Clean Technica Online News – Page 203 – I wish I had more to offer

Tesla Lands Lucrative 4MW/8MWh Storage Contract In Australian City Of Townsville

Tesla is continuing its push into the lucrative Australian energy markets with a new contract for a 4MW/8MWh grid-scale battery for the Queensland utility in Townsville, Australia

Breaking! European Tesla Model 3 Customers Receive Delivery Dates, + New EV Subsidies In Nordrhine Westfalia, Germany!

Word on the street today is that Tesla Model 3 buyers in Europe are receiving delivery date estimates

Confirmed: 2 Ways To Add Free Supercharging To European Tesla Orders — By February 1st

According to this thread on the Tesla Motor Club forum, the first boatload of Model 3's for European customers will arrive in less than a week, on February 3! That will be sure to generate some excitement on the old continent

Elon Musk’s Long Trail of Successful Entrepreneurship

Electric CarsElectric Car BenefitsElectric Car SalesSolar Energy RocksRSSAdvertisePrivacy Policy
Cars Published on January 27th, 2019 | by Guest Contributor
Elon Musk’s Long Trail of Successful EntrepreneurshipTwitterLinkedInFacebookJanuary 27th, 2019 by Guest Contributor
Originally published on EVANNEX.
By Charles Morris
Elon Musk’s world-changing accomplishments with Tesla and SpaceX, and his current net worth of around $16 billion, represent the culmination of a long career as an entrepreneur. As a recent article in TIME points out, Musk’s road to fame and fortune was far from an overnight success story.
Elon Musk’s journey (Source: Money Control / Story and Script: Avinash Mudaliar, Siddartha Bannerjee, Xema Pathek; Art: Harsho Mohan Chattoraj)In fact, Musk has been what you might call a serial entrepreneur since childhood, constantly starting companies, developing new products and services — and making money. Here are some of the glamorous (and otherwise) ways Elon found to pay the rent on the way to becoming a billionaire:

At the age of 12, the future Iron Man designed and sold his own video game, a space adventure called Blastar, which combined aspects of the popular games Asteroids and Space Invaders. He had been learning to code in BASIC since the age of 9. Musk called Blastar a “trivial game … but better than Flappy Bird.” He sold it to a computer magazine for around $500, and invested the money in a pharmaceutical stock, which he later sold for a healthy profit. Elon and brother Kimbal made grand plans to open a video arcade, but their parents nixed the two teenagers’ business plan.
After leaving South Africa in 1988, Musk paid his dues working a series of odd jobs in Canada. As Ashlee Vance recounts in his biography of Musk, young Elon tended vegetables and shoveled out grain bins at a cousin’s farm in Waldeck, and sawed logs in Vancouver. Looking for a high hourly wage, he took a job cleaning the boiler room of a lumber mill, which involved wearing a hazmat suit and crawling into a tiny space to shovel toxic residue.
A later gig was much more pleasant. Elon’s younger brother Kimbal followed in his footsteps by moving to Canada and studying at Queen’s University, and the two used to contact prominent people out of the blue, asking for interviews. One of these, an executive at the Bank of Nova Scotia, was so impressed with the pair’s boldness and determination that he gave Elon an internship.

