Musk unleashes a “beast” on the world – three years late
Tesla’s first electric truck comes from the Gigafactory in Nevada. The plant says a lot about the billionaire.
Elon Musk is the very best in the world at one thing – and he’s also the worst at that very thing. That’s why people believe in him, invest in his ideas, trust his vision. It is also the reason why they distrust him, doubt his ideas, question visions. Musk knows full well that it is, and seems to enjoy playing with it – although people who come into contact with him report how much it torments him as well.
This thing: timing.
Thursday evening, Gigafactory 1 in Reno. Musk is driven onto the stage in the new truck that electric car maker Tesla is delivering to beverage company Pepsi. “Looks strong and drives like a Tesla,” he says. Those present cheer: With such presentations – not only at Tesla – there are always claqueurs in the background who are enthusiastic in dramatically valuable moments. Musk says: “Any driver who wants the baddest vehicle on the road should want to drive the Tesla Semi.” cheers. Musk says his truck is three times as powerful as a diesel truck: “We don’t build slow cars at Tesla.” cheers. Musk says: “It’s a beast.” cheers.
And of course he says again how crazy they actually are at Tesla to build different electric vehicles. From a brand perspective, that doesn’t make any sense at all, but Tesla isn’t about the brand, it’s about the mission: “Sustainable transport.” Of course, Musk knows that at Tesla, the mission is the brand. That’s why the group is so valuable.
Tesla stock falls in value
The timing could hardly have been better. Musk is currently omnipresent again, depending on your point of view he is either the very best or the very worst. He turns Twitter inside out, hardly a day goes by without visions that he sends unfiltered to 119.4 million fans – from where these messages metastasize all over the world. After all, what is manifested in Apple’s Think Different advertisements about people like Musk still applies: “You can glorify them or make them villains – but you can’t ignore them.”
Of course it helps when a genius, when both glorification and villainization get the upper hand, can announce the test of a Space-X rocket or say: There is also this other world savior when there is too much criticism about one thing (Twitter). Matter. For example, an exhibition of Tesla vehicles in the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles or this delivery of the first truck.
The timing was also formidable because people involved in Musk’s companies are asking themselves: If, as he said, he works on Twitter around the clock, how much time is left for all the other projects he’s doing? he wants to save mankind? The value of Tesla stock has fallen by more than half since the Twitter purchase announcement in April.
At a lawsuit in Delaware about a $56 billion compensation package from 2018, Musk said two weeks ago: “I expect to reduce my time on Twitter.” Shortly thereafter, the announcement of the semi-truck delivery on December 1st, and shortly afterwards, of course on Twitter, the message that a Tesla truck weighing 36,700 kilos had traveled 500 miles. They now show the proof video in fast forward.
Of course, the timing is one of those things, because it was December 1, 2022. In November 2017, Musk presented the truck, first on Twitter (“This will blow your brains out into another dimension. ») and then in the Tesla design studio near Los Angeles. There he said: “Production will start in 2019; So if you order one now, you’ll get the truck in two years.” December 2019.
giga in the desert
Apparently Pepsi ordered immediately, and gets the truck three years late. This is often the case with Tesla, for example with the self-driving mode, which Musk has been announcing for years and where people are now asking which is more likely: Tesla’s autopilot or Godot from the play by Samuel Beckett? Musk keeps joking about his overly bold predictions.
However, people who come into contact with him say he doesn’t find it funny at all. So he must not have liked that competitor Renault Trucks sent a few taunts at Tesla a few weeks ago (“Some talk, others do what – don’t they, Elon Musk?”) and then last Saturday, a few days before Tesla, delivered e-trucks – to Pepsi-Nemesis Coca-Cola of all places. No comparable model, but the symbolic message: We deliver on time!
Musk finds such taunts delicious—as long as he’s the taunt and not the one being teased. Yes, the world needs to be saved, but by Elon Musk please. So things can’t go fast enough for him at Tesla, and that leads to this gigafactory in Nevada. Musk had promised there, and he delivered: as early as 2018, more than 7,000 people were working in the building, which, after completion, is currently 30 percent, is said to be the largest in the world in terms of floor space. At this point, Tesla had invested more than $6 billion in this project, more than promised when it came to headcount. What has been speculated about for a long time has now turned out: not only battery packs are produced on this site, but also the truck.
Only, and nothing could be more symbolic for Musk and the visions: Reno could not keep up with this growth – for which other companies are also responsible. Out in the desert, 35 kilometers east of the city center, there are several department stores and factories from Walmart, Petsmart and Switch. Seen from above, they look like game pieces from the video game Tetris. In the far east, there is the fillet piece of the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, the Gigafactory 1 of the electric car manufacturer Tesla. And to understand the sheer dimensions: You could place a football arena 25 times on the area of the current building, which is only 30 percent complete – not just the pitch, but the entire stadium. 25 times. It really is: giga.
What is missing: the settlement within walking distance of the site that Musk had announced. There isn’t enough housing in Reno for all the newcomers, so many of them live in run-down downtown hotels and are carted out into the desert every day in shuttle buses like the gold miners of 150 years ago. There were reports of accidents and thefts: An informant reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that Tesla was spying on its employees and knew that drugs were being dealt on the premises. Gigafactory manager Chris Lister left the group in September.
The symbolism of the Musk brand
Of course, this is also symbolic of the Musk brand: the visions are always gigantic, he also delivers with a delay – but it is often associated with scandals and with employees who fulfill to the point of exhaustion what Musk specifies. Franz von Holzhausen, who designed this truck as Tesla’s chief designer, says about boss Musk at the exhibition in the Petersen Automotive Museum: “He constantly drives you on, he gets the best out of you. We sometimes agree that we don’t understand each other – but in the end he’s the boss.”
So on this December 1st: the first truck. Musk said: “The best truck on the road.” cheers. Of course, he knew that nobody could contradict him, since nobody had tested the truck yet. So the timing and marketing genius did what he does best: celebrate himself at the best possible time.
Shown in the background: a slide with Tesla vehicles, far right: a robotaxi. A hint that Tesla will introduce a taxi that no longer needs a driver? When will it be presented? No information. When will it be built? No information? When will it be delivered? No information. But I bet a lot of people will now be speculating and talking about Tesla — just like Musk planned.
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