Elon Musk is the man who built PayPal, sold it on, and then moved on to an array of new groundbreaking technologies. Currently his attention is taken by Tesla the luxury electric car manufacturer which has taken the US market by storm. When we say “luxury electric car manufacturer” the company is actually looking to attack the mass market with the forthcoming delivery of its much heralded Tesla Model 3. So, will Elon Musk benefit from his presidential connections? Read full article
Very interesting listen. It will be very interesting to see how Tesla performs in the future because at the moment investors are willing to back Elon Musk’s expansion plans. However, if investors were to shy away from future fundraising exercises where would this leave the company? We all know that Tesla and Solarcity have huge cash burns as they work towards long-term profitability. What will run out first - investor patience or the cash?
I think Musk is now in a tricky position. He's a greenie whose interests tend to run counter to the Republican party and their strong fossil fuel lobby. Musk has been able to benefit from huge government subsidies under fellow greenie Obama, but we now have a Republican president. I don't think Trump is as "anti-green" as the left likes to label Republicans in general - Trump is not a typical Republican... he was a fairly liberal dem during much of his life. But the left on the whole in this country have gone off the deep end under Obama, and have an absolute, irrational hatred of Trump. Musk needs to maintain a good relationship with Trump and the other Republicans in power to keep the govt $ flowing in, but much of Musk's leftist cult following is turning on him for his being chummy with Trump - a man the left hysterically and inaccurately compare to Hitler.
If the government pulled the plug on the EV sector now, that would be a disaster. However, many people miss the point that the government has been subsidising the oil industry for decades with tax breaks and the cost of defending the flow of oil around the world.
Here in the US, oil companies don't get actual taxpayer-funded subsidies from the govt - they only get tax breaks that allow them to keep more of the $ they earn. Tesla and other "green" companies such as Solyndra, etc have benefited from actual tax dollar gifts / grants.
I was thinking more of the cost of the "oil wars" in years gone by - was this not an indirect funding of the oil sector?
