6 ms·

Tesla’s electric man

84 points by pmcpinto 12y ago

ableal 12y ago
(Interstitial advertisement: "[Wrist watch brand] values your time". Indeed.) Nice piece. This is apparently the guy making things happen (at least) in the battery front, while Musk takes care of the public dog and pony show. A few technical, rarely mentioned, tidbits thrown in, too.
butwhy 12y ago
"..panels leased from Solar City, another company owned by Mr Musk" - just make it up as you go, I guess.
- josefresco 12y ago
  According to Wikipedia, Musk is not only chairman of Solar City but also "remains the largest shareholder" - so the line from the article while lacking detail, is mostly correct.
  - jkaunisv1 12y ago
    Well, the article also says that Musk & JB are cofounders of Tesla, so, you know.. Not expecting much accuracy from the rest of it.
    - SuperChihuahua 12y ago
      How do you define a co-founder? Tesla was just an empty shell before Musk and JB arrived, so I think they are co-founders of Tesla, but not the only co-founders.
      - jkaunisv1 12y ago
        I'd say it was more than an empty shell. Eberhard got a lot of the way there developing the product. From what I've read he wasn't the guy to grow the company but he got it through the initial startup. I'd agree with you and say they're all cofounders (as, Wikipedia tells me, they settled out of court to agree on). But I think the media really emphasizes Musk, and in this article Straubel, as the co-founders while eliding Eberhard's contribution (ie. actually STARTING the company with Tarpenning).
- skywhopper 12y ago
  It's a good risk distribution strategy to split your various investments into separate corporations and then do business deals between the component organizations. But it can also be a profitable tax strategy when there are differing tax implications or accounting rules depending on how deals are structured. The rules surrounding the tax and reporting implications of buying versus leasing are actually one of the current major topics in the US accounting governance world. (My wife teaches Theory of Accounting which goes deep into the frustratingly fascinating details of how to appropriately and clearly represent expenses and earnings for management, investor, and government audiences. It's fascinating stuff, but confusing for an outsider.)
  - anonbanker 12y ago
    Posting here as breadcrumbs for when I inevitably need to explain this to someone.
decasteve 12y ago
I'll wager that JB Straubel will be Tesla's CEO in 3-5 years and Tesla will no longer be a car company but a battery/infrastructure company.
- threeseed 12y ago
  Likely it will be just a battery company. The supercharger network is still proprietary i.e. it isn't a standard and there is no evidence that car companies are planning to adopt the Tesla connector. Especially with governments rallying around standards and directly competing with Tesla. And for me personally I am dubious about electric being the future solution. The world can live without Tesla and even BMW. Far harder without Toyota.
  - theguycalledtom 12y ago
    > supercharger network is still proprietary Tesla opened up their patents but I doubt current non-Tesla electric cars can actually be charged by them without over-heating. I also doubt they will just let anyone use their superchargers because they are currently paying the power bill... but you'd have to be on the pay from some dubious source to turn this fact into anti-tesla spin.
    - olavgg 12y ago
      There is a local company where I live that is making chargers that will work on anything from Tesla to Leaf's http://www.zaptec.com/home/zapcharger/ http://www.zaptec.com/home/zapcharger/
    - seanflyon 12y ago
      > I also doubt they will just let anyone use their superchargers because they are currently paying the power bill Yup, Tesla would love for other companies to use and pay for their superchargers. http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/184141-tesla-reveals-plan-to-share-supercharger-network-with-other-electric-car-makers http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/184141-tesla-reveals-plan...
  - 12y ago
skywhopper 12y ago
Batteries are one of those technology bottlenecks that will pay off in a huge way when and if someone can create a major leap that allows a 10x or 100x improvement in capacity, cost, efficiency, whatever. For computing, for transportation, for general energy usage, for third-world development, a better battery will reap enormous societal benefits. It's amazing how far Li-Ion cells have progressed, but we need more and better yet still. I'm glad to see someone is pouring huge resources into this problem. Hopefully Musk is not the only one.
- revelation 12y ago
  The major leap happened, and it is Li-Ion technology. It improved by magnitudes on any important metric over previous battery technology.
  - WhitneyLand 12y ago
    Are you sure about that? I don't recall my battery life increasing by "magnitudes" when li-ion became widespread.
    - afterburner 12y ago
      I'm guessing Li-ion batteries were always the battery tech used in smartphones, so it might have been harder to notice. I know once I put some Li-ion AA batteries in an old camera I realized I may never need to replace those batteries again.
    - digikata 12y ago
      That's because product designers used the improved performance to reduce package volume and weight.
    - johansch 12y ago
      See this graph of energy density over time: http://electronicdesign.com/site-files/electronicdesign.com/files/archive/electronicdesign.com/content/content/74000/74000-fig4.gif http://electronicdesign.com/site-files/electronicdesign.com/... from http://electronicdesign.com/power/here-comes-electric-propulsion http://electronicdesign.com/power/here-comes-electric-propul...
lkbm 12y ago
> Not all the cells made by the gigafactory are destined for vehicles. Some will end up in the company’s Superchargers, allowing Tesla to cope with sudden bursts of demand should multiple vehicles need to recharge at once. Others will be used at Tesla’s assembly plants to store energy when it is cheap, typically at night, and release it when the price rises. This surprised me, but Wikipedia says Li-Ion efficiency is 80-90%, so I can see that being worthwhile.

