Motley Fool
Why Is Honda Chasing Tesla’s CEO Into Space?
Elon Musk’s Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) achieved a $1 trillion valuation earlier this week as the electric car company continued to disrupt the established car industry with new technologies such as autonomous driving software, solar power, and rechargeable batteries. Perhaps inspired by this success, Honda Motor Company (NYSE: HMC) says it wants to reinvent itself, too — but it won’t be a 100% makeover. Valued at $51 billion today, Japan’s number-two automaker has announced a six-year, $45 billion plan to invest in such high-technology growth areas as electric vertical take-off and landing air taxis, remote-control humanoid robots, and “small, reusable rockets” similar to those operated by Musk’s other high-profile venture, SpaceX.