Photo: Tesla
Two things struck me while listening to Musk speak during a recent earnings call. The first is that he comes off as extremely articulate, but rather staid; and secondly, this guy may arguably be the greatest industrialist in history.
When I say staid I am referring to his monotone delivery. Sure, he chooses his words carefully but only to be understood and not mislead. Interesting or not, he pronounces Tesla with a slight 'z' sound that follows the 's'. I also found his delivery to be chock full of confidence rather than arrogance which seemingly belies his accomplishments to date.
His demeanor aside, Musk is an industrial animal and is miles ahead of any other visionary out there and opening the margin wider each and every day. He is the mastermind that drives not only electric vehicle pioneer Tesla, but also SpaceX, The Boring Company, and is in talks to take over Twitter. There is no question that he has amazing executive and operation teams that play huge roles in carrying out his visions, but this guy works hard. I am not sure how many hours are in his day, but If I shower, get laundry done, and somehow get to the grocery store on the same day, that's a big deal for me.
I have sung my praises for Musk before here on autoevolution and the song remains the same in the wake of what I learned listening to him. The real impetus behind this piece was when he talked about Tesla, clearly his pride and joy. The dominance that Tesla continues to exercise in many parts of the globe is quite amazing.
For example, recent numbers from the Germany Federal Motor Vehicle Office show that in the period from January to September of this year new Tesla owners registered 38,458 vehicles (a 48% increase over 2021). While that pales in comparison to the 343,800 sold in the U.S., the company essentially embarrassed Germany-based Volkswagen AG which sold 32,326 electric vehicles (a 41% decline over 2021), and Mercedes-Benz which sold just 14,619 EVs.
Musk is also fearless and decisive. He has successfully penetrated the Chinese market with production beginning in December 2019 and sold a whopping 83,135 China-made electric vehicles in September alone. Tesla's Giga-Shanghai is thought to be the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturing facility.
The next big moves for Tesla will be the delivery of the first Tesla Semi trucks to Pepsi later this year and the production of the Tesla Cyber truck in 2023.
In the U.S. and frankly, around the world, legacy automakers such as Ford and GM and startups like Lucid and Polestar are way behind, may never catch up with Tesla numbers, and simply might just be satisfied riding the wave that Musk created.
Another quite amazing accomplishment that Musk spearheaded is SpaceX; a spacecraft manufacturer, space launch provider, and satellite communications company formed in 2002. Somehow Musk and SpaceX are able to do what NASA, with a $26-plus billion budget, is incapable of doing. SpaceX developed the Falcon 9, a partially reusable medium-launch vehicle capable of carrying cargo and crew into Earth's orbit. NASA now pays SpaceX billions of dollars to use the Falcon 9.
SpaceX also has over 2,300 functioning Starlink internet communication satellites in orbit with over half a million subscribers. In addition, Musk and company are also developing Starship, a fully reusable, super heavy-lift launch system for interplanetary and orbital spaceflight.
As if that will not keep a visionary busy, Musk also started The Boring Company. Originally a subsidiary of SpaceX, the company developed a tunnel boring machine (TBM) to create transportation tunnels beneath cities with high levels of traffic congestion. Thus far, the company has completed tunnels in Los Angeles, California and Las Vegas, Nevada, with other projects said to be planned throughout several other cities in the U.S. including Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, San Jose, California, and South Padre Island, Texas.
As many of you know I am not a fan of the whole electric vehicle movement that is taking place, but I have to give major kudos to Elon Musk and his vision of creating a better world to increase the quality of life for the masses.
I know many people want to sling mud at this guy for his use of a private plane and that is fine, but consider this; in order for Musk and others like him (if there are any) to take on as many challenges as they do, they must first and foremost be masters of time management. That is where the private planes come in.
His demeanor aside, Musk is an industrial animal and is miles ahead of any other visionary out there and opening the margin wider each and every day. He is the mastermind that drives not only electric vehicle pioneer Tesla, but also SpaceX, The Boring Company, and is in talks to take over Twitter. There is no question that he has amazing executive and operation teams that play huge roles in carrying out his visions, but this guy works hard. I am not sure how many hours are in his day, but If I shower, get laundry done, and somehow get to the grocery store on the same day, that's a big deal for me.
I have sung my praises for Musk before here on autoevolution and the song remains the same in the wake of what I learned listening to him. The real impetus behind this piece was when he talked about Tesla, clearly his pride and joy. The dominance that Tesla continues to exercise in many parts of the globe is quite amazing.
For example, recent numbers from the Germany Federal Motor Vehicle Office show that in the period from January to September of this year new Tesla owners registered 38,458 vehicles (a 48% increase over 2021). While that pales in comparison to the 343,800 sold in the U.S., the company essentially embarrassed Germany-based Volkswagen AG which sold 32,326 electric vehicles (a 41% decline over 2021), and Mercedes-Benz which sold just 14,619 EVs.
Musk is also fearless and decisive. He has successfully penetrated the Chinese market with production beginning in December 2019 and sold a whopping 83,135 China-made electric vehicles in September alone. Tesla's Giga-Shanghai is thought to be the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturing facility.
The next big moves for Tesla will be the delivery of the first Tesla Semi trucks to Pepsi later this year and the production of the Tesla Cyber truck in 2023.
In the U.S. and frankly, around the world, legacy automakers such as Ford and GM and startups like Lucid and Polestar are way behind, may never catch up with Tesla numbers, and simply might just be satisfied riding the wave that Musk created.
Another quite amazing accomplishment that Musk spearheaded is SpaceX; a spacecraft manufacturer, space launch provider, and satellite communications company formed in 2002. Somehow Musk and SpaceX are able to do what NASA, with a $26-plus billion budget, is incapable of doing. SpaceX developed the Falcon 9, a partially reusable medium-launch vehicle capable of carrying cargo and crew into Earth's orbit. NASA now pays SpaceX billions of dollars to use the Falcon 9.
SpaceX also has over 2,300 functioning Starlink internet communication satellites in orbit with over half a million subscribers. In addition, Musk and company are also developing Starship, a fully reusable, super heavy-lift launch system for interplanetary and orbital spaceflight.
As if that will not keep a visionary busy, Musk also started The Boring Company. Originally a subsidiary of SpaceX, the company developed a tunnel boring machine (TBM) to create transportation tunnels beneath cities with high levels of traffic congestion. Thus far, the company has completed tunnels in Los Angeles, California and Las Vegas, Nevada, with other projects said to be planned throughout several other cities in the U.S. including Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, San Jose, California, and South Padre Island, Texas.
As many of you know I am not a fan of the whole electric vehicle movement that is taking place, but I have to give major kudos to Elon Musk and his vision of creating a better world to increase the quality of life for the masses.
I know many people want to sling mud at this guy for his use of a private plane and that is fine, but consider this; in order for Musk and others like him (if there are any) to take on as many challenges as they do, they must first and foremost be masters of time management. That is where the private planes come in.
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