Virgin Could Take On Tesla With Electric Car

According to a story at Ars Technica, Virgin empire founder Richard Branson says 'teams of people' are working on electric cars. Says the article: Virgin is working on electric cars and could one day take on Tesla, according to company founder Richard Branson. Speaking at a racing event in Miami, Branson said Virgin had "teams of people" working on electric cars but refused to be drawn on specific details. The company's Virgin Racing team already competes in the all-electric Formula E championship, a high-speed, battery-powered spinoff of Formula 1. Branson has now hinted that Virgin's involvement could lead to the company selling its own electric cars. ... Branson's business has continued to expand in recent years. As well as trains and planes, Virgin now has a fledgling space operation and is soon to launch its own cruise ships.

Comments

soon to launch its own cruise ships.

[fustakrakich]

Stay away from the tapioca!

First

[Anonymous Coward]

time having sex.

Re:First

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, sloppy 2nd post for you

Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[ArcadeMan]

The title for the real Tony Stark begins.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

Richard Branson always reminded me more of a Hugo Drax.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[TWX]

And Elon Musk is more like Victor von Doom...

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[haruchai]

Bitch, please, that's not even a contest.
Branson started off with a magazine & record stores before launching an airline; Elon sold a space shooter video game as a 12yr old and was studying physics & material science at Stanford, is invested in SOLAR energy, considers running SpaceX to be his primary job & still found time to put his thoughts on the Hyperloop on paper while showcasing the launch of the most kickass electric sedan ever made.

http://www.theatlantic.com/tec...

It may be that there's someone more deserving of the title than Musk but it ain't Branson, not now, not ever.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Bing Tsher E]

Musk basically got rich as the huckster behind PayPal.

Yeah, I know. Real geek hero stuff. He's been busy spending all that loot ever since. He's a Paul Allen class kind of guy.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm, this is Slashdot. There is no circumstance where the phrase "Bitch, please..." is ever called for.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly. He got rich on one of the shadiest sites on the internet.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[JaredOfEuropa]

He's not just spending money, but using it to build businesses that are thus far rather successful in markets considered to be hard to break into, hard to make money in, and/or hard to beat the incumbents. And he's intent on not just making a buck in those markets by being a little bit better than everyone else, he wants to turn things on their heads, and he is succeeding at that as well.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

He must be your personal hero or you just like to suck his dick

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[JaredOfEuropa]

Ah yes, there it is. Now I don't mind admitting that I admire the guy, but there's no need for tasteless remarks.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, this is Slashdot, not Twitter. Ashley Judd is over there waiting for you.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothin personal, when trolling that's our job when there is no need for such shitposts. Theres a lot of stuff in this world we dont need :)

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

He's not just spending money, but using it to build businesses that are thus far failed to turn a profit.

Fixed that for you.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly.

The guy is basically a hero. Reusable launcher stuff - no one even thought of that stuff until SpaceX dared to do it. Lockheed and Boeing and Energya and whatever other agencies doing this for other countries, they don't really give a flying fuck about costs. Their leaders don't give a fuck about actual cheap of getting stuff to space. It took SpaceX to turn the tide from waste waste waste committee spending, to streamlined process *AND* reusable launcher.

Same for Tesla Motors. Every electric car company was concentrating on the hippie movement from the 1960s! But then who runs the companies? People that lived through the hippie faze where large cars were for elite and pintos were for the poors. Then Musk came along and made electric sexy. How the heck luxury car companies don't understand that electric fits superbly with Town Car or Bentley?

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[EnsilZah]

And Wernher von Braun started his career as a Nazi responsible for the deaths of countless Brits and still became and American hero.

I don't know if PayPal exercised the same questionable practices back in 2002, but I guess I don't really care much either way.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

Musk basically got rich as the huckster behind PayPal.

Yeah, I know. Real geek hero stuff. He's been busy spending all that loot ever since. He's a Paul Allen class kind of guy.

Wow, a silicon valley techie that got rich by creating a popular website, like hundreds of other silicon valley techies.

Yeah, that disqualifies him.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Duhavid]

"Reusable launcher stuff - no one even thought of that stuff until SpaceX dared to do it"

Space shuttle?

