Friday, July 29, 2016

Thoughts on Elon Musk's "Master Plan"

by Michael Keane

Some people have been heavily questioning the “Master Plan” of having all electric vehicles including large trucks created by Elon Musk. But there might be a misconception within that “questioning” thought pattern. For one,  notoriety might not matter to Musk. It may not be that Musk is looking to be the sole or primary supplier of the vehicles. He might know of other companies working on the issue and feels his vocal support of the project will give the industry a boost.  Ultimately, though, this is only a part of his master plan. It is well known that his true master plan is to see humans get to Mars and that means fuel.

Mr. Musk has clearly and regularly shown his indifference towards others opinions of him and his strategies. Part of the reason is that he understands that he is going after some seriously large issues and knows that a straight line to success is laughable but also that success is attainable. When you look at his history, it is full of both successes and failures. But there is always progress. When the project is successful, the progress is paradigm changing. A great early example is Paypal. Even when there is a failure (think projects for Tesla and SpaceX), there is still progress.

There are many small companies doing great work on creating this reality. But because of uncertainties, some companies are nervous about their own sustainability. Hearing positive comments and support from Mr. Musk gives a sense of inspiration to continue the hard work of innovation that currently going on in this space.

Environmentally speaking, there are few people that are driving the needle forward in getting the rest of us off of fossil fuels. This master plan seems to be the next step in the process. If you could have this as your legacy, wouldn’t you try and do the same. At the very least, we should be out in the marketplace supporting these missions in any way possible. This article is one of those ways.

With all of that said, the main master plan is what is probably driving all other master plans of Mr. Musk. Getting humanity to Mars is not easy. Especially from a private citizen like Mr. Musk. It is really something that he and his team are not afraid to take on other master plans in order to succeed in the Mars master plan. They have found success in driving down rocket costs and fuel is one major component of that plan.

Moving the process of electric vehicles is one major goal of Elon Musk. His announcement of the master plan for it undoubtedly will move the process forward. Will it end up exactly how his master plan expects? Probably not. But it will probably be darn close. It will probably be even better as now more people and visions will influence and be influenced by the announcement. Now is a great time to get that electric vehicle idea out and worked on!

Per disclosure, KeaneVCC’s partner KDK Fund owns shares of Ford. KeaneVCC has also recently written blog posts on the effects of the electric vehicle on the insurance, oil, and local taxing authority areas. You can find the link here.     



No comments:

Post a Comment