Tesla CEO Elon Musk Laughs At BMW i3

August 13th, 2013 by Zachary Shahan

Originally posted on EV Obsession.

Following up on yesterday’s post recapping 4 top statements from Tesla’s Friday conference call, the analyst who asked the question about the supplier bottleneck also asked what Elon’s thoughts were on the BMW i3. Elon gave a quick chuckle, presumably because the question wasn’t about Tesla but was about a competitor. Then, not long after Elon started answering and said, “there’s room to improve on the i3, and I hope that they do,” the questioner started laughing, which got Elon to laugh a bit more, and the got the questioner to laugh more… you get the picture. Here’s the recording (which includes Elon’s eventual response):

Elon’s comments on the BMW i3

No real surprise. Elon thinks BMW could do better (of course he does, Tesla is doing better) but he’s happy BMW is (finally!) getting into the EV game, and hopes to see more and better electric vehicles from BMW in the future. (There’s no doubting that Elon is banking on and wants to see a full EV revolution, and fast.)

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Tags: BMW, BMW i3, Elon Musk, Elon Musk BMW, Elon Musk BMW i3, Tesla, Tesla BMW, Tesla BMW i3, Tesla press calls

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.

Tom B

You can always make stupid comments when you haven’t been in this car business as long as BMW.How dependable is a fire hazard like Tesla with huge batteries that can explode with no warning in any given day?Tesla is a baby in the car business with no proven track record and a big cocky mouth full of idiots.I bet a Tesla won’t last half a million miles like a BMW on the same tranny and motor.Talk is cheap Tesla!Prove it!
Clive Dobson

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- Bob_Wallace
  
  Would you like to purchase some advertising space?
  - Clive Dobson
    
    Hi Bob, thanks but I’m just an enthusiast from South Africa. Perhaps you could approach Solar Team Eindhoven. Thanks. What do you think of the car called Stella ? Kind Regards
    - http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan
      
      We’ve written about it, twice I think. Cool project. Not a commercial product, though.
      - http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan
        
        link: http://solarlove.org/solar-car-that-seats-4/
      - Clive Dobson
        
        Thanks very much, I have seen your articles, I’m keen to see these become commercial and viable. Have you seen the car by Sunswift called eVe. They also aim to make their car a mass produced vehicle. Solar Team Eindhoven have had their car approved roadworthy by the Dutch Government…. So the ‘commercial’ car companies had better wake up … eh eh eh
Clive Dobson

The Stella, designed by 22 Students from Eindehoven has a range of 600km and is Solar Powered….. and carries 4 people and has a boot.
- http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  We’ve covered it.
  - http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan
    
    http://solarlove.org/solar-car-that-seats-4/
Simon

Yes, regardless of the origin and intent behind the giggle, I think that it is a fair observation that the i3 design is rather overboard in terms of being funky and “concept-car-like”. Most people don’t really want to feel like they are driving around in an experiment — just give us a regular-looking BMW that is electric! The styling of the i3 is a bit baffling to me. I’m sure that it is nicely appointed and runs great, but I’m disappointed that it is not styled like a 1-series or a 3-series. What happened to the ActiveE? Now that was exciting…
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1216353694 Klevis Ymeri

That BMW gets 100 miles (in ECO PRO+ mode the range extends to 125 miles) with a battery pack of 22 kwh whereas the Tesla S gets 300 miles (according to Tesla and 265 according to EPA) with a battery pack of 85 kwh. Also the price of the BMW i3 will be 43K $ whereas the Tesla S costs 90K $. I think that there is room to improve for Tesla and not the BMW i3. They are different cars aimed at different markets.
And with the i3 BMW offers the BMW X5 as a cheap rental when the owner of the i3 needs more range than the i3 can provide.
Ivor O’Connor

I was very interested and listened to this days ago thinking why would Elon stoop to such a thing as insulting a competitor. The actual recording however proved not to support the spin the author gave it. Given Elon’s past interviews I’d say the spin put on this was more along a hit piece. There is money to be made spinning Elon’s words so people can hate him. And the spin put on this recording plays into that.

I watch almost everything Elon publicly says and am bored silly with his long ago memorized word-by-word replies he uses to the standard questions he gets. He sometimes goofs but this wasn’t one of them. For a real goof listen to the google sponsered entrepreneurs interview last week. There he was so tired he actually made one of those rare goofs. However the anti-renewable crowds are so crude they didn’t notice. They need more primitive material. Along the lines of fart jokes.
- http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  Yeah, was pretty turned off by the Bloomberg coverage of this… one thing that spurred me on to doing this post.
http://facebook.com/FalconFour Matt Falcon

That was… *heh*… painfully awkward to listen to. At least Elon’s comfortable up there in the top ranks. You can pretty much tell by that 1-minute sound byte that he knows exactly, absolutely exactly, how BMW’s somewhat-goofy “treat it like a niche market” approach to EVs is going to play out.