Musk, born in 1971
Space shuttle planning start, 1969.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[wjcofkc]

Form the first time on Slashdot it can be said, "You must be new around here." and actually meant. If civil discourse dominates your threads, you need to lower your threshold.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[bheading]

And Branson will lose any such competition.

The vast majority of Branson's business ventures have been failures. The places where he does well are in monopolies, such as international airline travel and running monopolized train services in the UK (Branson tried to run a regional airline in the UK called Little Red, but failed). Even then these are on shaky ground; Virgin Atlantic has only just begun to return to profitability, probably something to do with Delta taking a 49% stake in the airline over from Singapore Airlines, and he nearly lost his rail franchise, until his lobbying efforts revealed that the UK government had made mistakes in the allocation of the contracts.

The only reason why Virgin Galactic even exists is because the state of New Mexico ponied up massive subsidies (thanks to Bill Richardson) to build the thing there. Branson never risks his own capital on long shots. He's only involved because this is a way to create publicity for his brand. Likewise his Formula 1 efforts, and likewise this nonsensical idea that he has people building an electric car.

Branson is all showmanship and no substance. He wants people to think he is some sort of environmental activist as he believes it will benefit him and his company. You'll see - we'll never see or hear of any Virgin-manufactured electric car ever again.

Hats off to the guy - he's made himself a lot of money (nobody knows how much, though) - but excepting his long-past days in the recording business, he guy has never delivered a manufactured product in his life, and never will.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[itzly]

Space shuttle?

The space shuttle reusable launcher idea didn't really work as intended, requiring a very extensive refurbishing after every launch. After that, nobody cared enough about reusable launchers to come up with a better design.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Richard_at_work]

Branson is exceptional at PR, but thats about it - he rarely actually achieves something revolutionary from scratch as musk is doing, he will rather buy up existing outfits that is on the verge of success or has just achieved success. Formula E is easy to compete in because the cars are stock and supplied by a single third party, while their space effort only came about after Scaled Composites achieved their fame. Virgin Atlantic et al are nothing to call home about.

Branson is all about making money, he rarely takes actual risks.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Duhavid]

The post I replied to said that no one had thought about "reusable launcher stuff".
You can argue that the space shuttle was any number of things.
My point was that it was indeed "thought about" before the days of Elon.
( but, according to that post, Elon cares about "reusable launchers" )

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[MrBigInThePants]

He got rich on it BEFORE it got pure evil.

He sold out before it did.

Stop being jealous. He is just better than us. :)

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[itzly]

My point was that it was indeed "thought about" before the days of Elon.

True, and I realized that when I was writing my reply. The actual idea of "reusable launchers" isn't new, but the guy still deserves a lot of credit for pursuing it where others have ignored it, or given up on the concept.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[haruchai]

Perhaps Elon will deign to present you with today's Godwin's Law prize.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[haruchai]

I realize I forgot to mention Virgin Galactic which Branson founded 2 yrs after Musk started SpaceX.
They've been promising a maiden flight since 2009 but it seems that was more marketing than reality and they're not quite ready.
With the midair explosion of SpaceShipTwo last October, it remains to be seen what they do next.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[nicoleb_x]

You're basically correct except for the facts. Werner did not start his career as a Nazi, he joined later, and he did not work on weapons that killed many (not countless, they did count) Brits until much later. I know that Nazi Germany lost and thus history is skewed to favor the winner's view point but after 70+ years maybe the truth will be acceptable. Perhaps this would be more correct and convey the same effect: Wernher von Braun's early career as a Nazi who helped develop the Retribution Weapon 2, aka V-2 rocket, (responsible for the deaths of 9 thousand Brits) did not prevent him from becoming an American hero.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[PopeRatzo]

Do we have to argue over which John Galt wannabe is the bigger swinging dick?

Can't we all just enjoy the billionaire slap fight and hope that one of us finds pictures of either one of them whipping their Costa Rican maid so we can maybe get a free Tesla or a ride on the Virgin Space Elevator?

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[rtb61]

So what, are you accusing Elon of suffering from attention deficit disorder, pretty cheeky that ;).

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[ChunderDownunder]

Virgin is doing okay in Australia as the #2 airline. They also do mobile phone services running on the Optus network.

Re: Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope. She threatened him and he ran like whiney troll he is.

