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Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm Discusses Elon Musk’s Audacious Goals (Video)

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Published on November 7th, 2019 |

by Guest Contributor

Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm Discusses Elon Musk’s Audacious Goals (Video)

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November 7th, 2019 by Guest Contributor

Originally posted EVANNEX.
by Charles Morris

Elon Musk has often come in for criticism because of missed deadlines, over-ambitious forecasts, and, in a few cases, unfulfilled promises. It’s true that production dates for the company’s vehicles have often slipped, many owners are unhappy about delays in delivering Full Self-Driving capability, and the New York-to-Los Angeles driverless Odyssey, originally planned for late 2017, has yet to take place. Musk himself has admitted that he’s always had problems with timelines.

Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm

However, let’s look at the other side of the coin. Tesla has achieved the goals of Musk’s Master Plan, progressing from a limited-quantity boutique automobile (the Roadster) to a mass-market sedan (Model 3) on a timeline that, for the auto industry, counts as lightning speed. As other automakers (both incumbents and startups) struggle with their electrification efforts, Tesla is increasing sales, moving on to new models, opening up potentially huge new markets, earning a respectable margin, and making a profit. The word among analysts these days is that the California carmaker has at least a five-year head start on its so-called rivals.

As the old saying goes, whatever Tesla’s doing, it seems to be working. But what if the company is succeeding not in spite of Musk’s overambitious goals, but because of them? That’s what Tesla Chairwoman Robyn Denholm implied in a recent interview on CNBC.

Denholm, an Australian business executive with an extensive background in the auto and tech industries, replaced Musk as Chair of Tesla’s board in November 2018 as part of a settlement with the SEC over his naughty tweets. Her appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box represents a rare chance to hear inside insights about the company from someone whose name isn’t Musk.

“To achieve what Tesla has achieved over the last 5 years, over the last 10 years, you have to set audacious goals and big goals … and then have everybody in the company work like crazy to get there,” Denholm told CNBC. “I think part of it is setting those very big goals so that the company can rally and get behind them and move forward, and move the whole industry forward.”

Denholm sits down to chat with CNBC alongside Billionaire investor Ron Baron (YouTube: CNBC Television)

As examples of Muskian audacity, Denholm cited the California carmaker’s production of 97,000 vehicles last quarter, and its completion of Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai in a mere 10 months, achievements that took many by surprise.

Believe it or not, development of the Shanghai factory is actually ahead of schedule, and it has started production of Model 3 on a trial basis. “There is a huge opportunity for growth in China,” said Denholm with massive understatement.

The advent of electric vehicles has catalyzed a historic shift that will see much of the global auto industry migrate from the US to China (and to a lesser extent, to Europe). Although Tesla is the quintessential American company, it’s no exception to this trend — the firm’s recently announced quarterly results reveal that US sales declined by some 39% over the last year, as Chinese sales grew by 64% (European sales also surged).

Baron Capital founder Ron Baron, whose firm owns around $488 million worth of TSLA shares, joined Denholm on Squawk Box, and reminded us that, while the media makes Musk the focus of its Tesla coverage, the company is no one-man show. Musk may set the “unrealistic” goals, but it takes a massive amount of work by a huge number of people to make them reality.

“They have 42,000 employees. This is not reliant upon one man,” said Baron. “But he has empowered people to be able to make decisions and to be able to do what’s best for the company.”

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Tesla Model S Plaid Prototype Laps the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 7:13

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Published on November 5th, 2019 |

by Dr. Maximilian Holland

Tesla Model S Plaid Prototype Laps the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 7:13

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November 5th, 2019 by Dr. Maximilian Holland

Respected German publication Auto Motor und Sport is reporting that the Tesla Model S Plaid prototype has been hand-timed lapping the Nordschleife in 7 minutes and 13 seconds, according to the outlet’s local source. Adjusting for race-compound tires, this puts the Tesla around 19 seconds ahead of the Taycan Turbo’s 7:42 lap time reported by Porsche in August. It’s also faster than every gas-powered 4-door series production car ’round the ‘ring.

We’ve covered Tesla’s ongoing adventures at the Nürburgring Nordschleife before, reporting initial versions of the Model S Plaid prototype clocking laps of 7:23 in mid September. With further tweaks, it appears Tesla has now shaved a further 10 seconds off this time and has been recorded lapping the ‘ring in 7:13 — on at least two separate occasions (according to Auto Motor und Sport).

Tesla may not be done yet. Winter is now setting in at the Nürburgring, with unfavorable weather and shortening hours of daylight — not ideal for setting lap times. Tesla will very likely be back at the ring at least once more before the Model S Plaid is planned to go on sale sometime in Q3 2020. Tesla will want to record a more formal lap time for the final production-spec Model S Plaid, to help market the car, which will sell for a premium over the regular Model S Performance.

The Plaid prototype was piloted around the ring by Thomas Mutsch, a professional driver experienced in both GT and endurance racing, who has several recent wins in 24 hour races around the Nordschleife. The Plaid prototype continues to be shod in race compound tires, which give an approximate 10 second lap time advantage over production vehicles that are typically tested wearing more standard sport compound road-biased tires. Nevertheless, assuming this would translate into a ~7:23 time on road-biased tires, the Tesla looks set to take the outright 4-door production car record at the circuit. The current standing for series production 4-door vehicles (adjusted for tire choices) is:

*Tesla Model S Plaid time is adjusted by 10 seconds to account for tire choice. Data from FastestLaps.com

Note that the list excludes limited special edition cars that are not in series production.

Porsche Taycan Turbo at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Image Courtesy: Porsche.

It’s unlikely that the legacy automakers will let their combustion engine expertise get overtaken by EVs without a fight. There’s evidence that Porsche is developing a faster Panamera version (codename “Lion”) with the intention to (temporarily) reclaim the top spot on the leaderboard for combustion power, with informal lap timing of 07:11. When and to what extent that will translate into a series production Panamera version is as yet unknown. Why doesn’t Porsche develop a version of the Taycan EV to take the top spot? Likely because its business model still involves making most of its income from selling combustion cars, like every other legacy automaker. Perhaps in another 10 years when Porsche is offering more EVs it will finally allow the superior technology to rise to their top spot.

With ever tightening emissions limits being unavoidable for combustion cars, and EVs only at the very start of their performance development curve, this is not a fight that combustion engine vehicles can hope to win in the long run. We have Tesla and the rivalry with the Porsche Taycan to thank for showing what’s already possible.

Article images courtesy of respective brands, author’s own graphic.
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About the Author

Dr. Maximilian Holland Max is an anthropologist, social theorist and international political economist, trying to ask questions and encourage critical thinking about social and environmental justice, sustainability and the human condition. He has lived and worked in Europe and Asia, and is currently based in Barcelona. Follow Max on twitter @Dr_Maximilian and at MaximilianHolland.com, or contact him via LinkedIn.

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