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Any idea why the Saudi (government) wants to buy Tesla? Is it part of the oil conspiracy to kill electric vehicles? Given how GM, Nissan, and others have elec

Any idea why the Saudi (government) wants to buy Tesla? Is it part of the oil conspiracy to kill electric vehicles? Given how GM, Nissan, and others have electric vehicles, I dont think this could stop the new wave of buyers. Anyone want to take a stab at why this is happening?

Spiritus 8y ago
>They first met with me at the beginning of 2017 to express this interest because of the important need to diversify away from oil.
petre 8y ago
They have oil money and want to diversify their assets. It's part of the plan not to depend 100% on oil because their profits suffered during the last two years as oil prices bottomed. They cannot kill the EV this time. The Saudis and UAE also invested in solar in the last few years. This is consistent with other Big Oil investments into renewables.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
JumpCrisscross 8y ago
> Any idea why the Saudi (government) wants to buy Tesla? They believe it to be a good investment and think (a) Tesla's management will do better without the public market's constant scrutiny and/or (b) their own books could benefit from less apparent volatility. > Is it part of the oil conspiracy to kill electric vehicles? Probably not. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund has been set up as a hedge against their oil-based economy.
deepvibrations 8y ago
It would make sense to hold companies such as Tesla as a hedge against oil.
mr_toad 8y ago
‘It wasn’t a lack of stone that ended the Stone Age’ That was one of their own oil ministers. They can see the writing on the wall.
xtacy 8y ago
As the above post says, the main known motive is to diversify Saudi's sovereign wealth away from Oil as their primary investment.
bryanlarsen 8y ago
Oil & electric are fairly good complements in an investment portfolio -- if one does poorly the other will tend to do well, and vice versa.
stochastic_monk 8y ago
Could it instead be wanting to remain relevant when oil money ends? That would require some long-term planning over profiteering, but I wonder.
GuB-42 8y ago
There is no oil conspiracy to kill EVs. EVs have enough problems of their own, or more precisely, a single, very big problem: energy storage. They don't need to be conspired against. Only recently have EVs become viable, thanks to decades of improvement in battery technology. As for Arab countries depending on oil, they are not entirely governed by morons. They know very well that they can't depend on oil eternally. Their easily accessible reserves will dry out, making extraction more and more expensive, and most of the world is trying to move away from it, for environmental and strategic reasons. So they are doing the smart thing: use their easy money to invest into the future. Dubai is building a resort-like city to attract investors, Qatar is buying everything related to sports, and the Saudi invest in EVs. How well their investments will turn out remain to be seen but it is clear that they have a plan to diversify themselves.
kegan 8y ago
April 2018. Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japanese multinational Softbank to build 200 GW of solar power by 2030 at a cost of $200 billion. https://qz.com/1240862/what-saudi-arabias-200-gw-solar-power-plant-would-look-like-from-space/ https://qz.com/1240862/what-saudi-arabias-200-gw-solar-power...

Spiritus 8y ago

>They first met with me at the beginning of 2017 to express this interest because of the important need to diversify away from oil.

petre 8y ago

They have oil money and want to diversify their assets. It's part of the plan not to depend 100% on oil because their profits suffered during the last two years as oil prices bottomed. They cannot kill the EV this time. The Saudis and UAE also invested in solar in the last few years. This is consistent with other Big Oil investments into renewables.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

JumpCrisscross 8y ago

> Any idea why the Saudi (government) wants to buy Tesla? They believe it to be a good investment and think (a) Tesla's management will do better without the public market's constant scrutiny and/or (b) their own books could benefit from less apparent volatility. > Is it part of the oil conspiracy to kill electric vehicles? Probably not. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund has been set up as a hedge against their oil-based economy.

deepvibrations 8y ago

It would make sense to hold companies such as Tesla as a hedge against oil.

mr_toad 8y ago

‘It wasn’t a lack of stone that ended the Stone Age’ That was one of their own oil ministers. They can see the writing on the wall.

xtacy 8y ago

As the above post says, the main known motive is to diversify Saudi's sovereign wealth away from Oil as their primary investment.

bryanlarsen 8y ago

Oil & electric are fairly good complements in an investment portfolio -- if one does poorly the other will tend to do well, and vice versa.

stochastic_monk 8y ago

Could it instead be wanting to remain relevant when oil money ends? That would require some long-term planning over profiteering, but I wonder.

GuB-42 8y ago

There is no oil conspiracy to kill EVs. EVs have enough problems of their own, or more precisely, a single, very big problem: energy storage. They don't need to be conspired against. Only recently have EVs become viable, thanks to decades of improvement in battery technology. As for Arab countries depending on oil, they are not entirely governed by morons. They know very well that they can't depend on oil eternally. Their easily accessible reserves will dry out, making extraction more and more expensive, and most of the world is trying to move away from it, for environmental and strategic reasons. So they are doing the smart thing: use their easy money to invest into the future. Dubai is building a resort-like city to attract investors, Qatar is buying everything related to sports, and the Saudi invest in EVs. How well their investments will turn out remain to be seen but it is clear that they have a plan to diversify themselves.

kegan 8y ago

April 2018. Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japanese multinational Softbank to build 200 GW of solar power by 2030 at a cost of $200 billion. https://qz.com/1240862/what-saudi-arabias-200-gw-solar-power-plant-would-look-like-from-space/ https://qz.com/1240862/what-saudi-arabias-200-gw-solar-power...