Richard Branson's Virgin working on ELectric Vehicle

That would be excellent news! And given his relationship with Elon and Tesla he'd likely share the charging standard...

Richard has started close to 100 Virgin companies and at least 14 have gone bankrupt including Virgin Atlantic airlines, Virgin Cars internet car dealer, Virgin music Megastores, Virgin Pulse and Virgin Digital which were to compete with iPod and iTunes,Virgin Cola,VirginStudent(ha ha i.e. Facebook),Virginware(i.e. Victoria's Secret),VirginVie cosmetics among others.

I wish him well. But Richard seems more of a through everything at the wall and see what sticks kind of guy.

Whereas Elon is more of a 5 for 5 type of guy.

RobStark said:

But Richard seems more of a through everything at the wall and see what sticks kind of guy.

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I think you mean 'throw'.

Also, I loved Virgin Cola back when I was in highschool. My nerdy unpopular friends and I had previously made the V4L (Virgin's for Life) club and Virgin Cola, with it's slightly ugly looking people on it, quickly became our official drink.

That might be the only true competition to Tesla. With Branson's Formula E experience, it's a welcome new player in the field.

Most of the great innovators and business men have plenty of failures, I think it strengthens Branson's resume to an extent. Elon himself said he expected Tesla to fail. Branson seems as well positioned as anyone to create a successful EV, I feel.

I was going to post that "We learn more from our failures..." but then I came upon this:

Why we learn more from our successes than our failures

Evbwcaer said:

Most of the great innovators and business men have plenty of failures, I think it strengthens Branson's resume to an extent. Elon himself said he expected Tesla to fail. Branson seems as well positioned as anyone to create a successful EV, I feel.

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Well said.

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Takumi said:

I was going to post that "We learn more from our failures..." but then I came upon this:

Why we learn more from our successes than our failures

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Perhaps on a neural level with monkeys performing individual tasks. But complex human behavior such as launching new businesses is an entirely different ballgame. Failure is almost a prerequisite to success, at least when it comes to the most successful people.

I think too many people in tech fetishize business failure.

Elon has come very close to spectacular failure at Tesla and SpaceX but has not.

As an investor I would rather go with the 5/5 guy than the 86/100 guy.

Yes, either guy could fail or succeed in the next venture.

RobStark said:

I think too many people in tech fetishize business failure.

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I wasn't even thinking the tech sector...

Successful People Who Failed At First - Business Insider

Virgin Galactic:


SpaceX:

Who's car would you rather drive your kids in?

Those are cars?

No kids go in those. This is more relevant...

Other airlines sharing the seven-star rating and winning a place among the top 10 safest airlines are, in alphabetical order, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Cathay Pacilfic Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Eva Air, Royal Jordanian, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic

And the world's safest airline is ... - CNN.com

SpaceX has it's share of RUDs too:

As Ms. Shotwell said:

The tests are going beautifully, which fundamentally means we're not pushing the envelope hard enough.

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The Virgin Galactic failure was pilot error. Space X has yet to put a man in their rockets, so there's that.

....some of you ...fans...have a a real problem positively embracing friendly EV competitors to tesla.

this is welcome news, hopefully he follows thru as opposed to a half hearted effort as appears to be the case for so many others.

bluenation said:

....some of you ...fans...have a a real problem positively embracing friendly EV competitors to tesla.

this is welcome news, hopefully he follows thru as opposed to a half hearted effort as appears to be the case for so many others.

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Well, there's a good reason for that. I don't expect this of Branson of course, but much of the competition is trying to continue a lot of horrible practices. In my personal case, I have to wait six months for a smart electric delivery while literally hundreds of cars are sitting on dealer lots in California, in CARB states, and won't be sent elsewhere. The dealer almost refused to order an electric car for me, and I'm expecting any service issues will be equally difficult to deal with. If I have to use any public charging, it will be horrible, unreliable, or several times the cost of gas compared to the free (prepaid) Supercharger network.

Even if you look at the Nissan Leaf, the most popular EV car out there, you'll see a huge number of complaints related to the fact that dealers still want to keep the ICE world running, and you'll see a lot of preferential treatment in CARB areas versus the majority of the US.

Dutchie said:

Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a competition, please! It is just great news that other entrepreneurs are willing to invest in EV's! I hope something compelling comes out of it. The more suppliers of EV's the better it is for us all!

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I agree. To me, the striking thing is how so many non-Automotive companies are getting on board. Apple, Google, now Virgin. Tesla started out as an auto company, so I don't consider that odd, but the others???

Dutchie said:

Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a competition, please!

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Yes it is. Elon says he welcomes the competition and even opened up Tesla's patents if used in good faith. The fact that it is a competition is what makes it exciting, and a race to the top, rather than dumbing it down to the lowest common denominator.