Elon’s brother, Kimbal Musk, talks about how he and his brother developed their entrepreneurial spirit (YouTube: CNBC Make It.)
Another side gig at Queens University was selling computers and components out of his dorm room. The tech-savvy Musk helped his fellow students keep their computers running. “If their computer didn’t boot properly or had a virus, I’d fix it. I could pretty much solve any problem.”
Musk’s college days weren’t all study and geekiness. While attending the University of Pennsylvania, Musk and a friend moved into a 10-bedroom off-campus house, and on weekends, they turned the place into “a full-out, unlicensed speakeasy,” according to roommate Adeo Ressi, covering the windows with black trash bags and the walls with bright paint. As madness raged around him, Musk would stay sober to keep things under control. “I was paying my own way through college and could make an entire month’s rent in one night,” he said. According to TIME, his mother Maye even worked the door at one of the parties.
Silicon Valley beckoned. At age 23, Elon enrolled at Stanford University. However, the Internet scene was starting to heat up. Guys like Elon were inventing ideas in dorm rooms and getting rich. The lure proved irresistible, and Musk quit school to start a company before he attended his first class.
That company was Zip2, which helped newspapers and other publications get online using locally-oriented internet content. The brothers Musk used a Yellow Pages CD-ROM, a mapping software application, and Elon’s coding skills to build online city guides that allowed users to find local businesses and view maps and door-to-door directions. They soon met the great venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson, the beginning of a long collaboration. Jurvetson helped the young entrepreneurs negotiate the Silicon Valley startup scene, and Musk soon displayed his remarkable talent for enticing investors. At its height, Zip2 ran over 180 online city guides for national publications. In 1999, Compaq acquired Zip2 for a $341-million package of cash and stock options. Elon’s share was reported to be $22 million.
Elon Musk’s progression (Source: Money Control / Story and Script: Avinash Mudaliar, Siddartha Bannerjee, Xema Pathek; Art: Harsho Mohan Chattoraj)For his next act, Mr. Musk targeted the field of online financial services, founding a company called X.com in 1999. The original idea was to build a “one-stop shop” for financial services, but Elon soon became interested in another startup that had its headquarters down the street and had developed a clever system for making online payments that it called PayPal.
Musk soon made PayPal his own, and what he did next offers a foreshadowing of the strategy that he later employed to great success with Tesla. He didn’t invent PayPal’s technology, and he wasn’t the only one who saw the potential. However, he thought big and made things happen. He used his expertise in the financial markets to engineer an IPO in 2002, giving the company a market capitalization of $1.2 billion at a time when other internet companies were going out of business left and right.
PayPal was a huge enabler for the online auction site eBay, and later in 2002, the company acquired it for $1.5 billion in stock. Musk, PayPal’s largest shareholder, took home around $180 million from the deal.
Musk had changed the world, and gotten fabulously wealthy, but he showed no interest in retiring to a Caribbean beach or an English country manor. Instead, he soared to even greater heights with Tesla and SpaceX, and to date he has shown no sign of running out of entrepreneurial ideas. What will this Renaissance man do in 2019? Stay tuned.
This article incorporates material from Charles Morris’s book Tesla: How Elon Musk and Company Made Electric Cars Cool, and Remade the Automotive and Energy Industries, now in its third edition.

About the AuthorGuest Contributor is many, many people. We publish a number of guest posts from experts in a large variety of fields. This is our contributor account for those special people. 😀

Back to Top ↑AdvertisementAdvertise with CleanTechnica to get your company in front of our readers.
CleanTechnica Clothing & Cups Top News On CleanTechnica Join CleanTechnica Today!
AdvertisementAdvertisementFollow CleanTechnicaFollow @cleantechnica
Our New Electric Car Driver Report Read & share our new report on “electric car drivers, what they desire, and what the demand.”The EV Safety Advantage

Read & share our free report on EV safety, “The EV Safety Advantage.”EV Charging Guidelines for Cities

Share our free report on EV charging guidelines for cities, “Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure: Guidelines For Cities.”30 Electric Car Benefits Our Electric Vehicle Reviews
Tesla News
Cleantech Press Releases New Research Shows That Only Two Large Petroleum Companies Have Meaningful Emission Reduction Targets Koben Announces EVOLVE EVSF —Grid-Friendly Modular EV Store & Forward System The New Danish Climate Plan — Together For A Greener Future38 Anti-Cleantech Myths Wind & Solar Prices Beat Fossils Cost of Solar Panels Collapses
© 2018 Sustainable Enterprises Media, Inc.
Electric CarsElectric Car BenefitsElectric Car SalesSolar Energy RocksRSSAdvertisePrivacy Policy

This site uses cookies: Find out more.Okay, thanks

Driving The Tesla Model 3 On Slippery Roads — Why It Rocks!

