During a visit to the German capital on Thursday, the Tesla e-car chief shared his thoughts on the VW scandal, stuffy CEOs, roadblocks to e-mobility – and the need to consign gasoline to history.
By
Lukas Bay and Thomas Tuma
Published on
Elon Musk, Tesla CEO believes German carmakers are too old school and need to embrace e-mobility.
The biggest surprise was that Elon Musk showed up in a tie. That was something we hadn’t expected from a California-based entrepreneur of his caliber. Before the Handelsblatt interview, the Tesla CEO visionary of electromobility had just met with 30 government representatives at a parliamentary breakfast in Berlin to talk about the future of mobility and would meet with German Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel. He gave Handelsblatt his frank take on the old-school thinking within the German auto industry, what VW should do next and how the German autobahn forced Tesla to adapt their cars.
Handelsblatt: Mr. Musk, how many Teslas have you seen on the road during your visit to Germany this time?
Elon Musk: I admit, it wasn’t that many. But in Germany, we are also still a comparatively small player on the market.
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