Re: Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[WindBourne]

So what? The question is, are they viable and will they succeed. And it is obvious that all 3 will

Re: Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[WindBourne]

If u consider the shuttle to be a success at reusability, you must vote GOP. It is the most expensive cluster fuck, next to their war on drugs and gulf war, that the GOP has ever done to america.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[MightyYar]

I can't be the only one old enough to remember the "Delta Clipper"...

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

Formula E is easy to compete in because the cars are stock and supplied by a single third party

Yes, but Formula E will be moving to a development formula in the future, beginning next season. So to the extent that Virgin will be participating in that development, I'd say Branson can claim to be developing an electric car.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[haruchai]

Heh, no. It would be ADD if his companies never delivered on anything and, of course, there are a lot of smart, hardworking people behind him - one can hardly disregard the talent of JB Straubel.

But he is the front man and the one'll get the arrows in the back if his ventures fail.
In just the past 5 years, his resume is damned impressive with what has been accomplished at SpaceX, Tesla, Solar City, Silevo so for now, he's earned the badge of a highly successful multi-tasker, the only blemish is that his companies are not yet profitable.

Re: Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

Their lack of profit proves they are not viable and will fail.

Re: Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

If you consider the fact the no space x launcher has ever been reused you would realize what a complete and total moron you are.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Bing Tsher E]

We are not worthy!

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not about civil discourse, it's about not acting like a diva Ina tech-forum. That phrase in particular is very diva-like

Re: Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[WindBourne]

LOL. ALL OF THEM are profitable. What is going on, is that the profits are being pushed back into the companies so that they grow fast.

Moron's like yourself are too attached to Boehner's and Koch's fronts to see the facts.

Re: Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

And yet, Grasshopper HAS had multiple launches up to certain altitudes. So, you lose. Go back to clinging to koch's brothers pants. You need to have the rest of your brains fucked out.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[MrBigInThePants]

And some of us much less worthy than other!

Re: Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[K. S. Kyosuke]

SpaceX has been profitable ever since 2007.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[K. S. Kyosuke]

The original reusable Space Shuttle got scrubbed and was replaced by a semireusable ManBearRocket.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Except that Delta Clipper never had a chance. DC-X was a fun vehicle but ultimately a dead end.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

...and he still hasn't done a damn thing for the common person. He's too busy trying to sell luxury cars to people with more money than sense.

Wake me when Elon's brilliance has an actual impact on the world instead of just his own pocket book.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

*slurp slurp* ELON COCK SO GOOD *slurp slurp*

Seriously. The guy has done fuck all to change the world as we know it, but we all treat him like the second coming of Jesus. He makes cars for the upper class. Whooptifuckingdo. Ford and Honda have done more to make the world a better place than Elon has because people can actually afford some of the vehicles they make.

Re: Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, when insulting people, it helps to be able to spell at a third-grade level. Seriously, "moron's" with an apostrophe? Really?

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[MightyYar]

It was mostly a dead end because NASA felt forced to play with it, and when it fell over and caught fire they felt very little motivation to rebuild it. Their money was on the also-doomed Lockheed space plane (Venture Star?). It's pretty clear that DC-X technology could have been used to land the first stage, even if the capsule itself still did a traditional "splashdown".

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[bheading]

I went for a quick look into this. Wikipedia reveals that Virgin Australia is owned by Virgin Australia Holdings, which in turn is owned by a consortium consisting of a number of other airlines (Ethiad, Singapore, Air New Zealand), plus Branson's Virgin Group with a 10% holding.

Virgin Mobile in Australia, much like the Virgin broadband/phone/TV operation in the UK, is no longer anything to do with Branson - he sold it to Optus in 2006 and that company is currently wholly owned by Singtel. In the UK, Virgin Media is owned by Liberty Global.