In this article, I will discuss handling of the Tesla 3 (and other cars) in slippery conditions. I'm not going to cover frozen door handles or reduced range in the winter. Those could be issues that you might want to research and I encourage you to do that. They're just not part of this article

That Time One Shareholder Sold 7% Of Tesla’s Shares — CleanTechnica Exclusive

A long time ago, in a land far, far away, Tesla Motors was a baby. (It would later change its name to Tesla, but that's another story.) Being a young baby, tiny little Tesla was not valued as highly as it is today. It was worth relatively little to outsiders, nothing close to its market cap of $51 billion today

Tesla Speed Tested On Dutch Highways — Constantly!

Tesla drivers were slapped with more speeding tickets in the Netherlands than drivers of any other auto brand. Wonder why…

Tesla Carshare Coming To Masdar City — CleanTechnica Exclusive

I toured Masdar City for the first time this week. It is difficult to not be overwhelmed with the vision and execution taking place there. If you are new to cleantech news, make sure you go to the Masdar City website and check out its amazing architecture, admire its focus on residents instead of cars, and share with others its ambitious energy efficiency targets (which, by the way, Masdar* often exceeds)

BMW Exec Bemoans Company’s Failure To Keep Pace With Tesla’s Battery Cell Production

Electric CarsElectric Car BenefitsElectric Car SalesSolar Energy RocksRSSAdvertisePrivacy Policy
Batteries Published on January 25th, 2019 | by Carolyn Fortuna
BMW Exec Bemoans Company’s Failure To Keep Pace With Tesla’s Battery Cell ProductionTwitterLinkedInFacebookJanuary 25th, 2019 by Carolyn Fortuna
A BMW chief has called out its board of directors for failing to step up with battery cell production, which he describes as the heart of the car of the future. Manfred Schoch, deputy chairman of the supervisory board at BMW, has publicly critiqued BMW’s rejection of battery cell R&D, basing his assessment on the model of innovation and vision that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has established for his automotive company.
Schoch advises a quick corporate rethinking of BMW long-range planning if the company is to remain truly competitive. “I need people here who go with us into the future,” he said. He added that his comments were directed “also — and especially — for the board.”

Schoch suggested to the German business journal Manager Magazin that BMW and the auto industry in general should pay closer attention to the Tesla model rather than indulging in petty nitpicking about the all-electric car company.
Tesla, the company that has caused an electric car revolution, has been the subject of constant criticism since its first cars hit the market. Who will buy this premium car? The market for this all-electric high-end catalog is too narrow. Tesla doesn’t have the experience to produce enough cars to be profitable. The Gigafactory isn’t a viable manufacturing entity. Tesla is a fading fad. The company can’t provide a pathway to a sustainable future unless it appeals to a mass market. Claims of Tesla profitability aren’t backed up by commonly accepted accounting practices. CEO Elon Musk is a live cannon who will bring down the company.
And, yet, the numbers are positive for Tesla sales and likely ongoing profitability. “Tesla made in the third quarter, at a good $6 billion in sales, $312 million profit. BMW came in the automotive segment at 21 billion euros to 784 million surplus,” said Schoch, who has been head of the BMW works council for 31 years and is considered one of the most important leaders of the group. “Who deserves better?”
Indeed, Tesla’s success has upended the auto industry, and battery cell technology is one of the driving factors for the Tesla master stroke. In contrast, BMW just ended a supply contract with the Chinese cell manufacturer CATL, which had wanted to build a plant in Thuringia, Germany — about 4 hours away from Munich and BMW’s headquarters.

