It is a day in July 2013 when Ferdinand Piëch for the first time Tesla moves. Piëch, at that time something like the king of the car world, has the Biedermann brand Audi on a par with Mercedes and BMW upscale, and as CEO and Chairman of the Supervisory Board Volkswagen formed into the largest auto company in the world.
He achieved all of this with gasoline and diesel. With internal combustion engines, exclusively. The board members at VW and Audi let him test drive a couple of electrically powered models. You didn’t convince him.
But now he’s driving a Tesla. A black Model S, a PorscheDealer in Beverly Hills advised him to take the test; Musk was a former customer of his. When Piëch got out again, he had made his judgment.
“Buy the company for me.”
Piëch’s board members don’t like Tesla. Volkswagen boss Martin Winterkorn (73) and chief developer Ulrich Hackenberg (70) scoff at the gaping gaps and do not believe in the battery concept. The Model S failed their test.
Piëch sees it differently.
Tesla was already worth almost 20 billion dollars on the stock exchange at that time; crazy for a company that will sell a good 22,000 cars in 2013. But that doesn’t scare Piëch. In the following weeks he brings the investment bankers on board, his lawyers build a team; the communication channel to San Francisco to Tesla boss and main owner Elon Musk (49) stands.