The value of Tesla and Musk
IMHO it would be rather short-sighted to value Tesla (the company) or Musk (the man) only by their actual products - even if this seams counterintuitive.
Driving a Nissan Leaf? A Renault ZEO? A Chevy Volt? An Opel Ampera? A BMW i3? Please give it a good thinkover, if these models would exist, if there was no Musk or Tesla.
Looking forward to drive one of the Gazillions of E-cars announced by (at least) the European manufacturers?
For yours humbly the value of his Muskness is much more in being the bold posterboy, who was instrumental in actually starting a process, that I think is necessary: Moving from the talk-about-it phase to the make-it-available phase.
And in all fairness: The 100kW battery for Australia he so boldly promised for "done in 100 days or for free" completed in 55 days.
I also can't let that subsidy argument stand without a comment: If you consider not the price of the kWh as payed by the consumer, but the cost of a kWh as payed by the last few and next many generations to be payed, we might actually conclude fossil fuels to be very highly subsidized. Not as much as nuclear, but close.
No taking the complete cycle into your calculation is the same folly as those telling me I should have replace my 14 year old car (Diesel!) long ago: There is much more pollution inherent in the sheer existance of that car than my low mileage per year can ever produce in a realistic timespan of using it.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
