Elon Musk Wins $1 Million Tesla Model S Bet, Donates $1 Million to Charity Anyway

July 5th, 2012 by Zachary Shahan

Ah, one of those feelgood, feelgood stories. Apparently, back on May 1 or so of 2009, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and auto journalist Dan Neil made a bet about whether or not “the Model S could be built, within the technical specifications Mr. Musk laid out, before the end of 2012.”

The bet was that, if Neil was correct, Musk would have to donate $1 million to the charity Doctors without Borders. If Musk won, he said Neil would just have to donate $1,000 to the charity. The bet was made.

And, well, it turns out Musk won. But he’s decided to donate $1 million to the charity anyway. Neil also made his $1,000 donation.

“The new Model S is exactly the car he described, delivered six months before the end of 2012,” Neil writes.

“So, I lost, and happily so. As a proponent of electric mobility, I have said many times that I wanted to lose the bet; in other words, I wanted Tesla to succeed. As a critic, I’ll reserve judgment on the Model S until I get a chance to drive it. Regardless, Mr. Musk and Tesla’s achievement – birthing a radically different kind of car, and essentially a brand-new car company, in three years – is nothing short of astonishing. And I congratulate him.”

Certainly, congratulations to Musk and his whole team! Astounding accomplishment. And let’s hope that Musk is correct about his latest bet, as well — that 50% of new cars will be EVs in 20 years or fewer.

And, I know I’ve already shared this twice, but here’s a fun video on the Model S (many more videos here):

Source: Wall Street Journal | h/t TreeHugger
Image Credit: Elon Musk via Phil Stafford / Shutterstock.com

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Tags: Elon Musk, Model S, Tesla, Tesla Model S

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Z6C66V2NO2FDR2VLYIPJW54Y7I John

Never heard of this guy, but I came in near the beginning of a an hour program on him. Whoa! At least from this story, this young gentleman is impressive! A man with far-reaching goals, and has pumped a small fortune into keeping his dreams alive- a lot of that by investing and risking most of his own money. And a seemingly very normal person as well. No attitude. How refreshing.
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  One of the stars of the cleantech industry.
  
  And yeah, from the video on him i saw, he seemed like an extremely humble fellow. Gotta love him.
Dcard88

So Musk is not only smart and cool, but apparently a good person as well. Thanks for sharing this Zach
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  Seems like it. If I was a lady…