Martin vs Elon in Newsweek

[raymond]

Daniel Lyons: Tesla's Electric Car Loses Its Juice | Newsweek Daniel Lyons | Techtonic Shifts | Newsweek.com

Eberhard, the ousted cofounder, says Musk interfered with the design of the roadster, demanding changes that were costly and led to delays. [...] Musk says his design changes were not the cause of delays. Eberhard says that despite Tesla's green-tech credentials, the roadster has a coolant pump that operates even when the car is parked, wasting as much electricity as two refrigerators. Musk says that will be fixed next month. Eberhard also gripes that Musk controls the board of directors, whose members include his brother Kimbal Musk. "I'm very unhappy about what's happened to my company" under Elon, says Eberhard, who still owns about 3 percent of Tesla. "I think he's a terrible CEO." Elon Musk responds that "Martin is the worst individual I've ever had the displeasure of working with."

Ouch. Still some new details I hadn't read elsewhere (coolant pump fix; Martin owning 3% of Tesla)

 

[stopcrazypp]

I don't get why Elon has to put all the blame on Martin (and making it sound as nasty as possible), it doesn't help the company, and it doesn't help his own image. I can see why a lot of people don't like him as a person.

 

[graham]

Ah... thank you Fake Steve Jobs His reports tend to be negative...

 

[dpeilow]

Note this subtle distinction - is this news here?

He says Tesla is still taking orders (it operates dealerships in Menlo Park, Calif., and Los Angeles), and soon will open service centers in New York, Chicago, Miami and Seattle.

 

[graham]

I am not sure if this is new or just a misinterpretation of the author. I can't imagine that there would be any "service center" that would not double as a sales office...

 

[Brent]

I don't get why Elon has to put all the blame on Martin.

I can't remember the exact words, but a recent article quoted Elon describing himself in superlatives -- something like that he was the brightest and best businessman in Silicon Valley. He sounded much like a man with too high an opinion of himself.

At this point, the turmoil in Elon's personal life and his inability to work with three successive CEOs (Martin, Mark, Ze'ev) seem to point more to personality issues than better business acumen. His divorce probably will cost him millions (California is a community property state, which gives Justine a right to half of all assets acquired during their marriage) and throws doubt in my mind of his continuing ability to back TM. His new, much younger fiancee may well pull him in directions that don't end well for the company. I would also imagine that more than a few investors will look at Elon's early-onset mid-life crisis and decide that they don't want to pony up any more money for a man to attract 23-year old actresses too impressed by "race cars and rockets."

I hope Tesla's compelling product will survive despite all.

 

[raymond]

At this point, the turmoil in Elon's personal life and his inability to work with three successive CEOs (Martin, Mark, Ze'ev) seem to point more to personality issues [...]

Mark was always meant to be an interim CEO. Ze'ev's departure is understandable given Elon's huge amount of money on the line.

Is Elon the 21st century's Howard Hughes? Nothing much was ever accomplished by a reasonable man. I'm probably not alone in putting Elon near the edge. Time will tell on what side of the edge he'll end up.

 

[malcolm]

I really do wish that Elon would think before he speaks.

He's given fantastic opportunities to talk up the company; specifically the technology and engineering of the Model S program, and to drip feed photos and juicy snippets but he just can't resist focussing on how and why others do not measure up;

If the economy were in better shape, or if I had less personally at stake, there's no reason why he (Zeev) couldn't have done the job going forward, but I've got so much at stake and the economy is in such a tough position I just had to drive the ship myself.

If you want to get the girl, this is the car to do it in. If you go to a party and you’re competing with guys with Ferraris, in Los Angeles the one with the Tesla will get her.

Thanks. Delightful marketing image.

But of course I should have realised this months ago; It's large, black and knobbly and he calls it "P1".

 

[malcolm]

Is Elon the 21st century's Howard Hughes?

Let's see if he starts keeping his urine in jars, shall we?

 

[bobw]

I can't remember the exact words, but a recent article quoted Elon describing himself in superlatives

Please take the time to find and post to link to the article. We don't need to fan the flames here.

 

[graham]

He's given fantastic opportunities to talk up the company; specifically the technology and engineering of the Model S program, and to drip feed photos and juicy snippets but he just can't resist focussing on how and why others do not measure up;

Yes. Personally, I was always hoping in the months after The Breakup, that he would work at mending fences with Martin, and figure out some way to work with him as a part of the company. I know... I am a hopeless optimist...

