Elon Musk on David Letterman (video) -- thoughts?

Here you go Jason! I had an hour to kill so I figured I'd transcribe it for you. David Letterman: Thank you very much for being here.

How are things going at Tesla Motors? Elon Musk: Uh they're going really well, yeah. DL: You build cars like this one right here.(shows picture)

EM: Yeah DL: This is a lotus of some description with an electric motor in there and how many of these have you sold?

EM: Uh we've sold about 1,300 DL: 1300? EM: Yeah DL: And this car is priced at about what? EM: Roughly $100,000 DL: $100,000 EM: Yeah.

DL: Now, from looking at websites I'm under the impression if a person wanted to buy an electric car in this country this pretty much is the only highway friendly electric car available. EM: Yeah, we make the only car that would be considered sort of a real car where you know you can take it on the roads and that sort of thing. DL: Some have like a range of 15 or 20 miles they're like golf carts more or less.

EM: Right haha. DL: So why when your company decided to do this as a project you chose a sports car of about $100,000. EM: Well that's an excellent question.

The goal of tesla has always been to make mass market electric cars even from the beginning. But when you have new technology it takes time to make it lower cost and mass market. You know if you think of the early days of cellphones or laptops or any new technology.It starts of expansive.

You remember that giant phone the guy on wallstreet walked down the beach with? And that was cutting edge technology. Well, it's the same thing with cars.

So, in fact anyone who does buy the Tesla Roadster the sports car at $100,00 is helping pay for the development of the lower cost cars to follow. And in fact we've recently announced our sedan which is.. DL: But that'll be available when in mass production? EM: In a couple of years.

DL: But you mention new technology, but to my way of thinking the electric motor is not necessarily new technology. It's been around for nearly a hundred years hasn't it really? EM: Yeah, the electric motor is actually very old.

In fact in the early days of cars it was a competition between gasoline cars and electric cars. DL: Right. EM: And there was a range issue with electric cars and so gasoline ended up winning out.

But now with the advent of lithium-ion batteries, we can now address the range issue. DL: The real breakthrough is the batteries then; how to store that electricity. EM: Yeah, it's the single biggest breakthrough DL: Right and I remember like 15 years ago there were uh General Motors was making the EV-1 or Saturn was making the EV-1.

EM: Right. DL: And it was an electric car that was in California and there were a thousand of them on the road.So again the idea that was have an electric car is not a breakthrough. We had electric cars and to my way of thinking we should be so far ahead of this curve, much farther ahead than we are now.

For what reason; why don't we have more electric cars today? EM: Well, there was a great movie, Who Killed The Electric Car by Chris Paine, which I think explores that question. And it's note worthy in that movie that Chris shows how much people really wanted that EV-1 car.

In fact, they wanted it so much that when the cars were forcibly taken away from them and crushed in a.. they weren't actually destroyed they were actually crushed. The people who had had those cars held a candle lit vidual for those trucks and those cars. Now, when's the last time you heard anyone do a candlelight vidual for the destruction of any product, let alone a General Motors product?

DL: Well, they'll be one after the.. (laughter) They'll be one after the show for my voice. Uh, lets just say that you charge this electric car. And you charge it on your outlit at home and it's from a coal fired power plant that supplies the grid.

Are you polluting, are you adding more CO2 by taking electricity from a coal fired power plant or burning gallons of gas in your internal combustion engine? EM: Actually, even if 100% of the electricity comes from coal. The Tesla Roadster, which is a sports car, produces less CO2 per mile than a Toyota Prius.

And of course in many parts of the country coal is less than half of the power and as we go over time we're gonna have to move to renewable energy generation. DL: Right. When you say over time, I mean we are so far beyond over time.

This should have been taken care of, taken place 20-30 years ago right? EM: Yes, absolutely. I think we're sort of lulling the complacency with a temporary drop in the price of oil, but that's gonna come back to haunt us.

DL: But when you take a look at the economy and the circumstance of General Motors and Chrysler and Ford. What if the electric car movement had not been killed off 20 years ago and every company had now a viable electric car. Would that be means of keeping these factories open today?

Would that be a means of further research and development and greater employment, and greater marketing and showrooms and all of the accessories that need to accompany an electric car? EM: I think it's fair to say that with the benefit of hindsight General Motors probably wishes they had done an EV-2 and an EV-3 following the EV-1 rather than sort of crushing them. DL: But doesn't it make you a little angry that we're all pretending like "woah!

We've got an electric car!" It's like nobody landed from Mars here. Like you said we had electric cars at the turn of the century, nineteen hundreds right?

EM: Yes DL: So, I mean it's frustrating to me.It's it frustrating to you? EM: It is frustrating in fact, the reason I've put so much time and energy and my own financial resources into helping create Tesla, was to try to spur that electric car revolution. I really thought that the incumbent car companies would do this and there wouldn't be any need for a new car company to try to do this.

