The former lead writer for Tesla Motors tells the astounding story of the most revolutionary car company since Ford and shows how under Elon Musk’s ＂insane mode＂ leadership, the company is bringing an end to the era of gasoline-powered transportation.
This is the story of a revolution. Hamish McKenzie spent a year at Tesla after being recruited by Elon Musk to write company blog posts and press releases as the famously demanding CEO strove to control its narrative. Now McKenzie tells the story of an unlikely West Coast start-up, with an audacious dream to create a new, successful US car company (the last one started was Chrysler in 1925) that went against not only the might of the government-backed Detroit companies, but also the massive power of Big Oil and its benefactors, the infamous Koch brothers—and how it succeeded.
SpaceX photos and plans to colonize Mars may be terrific clickbait, but Musk’s car enterprise will transform far more people’s lives around the world, and it is here now. The new Tesla Model 3, scheduled to go on sale in fall 2017 and costing ＄30,000, will transform the public perception of Tesla—just fewer than 400,000 people have put down ＄1,000 to preorder the car since it was announced in spring 2016.
As McKenzie shows, Tesla has triggered frenzied competition from other companies, including Chevy, whose all-electric Bolt goes on sale in 2017, and the already-on-sale Ford Focus Electric, BMW i3, and Nissan LEAF, among others. But Tesla is far ahead of the pack because it is building the highest-quality cars and infrastructure that a new era of transportation will require—charging stations, a battery factory in the largest building by footprint ever built in the United States, and plans already on the table for electric vans and trucks. The age of electric cars is also launching in China, and McKenzie interviews little-known titans who have the money and the market access to power the electric car revolution quickly and decisively.
＂Insane Mode＂ is not just a button on the dash of the first Model S that gave you acceleration like a Ferrari, it isn’t even just a description of the 24/7 energy of a visionary car company, it is the title of a book about a new world of transportation and the very best kind of American ingenuity.
金石堂
