3. About the C.E.O.
Elon Reeve Musk,
Born June 28, 1971
Engineer , Inventor[and Investor.
CEO and CTO of SpaceX,
CEO and Product architect of Tesla
Chairman of SolarCity, and co-chairman
OpenAI.
He is the founder of SpaceX and a co-
founder of Zip2, PayPal, and Tesla
He has also envisioned a conceptual
speed transportation system known as
Hyperloop and has proposed a VTOL
supersonic jet aircraft with electric fan
propulsion.
As of January 2016, he has an
worth of US$12.4 billion, making him
39th wealthiest person in the US.
4. About Tesla’s
Innovation
• Battery range: Tesla Roadster has a max range
of 265 miles, more than twice the next
List of modern production plug-in electric
This is a huge step in making electric vehicles
practical. 265 miles is the range of a typical
car before refilling and by reaching that level,
has made a big achievement.
• Battery safety: Electric cars are at a big risk of
fire given the kind of energy they store. Other
go for smaller range to reduce the risk. But
wanted the cake and eat it too. It went with
cylindrical batteries distributed throughout the
to reduce the energy intensity and reduce risk
fires. Tesla’s Novel Battery and Charging
| MIT Technology Review
• Recharge time: Chevy Volt takes an entire
5. About Tesla’s
Innovation
Charging station infrastructure: Without a charging network,
Tesla would remain a fancy commuter car. You would need to
every night. But, with the addition of a massive charging
now electric cars can be practical in rural areas as well as for
trips. Tesla speeds up free nationwide charging network, 20-
quick repower
Distribution network: For almost a century, cars in the US were
sold through local salespersons. The industry is characterized by
sleazy sales guys. But, Tesla is trying to circumvent them.
remains to be seen if they can cross the chasm -- reach the
mainstream without the pushy salespersons, it is still an
8. About Tesla’s Innovation – The
MarketingElon Musk is a lot of things, but more and more I see him as an incredibly gifted marketer.
How do you sell an expensive and (arguably) impractical electric luxury car? Simple:
• Convince your buyers that they're serving the public good by supporting your company.
• Convince them that your company is going to turn a global, multi-billion dollar industry
on it's ear with the equivalent of a bunch of laptop batteries wired together. (Seriously,
that's an impossible dream right there)
• Convince them that your car is the most technologically advanced and innovative vehicle
on the planet, despite the fact that most similarly priced cars are dripping with
technology (if you think a Mercedes or BMW isn't technologically advanced, you're not
paying attention).
• Convince your buyers that your lack of local sales and service centers (aka no dealerships)
is a strength instead of a weakness.
24. Summon Your
Tesla from Your
Phone
Last Fall, Tesla
Version 7.0
introduced a range
of new Autopilot
active safety and
convenience
features to give
more confidence
behind the wheel,
increase your
on the road, and
make highway
driving more
enjoyable. The
release of Tesla
Version 7.1
continues our
28. A disruptive innovation is an innovation that creates a new market and value network and
eventually disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market
leaders and alliances. The term was defined and phenomenon analysed by Clayton M.
Christensen beginning in 1995.
For adherents of classic disruptive innovation theory, Tesla’s potential as a market
disruptor is minimal. After all, the company doesn’t go after low-end, price-sensitive
customers who are over-served by current vehicles; they don’t pursue “non-consumption”
(customers who don’t currently drive cars); and the technology didn’t start out as inferior
(Tesla now produces the fastest 0-60 mph time of any four-door production automobile on
the planet (2.7 seconds in “ludicrous” mode).
Tesla automobiles look and drive much like other cars, utilize established infrastructure like
roads, and confine much of the product innovation to only one aspect – the power
system. These facts simply do not fit the classic pattern for successful disruption as
originally described by disruption guru Clayton Christensen.
29. Instead, Elon Musk pursues what I call a “high-end” technology disruption, an approach that is very different but one that
can be just as troublesome for incumbents. High-end technology disruptions involve producing innovations that are “leap
frog” in nature making them difficult for incumbents to rapidly imitate.
Then, instead of using technology to improve performance over time, they use technology to lower costs per unit of
performance over time.
Even with access to the patents, incumbents will find imitation difficult because Tesla’s cars also represent an
architectural innovation. If you peeled the skin off a Tesla and compared it to a comparable combustion engine vehicle
or electric vehicle like the Nissan Leaf, you would see that the car’s architecture is completely different because the
systems and drive train are engineered from the ground up around the battery.
In stark contrast, other automakers simply insert the battery as a module into a standard platform . Moreover, some of
the car’s subsystems, like traction control, are based on completely different technologies than a standard car.
So Tesla in my opinion is disruptive
innovation !