But it turns out was and I'm glad for it because now that we have the Tesla Roadster, General Motors kinda has to credit Tesla with the inspiration for the Volt. You know they're coming out with the hybrid Volt. DL: Yeah, the Volt has a range of 40 miles.

EM: Yeah DL: That'll get you down the driveway and back. "I gotta go pick up the paper. " "Take the electric car.

Call me if there's trouble at the curb" (laughter) I mean it's insane. I mean 40 miles is the range on the Volt. That's ridiculous isn't it ridiculous?

And General Motors is all "Oh boy.." you know like, Jennifer Garner's always like "Oh boy we got the electric car 40 miles" I mean that's crap. EM: Right right.(applause) DL: Alright, we'll be right back with Elon Musk ladies and gentlemen. BREAK Second Segment: David Letterman: (applause) Thank you very much.

I was talking to Elon Musk during the commercial and he says from now on, for every electric car they sell, he'll throw in his new fragrance 'Elon Musk'.

Elon Musk: Dave I can't thank you enough for plugging this product. DL: Go crazy.

Now I have driven one of your cars and I must say in the beginning I was skeptical and nervous I think like everybody else. Because you think electric car this is for guys in Topanga Canyon selling sprouts. But the thing is bullet proof.

You can drive the wheels off the thing and I honestly I thought the first time that I would charge the electric car that my house would catch fire. That didn't happen and it couldn't be more safe. The thing goes like a bat out of hell, but it irritates me that people who might be interested now because honestly very few people are gonna spend the money to buy that car as slick as that car is.

EM: Yeah DL: But it does kinda call attention to the product doesn't it? EM: Absolutely. It was important for us to also show that an electric car can be a great car.

That it can compete in certain right against gasoline cars. So we wanted to make sure that we had a sports car that even if it wasn't electric it would still be a great car to buy and compete against. DL: Between you and me, the first time I drove it I was worried that it would magnetize my nuts.(laughter) EM: Haha!

Well that's true. DL: This is the sedan is that right? EM: Yeah DL: And you know those fuel cell cars that's a load of crap too.

You know "Oh hydrogen! It's gonna make it's own hydrogen! You can do it and it'll be right there".

Well they're talkin' about 20 years from now. Maybe 20 years from now. So I think that these automobile companies - and it couldn't be a worse time for them doing this - are just shining people on.

Because if they were actually working on technology that was gonna be in showrooms, they wouldn't have to be closing down plants and filing for bankruptcy! (applause) Dave and Elon head over to the Tesla - David Letterman: That's a beauty. That is gorgeous.

And this thing is available in 2 years, how much will this cost? Elon Musk: This will have a selling price of $49,900. Although, there's one very important point worth making about this car.

DL: (talking to one of the women on stage) I'll take ya later if you want EM: There's a very important point... DL: (grabs the steering wheel and acts like he's being electrocuted) OH GOD TURN IT OFF! AHH AHHH AHHHH I'M BEING ELECTROCUTED! AHH AHH AHHH!.. (applause) Thank you so much for being here.

We'll be right back with the Manchester Orchestra ladies and gentlemen.

Hell, I missed that one :( Ok, so I can't really give my own thoughts on it, but this is what Cnet had to say: "... even though Musk and the Model S were the main event (well, after actress Jennifer Garner), Letterman did most of the talking. Actually, "complaining" might be a better word. "

"Letterman is frustrated, downright irritated, that electric motors, which have been around for 100 years, are still considered cutting-edge technology... As for the electric Tesla Roadster sports car, Letterman called it "bulletproof" and said it drives like a "bat out of hell."

He admitted, though, that the first time he charged the car he was nervous it would burn down his house and "magnetize his nuts. "

Musk did manage to get a few words in. He reiterated that the company's long-term plan has always been to build a mass-market car."Anyone who does buy the Roadster is helping pay for the development of low-cost cars to follow," he said.

The reason Musk is pouring his energy and much of his personal wealth into Tesla is to spur the electric car revolution. "I thought that the existing car companies would do it," he said.

While Letterman opened the door and poked about, Musk tried to make an "important point" about the Model S, which he said will be ready in "a couple of years.

" But we may never know what Musk had to say. Letterman grabbed the steering wheel and started yelling "I'm being electrocuted!"

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Tesla is the king of high speed EVs. However, BYD is the king of low cost EVs. The solution for EVs will be separating the car cost from the battery cost.

If a EV battery goes out the expense to replace the battery is over 3/4 the cost of the vehicle. Normal recharge cycles for the battery are about 2,000 cycles or 100k miles. Maybe, by the time the new tesla needs a battery swap the cost will be below 5k.

You can't buy a BYD ev in America, but if you could that would be the machine for the average commuter.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.