This reveals how, these days, Branson really does business. Virgin is basically nothing other than a brand. It's a respected brand - funky, hip, cool, relaxed, and so on. But that's all it is. Branson isn't really an entrepreneur. The way I think it works is that people with a business idea approach him, put up their own capital, and ask for the use of his brand and his personal involvement as a promoter. In exchange he receives a generous shareholding of the new company - which, if the company is successful, he later sells. If it fails, those who put up the capital are left carrying the can.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[haruchai]

Sit tight. It takes a while to change the world.
The Apple Newton dates back to the late 80s, Philippe Kahn rigged the 1st camera phone in '97 and it still took until 2007 for the iPhone to debut. And that's for a $500 device.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[K. S. Kyosuke]

If would be utterlty idiotic to use super-expensive hydrogen engines in a first stage (look what happened to the Delta IV), and to my knowledge, people in the field never believed that the full-scale SSTO would ever work, much less economically.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[MightyYar]

No, single stage was a non-starter - both projects failed at that goal. But there was still hope that it could be used for the stages individually - which is exactly what SpaceX is doing.

My point wasn't to be dreamy eyed and show that "with a little more time, NASA could have..." My point was only to show that others have (mostly) solved the problem that Mr. Musk is currently chasing. I applaud his very pragmatic approach to engineering - the man is really to be admired. But credit where credit is due :)

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[haruchai]

"He makes cars for the upper class"

Oh, for f*cks sake, his stated goal, as published on the Tesla Motors website in Aug 2006 is

"Almost any new technology initially has high unit cost before it can be optimized and this is no less true for electric cars. The strategy of Tesla is to enter at the high end of the market, where customers are prepared to pay a premium, and then drive down market as fast as possible to higher unit volume and lower prices with each successive model."

He's taking longer than he thought and it'll take one or 2 more models to get to mass market affordable cars but he's making a lot of moves to make sure that happens, eg battery Gigafactory.

Re:Elon Musk vs Richard Branson

[haruchai]

Forgot to mention, with a price range of $70 - 120k (P85D, fully loaded), there are a lot of folks on the lower end of the upper-middle class who can & do buy the Model S.

Misleading subject

[neapolitan]

It said "Virgin could take on Tesla", so I thought it was about a fellow Slashdotter forming his own company.

Re:Misleading subject

[Kjella]

I was having a thought alone the same lines, what are they going to call it? The Virgin Car? The Virgin S? The Auto Virgin? There's exactly zero ways "I drive a Virgin" sounds good, unless you're talking about tonight's date. And the odds of them releasing it under any other name is also near zero. So oddly enough, what I'm most curious to see is the name.

Re:Misleading subject

[Anonymous Coward]

Well at least it wasn't a virgin bent over the hood of a car.

Does Slashdot have a disproportionate share of virgins, and are Slashdotters well proportioned?

Is there a shortage of basements? Do I smell poll questions?

I think stories are often overly dramatic, take on this, killer, that. What matters is having what the market needs, or can be made to think it needs.

Not knowing anything about this company, I'm still skeptical. There's more to an electric car than the car. The battery plays a key role in setting initial cost, long term cost, environmental/resource impact, peak performance, and range.
Tesla is a major player in battery development.
To be taken seriously, I think a competitor ought to say something about what will make their batteries competitive.

Re:Misleading subject

[Anonymous Coward]

clearly it would be called virgin mobile

Re:Misleading subject

[Anonymous Coward]

clearly it would be called virgin mobile

Name's already taken.

Re:Misleading subject

[elgatozorbas]

There's exactly zero ways "I drive a Virgin" sounds good,

Indeed, "I ride a virgin" sounds way better.

I hope they do

[Anonymous Coward]

Tesla has become so arrogant and obnoxious. It would be good to see a real competitor knock them down a few notches.

Re:I hope they do

[TWX]

Yeah, because if you're looking for modest and agreeable, Richard Branson is your man...

Re:I hope they do

[Anonymous Coward]

Get the stick out of your ass. They're trying to change one of the most powerful manufacturing industries ever, from the outside.

  Arrogant? Obnoxious? How exactly? You not being able to afford one of the current cars is not relevant.
Funny that so many companies who built millions of cars, even millions yearly, aren't able to be "real competitors" to a Silicon Valley upstart.

Re:I hope they do

[50000BTU_barbecue]

Musk is confident and realizes he has little time to waste. I wish I were like him instead of the neurotic, depressed introverted mess I am at the same age.

Refused to be drawn on specific details

[Anonymous Coward]

"Branson said Virgin had "teams of people" working on electric cars but refused to be drawn on specific details." - Who needs specifics? I'll buy 20.
I was going to pay cash, but I refuse to be drawn on specifics..