 

[Brent]

Please take the time to find and post to link to the article. We don't need to fan the flames here.

Fair enough:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk: 'Never had a failure, and I'm not going to add one now' (Tech Confidential - Behind The Money Blog)

I don't think most other people would pick me, but that's not really the point. There's hardly anyone out there better than me at building companies.

 

[DDB]

Yes. Personally, I was always hoping in the months after The Breakup, that he would work at mending fences with Martin, and figure out some way to work with him as a part of the company. I know... I am a hopeless optimist...

Is it me, or is every one of us thinkin Apple here... Perhaps Martin has been working on his version of the iMac or iPod. Wishful thinking indeed...

 

[Iz]

Let's see if he starts keeping his urine in jars, shall we?

Perhaps that is why the water pump runs continuously :biggrin:

 

[bill]

Turning Point

I plan to buy a roadster next year, but all this is just getting too negative.
Guess we wait more toward the end of '09. Elon's cost cutting moves are good today. I still think the turning point, up or down we be clear by the end of next year. We just have to wait it out I guess.

 

[DDB]

I plan to buy a roadster next year, but all this is just getting too negative.
Guess we wait more toward the end of '09. Elon's cost cutting moves are good today. I still think the turning point, up or down we be clear by the end of next year. We just have to wait it out I guess.

You are not the only one waiting on the fence. I am wanting 1) a car I can pay for and drive off the lot; 2) to buy from a company I do not have to worry about going chapter 11 or 7....

 

[tomsax]

I plan to buy a roadster next year, but all this is just getting too negative.
Guess we wait more toward the end of '09. Elon's cost cutting moves are good today. I still think the turning point, up or down we be clear by the end of next year. We just have to wait it out I guess.

What's getting negative? Do you mean the Lyons article? I don't see how an annoying article written by a hack journalist has any bearing on Tesla's business viability. Saying they planned poorly because they had to raise the price of the 2009 Roadster is idiotic. Most of the costs of manufacture are in foreign currencies and the dollar has taken a beating lately. I think it's amazing that they have solved huge cost issues in a very hostile economic environment and only raised the price to $109k. Even with the higher price, they are still getting people to drop $65k so they can wait in line for a car. Maybe they should have raised the price more. Publishing a pissing match between Musk and Eberhard is juvenile, gossip column fodder. In his next article, Lyons can print summaries of family court transcripts.

Maybe I should start a blog as Fake Daniel Lyons where I express random negative opinions about a company, while grudgingly noting that they are delivering their revolutionary new product to rave reviews, despite the industry heavyweights saying for years that it couldn't be done.

The fact is Tesla's never been in better shape than it is now. They are delivering Roadsters with the final drivetrain to real customers (not just investors) at about 15 per week, and the owner comments so far have been quite positive. They have enough money in the bank to deliver the cars that have deposits on them and get to the point that they are cash-flow positive on the Roadster. When the environmental approval comes through on the San Jose facility, they will move full speed ahead on Model S, and I think it was smart to scale back the work on that until they have a solid date for when they can start stacking bricks.

Tesla's future looks far more promising than that of GM, Ford or Chrysler.

Waiting to buy a Roadster is obviously the safer move, but the price for the 2010 model is going to go up. I don't know if the waiting list is going to get any shorter in the next few years, as I expect demand will climb as more cars are delivered. You can buy now and wait 9 to 12 months, or wait until later, pay more and still wait that long, or worse.

 

[stopcrazypp]

I don't get why Elon has to put all the blame on Martin (and making it sound as nasty as possible), it doesn't help the company, and it doesn't help his own image. I can see why a lot of people don't like him as a person.

Sorry, I just realized I didn't provide the context as to why I said that. I also read this article before the article posted for this thread:

Tesla Motors: My evening with Elon Musk

 

[graham]

This Newsweek article has gotten quite a bit of notice.

This morning on the local news radio station KCBS, there was an interview with Dan Lyons on his article. The tone of the interview was slightly less negative than his written article, but still not positive.

The audio of the interview is available from the KCBS web site: KCBS - Tesla Postpones Production