Value Chain as Key to ElectromobilitySchoch pointed to Tesla’s close relationship with its battery supplier, Panasonic, as key to company dominance. That collaboration has been essential as the demand for the lithium-ion batteries that power its vehicles grows commensurate with Tesla’s increased sales. As the world’s largest manufacturer of automotive lithium-ion battery cells and Tesla’s exclusive battery cell supplier for the Model 3, Model S, and Model X, the Tesla/ Panasonic partnership is leading others in the EV field in R&D.
For example, when it comes to minimizing cobalt usage, Tesla has long been a proponent of nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCA) technology developed by Panasonic, which goes against the trend of a nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM)-focused EV industry. Furthermore, Elon Musk has acknowledged that the company will continue material development toward higher-energy, lower-to-no-cobalt chemistries.
“Tesla controls the entire value chain; they understood electromobility,” Schoch commented. Tesla inbound logistics involves the receipt and storage of raw materials to build electric vehicles, energy storage systems, and solar panels, according to the Tesla, Inc. Report at business portal Research Methodology. Tesla conducts vehicle manufacturing and assembly operations at its facilities in Fremont, California; Lathrop, California; and Tilburg, Netherlands. Tesla automotive operations comprise design, development, manufacturing, and sales of electric vehicles. High level of integration of robots into various manufacturing processes is the major source of value creation for Tesla.

Battery Cell Technology is at the Heart of Future Auto CompetitionBatteries are the keys to completing a worldwide transition to a clean energy economy. Tesla’s enormous battery factory — about 5.5 million square feet — in Nevada, is called the Gigafactory or Gigafactory 1. Tesla reportedly expects the Gigafactory to introduce production cost cuts for lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries and energy storage products by some 30%, compared to pre-Gigafactory batteries. Such production savings will occur using what the company has referred to as economies of scale, innovative manufacturing, reduction of waste, and the simple optimization of locating most manufacturing process under one roof.
Schoch stated explicitly that battery cell production is the determining factor to future automotive viability. “Anyone who does not master and build this core will not be able to compete,” he analyzed.

Independence and Optimism through Battery Cell ProductionSchoch praised Tesla for its optimistic approach to the future of automotive transportation. “Too much is complained and too much is declared impossible [in the auto industry],” he declared.
Referring to entrenched automotive manufacturing practices that reward maintaining a status quo approach, Schoch mused, “We are dependent.” He suggested that collaboration should be an option for BMW and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. “Our board members should, finally, deal more intensively with this gentleman.”

Tesla has shown over and over again that healthy ideation and income growth are a result of a culture of innovation. Of course, with each remarkable Tesla transformation comes a shifting risk landscape. Musk manages innovation-related risks and the outcomes required in an era of digital transformation with delicate balance. His business model for converting ideas and technologies into economic value anticipates dramatic shifts in the cleantech markets, often in response to a perceived need which only Musk can envision. He’s also able to devise a pragmatic road map to implementation.
That’s a disruptive model that many automotive manufacturers like BMW have not yet been able to adopt.
As BMW moves into the electric car marketplace, it will add several electric vehicles to its catalog. BMW-owned Mini will reportedly begin production of its first EV later this year, and BMW will expand its lineup of “i” models with the iX3 in 2020 and the i4 along with the X5-sized iNext in 2021.
BiographyManfred Schoch serves as a Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft and BMW US Capital, LLC. He is Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board and Member of the Supervisory Board of BMW Finance N.V. He functions as the Chairman of the Central Works Council and Member of the Presiding Board at BMW US Capital, LLC. He is the Chairman of the General Works Council of BMW Group.
Unless otherwise attributed, images copyright free via Pixabay and YouTube

About the AuthorCarolyn Fortuna Carolyn Fortuna, Ph.D. is a writer, researcher, and educator with a lifelong dedication to ecojustice. She's won awards from the Anti-Defamation League, The International Literacy Association, and The Leavy Foundation. She’s molds scholarship into digital media literacy and learning to spread the word about sustainability issues. Please follow me on Twitter and Facebook and Google+

Read & share our free report on EV safety, “The EV Safety Advantage.”EV Charging Guidelines for Cities

This site uses cookies: Find out more.Okay, thanks

Tesla’s Battery Leadership Protected In Secrecy

By now, regular readers of this column are well aware that we (along with most other writers who focus on electric vehicles) consider the threat of the “Tesla killer” to be no threat at all. Yes, Big Auto is producing excellent EVs, some of which are in Tesla’s league, but they’ll never build more than they have to, and they’ll continue steering customers to their gas-guzzling, high-margin models. It’s what they do