Tag Archives: Elon Musk

Tesla Opens Up Its Patents

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Tesla-Motors-logo-5

Yesterday, Tesla Motors opened up all its patents to its competitors in an effort to accelerate the creation and adoption of electric vehicles around the world. As Tesla puts it:

Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal. Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.

Tesla has one of the most successful electric vehicles in the Model S and has raised the bar on what an electric vehicle should and can be.  The Model S has a 300 mile range, far greater than any other mass produced electric vehicle on the market today.  In addition, the vehicle can be charged faster than most other electric vehicles using Tesla’s Supercharger network.

Hundreds of patents are going to be released by Tesla including those related to their fast charging system. When asked what Tesla’s shareholders will think of the patent release Tesla CEO Elon Musk downplayed the importance of owning patents saying it was more important for a company to be innovating than pursuing lawsuits against other companies doing similar things.

The opening up of patents is new territory for an automobile company and we here at RedlineNorth hopes this does indeed lead to further acceleration of electric vehicle development and adoption.

You can read the full text of Musk’s blog post on the subject.

 

 

 

Elon Musk buys James Bond Lotus Submarine

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Our regular readers know we have a serious “bromance” for Tesla Founder Elon Musk so it should be no surprise we had to give this story some attention.  Recently, the Lotus Esprit submarine car used in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me was sold at auction in London for $966,560.

Lotus Espirit Submarine car

Lotus Espirit Submarine car

At the time of the sale the buyer’s identity remained a mystery, but Jalopnik has now reported that billionaire genius Elon Musk, CEO of both Tesla Motors and SpaceX was the man who purchased it. But it gets better, according to a statement provided to CNN Money Musk was disappointed to learn that it can’t actually transform from car to submarine so he doesn’t plan to leave it as just a prop. “What I’m going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real”.  And seriously, if there is one man in the world that can make this happen it’s Elon Musk.

The history of the infamous Lotus submersible from movie star to collector piece of Elon Musk is equally interesting. As told by the folks at Autoblog, after filming ended in the 70s, the car was shipped to Long Island, NY and placed in a storage container that was paid in advance by the studio for 10 years. However, after the money ran out, the contents of the container were sold off Storage Wars-style in 1989 and won by an local couple. It was shown in public on occasion throughout the years, but its value remained a mystery until being sold last month. While the selling price tag is far from the most valuable James Bond car ever to be sold the Lotus Espirit submarine remains one of the most unique cars ever built.

Sources: CNN Money, Jalopnik, Autoblog.

Elon Musk is the “Thomas Edison” of our day

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Yes, we here at RedlineNorth do have a bit of a “Bromance” going on with South African born Elon Musk.  I mean come on, how could you not?

Elon Musk

Elon Musk

He truly is, the Thomas Edison of our time.

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison

Forget Steve Jobs, this is our hero! From his early days as behind the scenes business developer, to the $1.5 billion sale of Paypal to eBay in 2002, to his out of this world venture called Space X and its $1.6 billion contract with NASA as cargo transport provider.

Hello? These two accomplishments are absolutely totally extraordinary on their own but of course he did not stop there.  In 2003, Musk co-founded a “little” electric car company based in California’s Silicon Valley called Tesla Motors.

In 2008, Tesla developed the Tesla Roadster, using a Lotus Elise glider combined with an electric motor to form its first winning combination. After selling approximately 2400 roadsters, Tesla ran out of Lotus Elise gliders resulting in the end of production of the Roadster in January 2012. However, in June 2012, Tesla began delivery of its now popular four-door Model S sedan and with the exception of one controversial New York Times review the Model S has become the darling of the luxury sedan market.  Currently, the Tesla Model S is one of the hottest “it” vehicles and has become a key component of any wealthy gentlemen’s fleet.  As well, the recent demise of competitor Fisker Automotive has helped Tesla place themselves as manufacturer of the “sexiest” electric cars in the world.

Tesla Model S exceeded first quarter sales estimates

Tesla Model S

Mirroring this success, in early 2012 Tesla unveiled its third product, the Model X, targeted at the SUV/minivan market.  The Model X is scheduled to begin production in 2014 and many industry observers are anticipating record sales as Tesla hopes to capitalize on its amazing 2013 run.

In addition to its own cars, Tesla sells electric powertrain systems to Daimler for the Smart EV and Mercedes A Class, and to Toyota for their electric RAV4 model.

Shifting gears from the automotive world, last week Musk shared his proposal to the world for his Hyperloop, a new form of transportation. The new form of transport is a subsonic air travel machine that stretches approximately 350 miles (560 km) from Los Angeles to San Francisco that would enable commuters to travel between the two cities in 30 minutes, providing a shorter travelling time than today’s commercial airplane. The idea is similar to the tube systems used to transport documents in office buildings of day’s past. Yes, it is certainly 100% way out but Musk continues to be an “out of the box” thinker and with all of today’s challenges we need this type of great thinker even more. Seriously though, this guy is incredible and there is no telling what he’s going to do next.

And if I was a betting man, I would double down on Musk at every chance since he is a proven winner.  Sometimes you truly have to go with your gut as I found out first hand when I wimped out earlier this year on buying Telsa stock, a painful mistake since it is now up over 300%…..Oh well, I can still try and short it…….