Richard Branson's Virgin working on ELectric Vehicle

[YoungStranger]

The fundamental issue is that Richard Branson is a marketing guy - he franchises his brand and uses other people's technology. Great if Virgin invest in developing an electric car, but what technology are they using and who is developing it?

 

[Johan]

The fundamental issue is that Richard Branson is a marketing guy - he franchises his brand and uses other people's technology. Great if Virgin invest in developing an electric car, but what technology are they using and who is developing it?

Thank you for this. As I posted in the Competition in BEVs thread: Elon is an engineer at heart. When China was going south he fired 1/3 of the workforce and put in engineer in charge. All his closest guys are engineers (JB from Stanford, Jerome from University of Madrid, Gilbert Passin from Ecole Centrale in Paris, Greg Reichow from U Minnesota, Peter Carlsson from Luleå in Sweden. Even CFO Deepak Ahuja is an engineer from Northwestern!)

Branson, well he's just a business guy.

 

[rolosrevenge]

If all Branson does is make something using the Tesla open patents, and it uses the Tesla charging connection and superchargers, it is a good thing.

 

[Johan]

If all Branson does is make something using the Tesla open patents, and it uses the Tesla charging connection and superchargers, it is a good thing.

Agreed. So the we can all agree Virgin could contribute in the EV revolution , but probably much better in other ways rather than building a car from the bottom up?

 

[Auzie]

Richard Branson built some great businesses. I am not aware of his contribution to new technologies, but I could be wrong and will accept correction.

Tesla has some new technologies at the heart of their business, battery powertrain and tech control system. Both technologies were conceived, built and developed in-house. Business of manufacturing cars was built around these technologies.

Perhaps the best way RB can contribute to ev development is not as a Tesla competitor but as a partner and investor.

If he competes with Tesla he would act from the position of weakness. There is no way that any future Virgin car can come even close to Tesla, there is a huge technological gap that is not closing but widening by the day.

If he acts on his strengths, he may be able to feed directly into Tesla's weakness by providing sound guidance on business expansion and development and new markets penetration.

Just checked some articles on the subject and had to chuckle (happy) - the tone of all articles is that RB is trying to chase EM. Elon seems to be pushing the bar for everyone

Tesla has gone a long, long way