May 26, 2018
Bret Stephens rightly takes Elon Musk to task for his buffoonish attacks on his critics, dubbing him “The Donald of Silicon Valley.” (I prefer my line, “the Donald Trump of futuristic entrepreneurs,” but the point is the same.) Like Trump, Musk apparently is unable to accept criticism and lashes out at the integrity and competence of his critics. Also like Trump, he is apparently unable to run a profitable company.
However, where Stephens goes badly astray is in telling his readers that electric cars are not a viable technology. China is expected to sell more than 1 million electric cars this year. It expects to be selling more than 7 million electric cars annually by 2025. It’s true that electric cars have substantial government subsidies in China, but this has been true of many technologies, such as the Internet.
Electric cars can clearly be very competitive in the near future with gas powered cars. They are clearly not decades away as Stephens tells readers.
Comments