Re:Refused to be drawn on specific details

[TWX]

I was on my high school's electric car team. We had a '73 Porsche 914 converted to use 24 deep-cycle lead-acid batteries located in the trunk and in the engine bay. The DC motor was a starter for an aircraft small jet engine if memory serves. There were six of us, seven if you count the auto shop teacher that was the sponsor.

So I guess we could have counted as one of Branson's teams, strictly speaking, had he sponsored us.

Re:Refused to be drawn on specific details

[Anonymous Coward]

We had a '73 Porsche 914 converted to use 24 deep-cycle lead-acid batteries located in the trunk and in the engine bay.

You should be shot for desecrating a Porsche like that.

Re:Refused to be drawn on specific details

[TWX]

First, it was already 'desecrated' when I got there. Second, when it was donated to the school by a parent it had a blown engine, body damage, a destroyed interior, and most of its trim was missing. It was on its way to the crusher when it detoured to here as a tax-writeoff for the owner instead.

Besides, a Porsche 914 is not exactly the pinnacle of Porsche technology or appreciation. Hell, that one-off front-engine model is better liked than the 914.

Re:Refused to be drawn on specific details

[Bing Tsher E]

It still would have looked great on GP commenter's front lawn on cinder blocks. Probably the best on his block!

Re:Refused to be drawn on specific details

[fred911]

"You should be shot for desecrating a Porsche like that."

Unless it was a 914 6, there's plenty out there. Most had issues with rust, even in dry climates. Aside from that, only US cars were branded Porsche. ROW were branded VW-PORSCHE.

Re:Refused to be drawn on specific details

[fred911]

" Hell, that one-off front-engine model is better liked than the 914."

  I'd have to disagree. The 914 was a heck of a lot more fun than a 924, 944 or a 928. It sat low, felt like it was glued to the road and still gave ya the boxer, oil-cooled feel. It was a bit scary to drive at the edge due to the fact of the mid-engine. If you start to lose it, it's a 50/50 shot whether brake or throttle input will bring it back. Aside from that, who wants their Porsche to pump water?

Re: Refused to be drawn on specific details

[WindBourne]

Please. Porsche is one of the most overated pos going.

We've a sight to make you drool

[pepsikid]

Keep it cool, keep it cool...

Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think said virgin has his priorities set straight

space business

[itzly]

you may find Virgin competing with the Tesla in the car business as we do in the space business.

Sure, except that Virgin isn't competing in the space business. Virgin's business is suborbital fun rides.

Re:space business

[Ken_g6]

Virgin's business is suborbital fun rides.

So I guess that means Virgin's electric cars will be fun to drive, but break down a lot?

Re:space business

[Bing Tsher E]

Lets leave medium sized chunks of metal in the road and find out.

Fireworks in the springtime are nice.

Re:space business

[Rei]

Well, if we want to extend the analogy of SpaceShipTwo vs. Falcon 9 + Dragon (with delta-V as range), compared to a baseline Model S, then Virgin's car would go about 30 miles with a top speed of 20mph and would cost $750.

In short, Virgin's electric "car" would actually be an electric bike.

Re:space business

[ArcadeMan]

For that price, range and speed, convert that into a closed tricycle with enough space for four groceries bags and he'd sell millions of them.

Re:space business

[Baloroth]

Well, if we want to extend the analogy of SpaceShipTwo vs. Falcon 9 + Dragon (with delta-V as range), compared to a baseline Model S, then Virgin's car would go about 30 miles with a top speed of 20mph and would cost $750.

In short, Virgin's electric "car" would actually be an electric bike.

Electric vehicles with more or less those specs already exist: they're called golf carts. They're actually reasonably popular as a method of transport in a few communities.

Re:space business

[FlyHelicopters]

Except not for $750, they cost more like $5,000. :)

No thanks....

[Anonymous Coward]

I ain't driving a "virgin" car.
Get enough BS when flying on a virgin craft, can't imagine the type of stupidity people will come up when driving a virgin car.

I guess you could use that to your advantage

[Anonymous Coward]

"Hey, baby, wanna help my car lose its label?"

Transport = One of 5 basic needs

[BoRegardless]

Food
Clothing
Communication
Shelter
Transportation

Elon Musk and Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

So which one is Tony Stark and which one is Obadiah Stane?

