Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century by Tim Higgins

Author:Tim Higgins [Higgins, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Science & Technology, Business & Economics, Entrepreneurship, Industries, Automobile Industry
ISBN: 9780385545457
Google: rdsJzgEACAAJ
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2021-11-15T00:21:30.947523+00:00

CHAPTER 17

INTO THE HEART Of TEXAS

Seventy years old and dressed in a suit and tie, Bill Wolters arrived at Tesla’s headquarters in Palo Alto after a trip from his home in the Texas state capital of Austin. The longtime lobbyist for franchise car dealers wanted to meet directly with the man who seemed hell-bent on overturning generations of norms in the business of selling cars. Wolters came with the goal of convincing Elon Musk that it was time to use franchise dealerships to sell his hot Model S sedan.

Wolters had watched Tesla open its first gallery location in the Houston mall in 2011 and its second in Austin. When he’d talked about Tesla’s plans with Diarmuid O’Connell, Musk’s deputy who had been lobbying in Texas, Wolters had been dismissive. “Good fucking luck, son,” he said. By mid-2013, however, Tesla was turning a profit and Musk was showing up more often in Texas, in part because SpaceX was making plans to expand there. That spring, he’d flown in for a hearing with the state senate and spoken at the annual South by Southwest festival.

His profile had grown far beyond Texas, of course; he had gained broader cultural currency. Robert Rodriguez included him in a brief scene in the 2013 movie Machete Kills. The movie also included Amber Heard. Though Musk didn’t share a scene with the actress, he began trying to meet her through Rodriguez. “If there is a party or event with Amber, I’d be interested in meeting her just out of curiosity,” Musk wrote in an email to the director that was later leaked to the trade press. “Allegedly, she is a fan of George Orwell and Ayn Rand…most unusual.”

That summer, however, Musk remarried Talulah Riley, the actress who would eventually be cast as a sexy robot in HBO’s Westworld. Their relationship was fraught, the turmoil often carrying over into Tesla, workers said. Some said they tried to anticipate Musk’s mood by following news of his personal life, even tracking Riley’s hair color, believing Musk was happiest when her locks approached platinum.

All of this might have seemed a million miles away from Texas car dealerships, but the increased attention fed on itself, helping Tesla make noise. General Motors spent $5.5 billion in advertising and promotions in 2013—an amount about $2 billion shy of its R&D budget. It and other carmakers were among the biggest TV advertisers in the U.S.; their franchise dealers, too, spent large amounts of money with local newspapers and radio and TV stations. Musk had long eschewed advertising, chalking it up as contrived and inauthentic. The quality of Tesla’s cars would be enough to sell them, he argued. He could say that, in large part, because he was able to generate so-called free media. Just like a politician benefits from a drumbeat of news coverage, Musk and Tesla were benefiting from their own attention. His Twitter account could stir the pot and generate excitement. As Tesla rushed to open more stores, local media dutifully wrote stories about the new showrooms.

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