84 points by pmcpinto 12y ago

(Interstitial advertisement: "[Wrist watch brand] values your time". Indeed.) Nice piece. This is apparently the guy making things happen (at least) in the battery front, while Musk takes care of the public dog and pony show. A few technical, rarely mentioned, tidbits thrown in, too.

butwhy 12y ago

"..panels leased from Solar City, another company owned by Mr Musk" - just make it up as you go, I guess.

josefresco 12y ago
According to Wikipedia, Musk is not only chairman of Solar City but also "remains the largest shareholder" - so the line from the article while lacking detail, is mostly correct.
- jkaunisv1 12y ago
  Well, the article also says that Musk & JB are cofounders of Tesla, so, you know.. Not expecting much accuracy from the rest of it.
  - SuperChihuahua 12y ago
    How do you define a co-founder? Tesla was just an empty shell before Musk and JB arrived, so I think they are co-founders of Tesla, but not the only co-founders.
    - jkaunisv1 12y ago
      I'd say it was more than an empty shell. Eberhard got a lot of the way there developing the product. From what I've read he wasn't the guy to grow the company but he got it through the initial startup. I'd agree with you and say they're all cofounders (as, Wikipedia tells me, they settled out of court to agree on). But I think the media really emphasizes Musk, and in this article Straubel, as the co-founders while eliding Eberhard's contribution (ie. actually STARTING the company with Tarpenning).
skywhopper 12y ago
It's a good risk distribution strategy to split your various investments into separate corporations and then do business deals between the component organizations. But it can also be a profitable tax strategy when there are differing tax implications or accounting rules depending on how deals are structured. The rules surrounding the tax and reporting implications of buying versus leasing are actually one of the current major topics in the US accounting governance world. (My wife teaches Theory of Accounting which goes deep into the frustratingly fascinating details of how to appropriately and clearly represent expenses and earnings for management, investor, and government audiences. It's fascinating stuff, but confusing for an outsider.)
- anonbanker 12y ago
  Posting here as breadcrumbs for when I inevitably need to explain this to someone.

decasteve 12y ago

I'll wager that JB Straubel will be Tesla's CEO in 3-5 years and Tesla will no longer be a car company but a battery/infrastructure company.

threeseed 12y ago
Likely it will be just a battery company. The supercharger network is still proprietary i.e. it isn't a standard and there is no evidence that car companies are planning to adopt the Tesla connector. Especially with governments rallying around standards and directly competing with Tesla. And for me personally I am dubious about electric being the future solution. The world can live without Tesla and even BMW. Far harder without Toyota.
- theguycalledtom 12y ago
  > supercharger network is still proprietary Tesla opened up their patents but I doubt current non-Tesla electric cars can actually be charged by them without over-heating. I also doubt they will just let anyone use their superchargers because they are currently paying the power bill... but you'd have to be on the pay from some dubious source to turn this fact into anti-tesla spin.
  - olavgg 12y ago
    There is a local company where I live that is making chargers that will work on anything from Tesla to Leaf's http://www.zaptec.com/home/zapcharger/ http://www.zaptec.com/home/zapcharger/
  - seanflyon 12y ago
    > I also doubt they will just let anyone use their superchargers because they are currently paying the power bill Yup, Tesla would love for other companies to use and pay for their superchargers. http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/184141-tesla-reveals-plan-to-share-supercharger-network-with-other-electric-car-makers http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/184141-tesla-reveals-plan...
- 12y ago

skywhopper 12y ago

Batteries are one of those technology bottlenecks that will pay off in a huge way when and if someone can create a major leap that allows a 10x or 100x improvement in capacity, cost, efficiency, whatever. For computing, for transportation, for general energy usage, for third-world development, a better battery will reap enormous societal benefits. It's amazing how far Li-Ion cells have progressed, but we need more and better yet still. I'm glad to see someone is pouring huge resources into this problem. Hopefully Musk is not the only one.

revelation 12y ago
The major leap happened, and it is Li-Ion technology. It improved by magnitudes on any important metric over previous battery technology.
- WhitneyLand 12y ago
  Are you sure about that? I don't recall my battery life increasing by "magnitudes" when li-ion became widespread.
  - afterburner 12y ago
    I'm guessing Li-ion batteries were always the battery tech used in smartphones, so it might have been harder to notice. I know once I put some Li-ion AA batteries in an old camera I realized I may never need to replace those batteries again.
  - digikata 12y ago
    That's because product designers used the improved performance to reduce package volume and weight.
  - johansch 12y ago
    See this graph of energy density over time: http://electronicdesign.com/site-files/electronicdesign.com/files/archive/electronicdesign.com/content/content/74000/74000-fig4.gif http://electronicdesign.com/site-files/electronicdesign.com/... from http://electronicdesign.com/power/here-comes-electric-propulsion http://electronicdesign.com/power/here-comes-electric-propul...

lkbm 12y ago

> Not all the cells made by the gigafactory are destined for vehicles. Some will end up in the company’s Superchargers, allowing Tesla to cope with sudden bursts of demand should multiple vehicles need to recharge at once. Others will be used at Tesla’s assembly plants to store energy when it is cheap, typically at night, and release it when the price rises. This surprised me, but Wikipedia says Li-Ion efficiency is 80-90%, so I can see that being worthwhile.