Re:Elon Musk and Richard Branson

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know that Musk is Stark, but Branson is definitely Justin Hammer. Not the competent one from the comics though, rather he's the farcical one from the MCU.

Well of course they "could".

[hey!]

This is the marriage of two mature technologies -- electric motors and automobile chassis -- plus modern batteries. So all you need to create an electric car is the will and enough money to hire the engineers.

The trick will be to create a car that is practical and successful in the marketplace.

It's easy for an engineer to create an amazing car on paper. What's hard is for a company to actually produce an amazing car (electric or otherwise) that people actually want to buy and to make money at it. That requires so many things to go right at so many levels, and that's what's impressive about the success of Tesla.

I look forward to seeing what Virgin comes up with. I wish them success. But I don't particularly expect it.

Re:Well of course they "could".

[itzly]

This is the marriage of two mature technologies -- electric motors and automobile chassis -- plus modern batteries.

And Virgin has no experience in any of those things. It's very rare for a business to succeed in a new market that has so little overlap with their current.

BITCH PLEASE

[Anonymous Coward]

This is DiceDot, also: Niggers

interestingly ignorant

[Osgeld]

why is it that the collective think that Tesla are the only ones making electric cars like some lone pioneer, every car company has at least one model, and some sell fairly well being just on either side of Tesla's extremely thin market of 20 something's

Re:interestingly ignorant

[ArcadeMan]

The last time those car companies tried to make electric cars, one of them even went as far as crushing their own cars instead of selling them to the people who wanted to buy them.

Tesla is forcing them to start making electric cars again. That's why people are so excited about Tesla.

Re:interestingly ignorant

[Anonymous Coward]

But none of those car companies can make a car as good as Tesla can, given that they have more money and more experience in car manufacture than Tesla, that is quite an achievement on Tesla's part.

It's not the car, but the drivetrain.

[Anonymous Coward]

Although even Tesla has made huge gains, they don't compare to Mercedes in terms of the total car. And probably never will. Mercedes have been at this for over a century. They know a few things.

The skills to get everything from road-feel, the heft of a switch, or the ergonomics on par is a tall order. And it's not needed. Concentrate on the areas where you excel.

Somebody like Wrightspeed probably will have more long term effect. They only build hybrid drivetrains to retrofit on trucks. For now. Changing trucking to hybrid electric will be more significant than another electric car company.

Richard Branson seems to be pursuing this more as an ego boost than making significant changes to transportation. Fine. There are other electric startups as well.

More competition is always a good thing

[barlevg]

I've been incredibly impressed with what Tesla has done in getting an American public who flat out did not want to give up its gas guzzlers interested in the concept of an electric car. I'll be even more impressed when the Tesla competitors come around, and the question shifts from "Do I want an electric car?" to "Which electric car should I buy?"

Re:More competition is always a good thing

[Anonymous Coward]

Who says Americans don't want to give up their "gas guzzlers"? There are many different types of Americans. You should learn that.

Mary

[tomhath]

You insensitive clod.

origin of hymens still unclear

[Anonymous Coward]

we still get a charge out of pretending we're advanced? 1000s of our genuine spiritual & physical allys continue dying daily from 100% preventable starvation, rockets red glare, babys bursting in air etc... still no one is responsible,, or even aware.. momkind new clear options based on the universal spiritual axioms of tears & innocence equalling truth & mercy for all... meanwhile,, good medicine https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=stem+cell+therapy bad ama https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nazi+zion+experiments.. turn it off http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=WMD+chemtrail+ingredients.. good neighbors http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUeNtM6qakk bad "weather' https://www.youtube.com/results? earch_query=wmd+weather+media+censorship... we hang on to our hemispheres as the lights are coming up all over now..... rock on /. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-kA3UtBj4M

Sounds like hes feeling left behind.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do please...pull the other leg.

I would rather that he focus on Nuke power

[WindBourne]

Seriously, he came to O and begged for America to focus on the IFR, back when dems controlled it.
Yet, if he would spend just $.5B, he could have transatomic up and running before 2020.

How about a story where he actually did something?

[Anonymous Coward]

Until Virgin actually does something I can't see why they deserve publicity.