
So Bravo to you all!
Vive La EVolution!
