Fireside Chat with Elon Musk - 2012/7/12

[Norbert]

Great interview! Too bad he was under time pressure...

Liked the stuff about high altitude electric jets and "Hyperloops". 30 min downtown SF to downtown LA? Who is going to believe that, except us?

And something like: Tesla can become a very valuable company... He won't step back from being a CEO until electric cars made it to majority...

[doug]

Man, the host certainly is entertaining.

Just getting a chance to take a look at this.
Haha, the host is Sarah Lacy. I met her a couple times when she was at TechCrunch. She's the interviewer that got Elon on video calling this New York Times guy a "douche bag and an idiot!"

[TEG]

And you will soon find out the one other term that they edited out...

[TEG]

The video was streaming for the first hour while they were waiting for E to show up.
It was rather 'interesting' watching them try to keep the audience in line during that time.
Also it looks like the first part of the interview may have been dropped on the replay.

[AnOutsider]

Biggest dagger was the revokation of the DOE loan and the biggest boon to Tesla was getting the DOE loan. Tesla would be out of business if they did not get the 465 million from the DOE. Fisker was banking on this loan but it was pulled due to politics and some other unknown condition that was not met. Remember, Fisker is still privately run, it is not known exactly how much cash they have on hand. From what I am reading here it seems as if Musks' comments were tongue in cheek. Perhaps a bit angered by the lost lawsuit & the VC cap that was supposed to back tesla, now backing fisker.

At this point in Tesla's history (if superimosed on where Fisker is after delivering first cars) things were way more grim from Tesla (2008?)

Politics? Perhaps a bit, but let's face it. They were supposed to deliver a car last April, pretended like they were on time, then threw multiple scapegoats out into the public view to blame for the car not being out. When those "hurdles" were crossed, they STILL didn't make deliveries -- why? Because they weren't ready. The official reason for the pull was them not making deadlines -- based on what was seen publicly, it's 100% valid regardless of current political climate.

As for the loan, Fisker was approved for 529 million (339 still outstanding), and Tesla for 465 million. Tesla has (I believe) fully drawn down their loan and are on track to begin scheduled repayments at the end of this year. Fisker not only got more money granted to them, but has also raised 1 billion privately and is still seeking more after having their funds frozen. I say this to illustrate that I doubt Elon cares very much who's backing Fisker, or if he did, he's feeling pretty vindicated right now. It's clear which business is better positioned to succeed at this point, and it's not because they tackled the problem of car styling.

[Tempus]

thanks for the link - was really interesting to watch. I especially enjoyed the entire segment on Elon's "other" 4 ideas. Yeah - the hyperloop sounded very cool He really is just an interesting person to hear speak - at least when he's not nervous about being up in front of a big crowd.

[tdelta1000]

Just saw this on Twitter: http://new.livestream.com/pandodaily/elonmusk

Thanks for sharing this nugget with us all. I enjoyed watching the video and came away with a greater understanding of Mr. Musk because he is the Nikola Tesla of our time.

His ideas are expansive but feasible therefore I look forward to my (Model S) slice of his genius.

[smoothoperator]

Politics? Perhaps a bit, but let's face it. They were supposed to deliver a car last April, pretended like they were on time, then threw multiple scapegoats out into the public view to blame for the car not being out. When those "hurdles" were crossed, they STILL didn't make deliveries -- why? Because they weren't ready. The official reason for the pull was them not making deadlines -- based on what was seen publicly, it's 100% valid regardless of current political climate.

As for the loan, Fisker was approved for 529 million (339 still outstanding), and Tesla for 465 million. Tesla has (I believe) fully drawn down their loan and are on track to begin scheduled repayments at the end of this year. Fisker not only got more money granted to them, but has also raised 1 billion privately and is still seeking more after having their funds frozen. I say this to illustrate that I doubt Elon cares very much who's backing Fisker, or if he did, he's feeling pretty vindicated right now. It's clear which business is better positioned to succeed at this point, and it's not because they tackled the problem of car styling.

Why would he even talk about the VC firm that was supposed to back Tesla that now backs Fisker? Its obviously a shot at Fisker and that VC firm...Why even talk about Fisker?

We really do not know the reason I heard it was because of the Nina & the factory, the car that was supposed to be delivered last April was the Karma...See what I mean even you are not sure why

Tesla did the same thing with the roadster...Look at where Tesla has been and you will see a lot of similarities.

[AnOutsider]

We really do not know the reason I heard it was because of the Nina & the factory, the car that was supposed to be delivered last April was the Karma...See what I mean even you are not sure why

Should I be? Am I an insider? Nope, AnOutsider. Point is, the Karma was late, and if it's true the Nina development was delayed, that doesn't help the case that Fisker isn't doing what it needs to do to keep with the terms of its loan.

Coincidence?

Ultra-efficient 4,000 mph vacuum-tube trains – why aren't they being built?

Might just be my ignorance, but so much about that worries me. Traveling in a vacuum? Traveling at those speeds?

[vfx]

That was good.

Elon spends alot of time think about traffic problems. Yaay.

Don't forget Henry Fisker bailed and there was a lawsuit Tesla lost.