According to the author, Elon Musk denounced this book as “nonsense.” Then again, brilliant as he is, Musk is sometimes given to nonsense. “The coronavirus panic is dumb,” he tweeted last March.
Much of Power Play is driven by interviews with anonymous Tesla executives, and hence unproveable, yet its picture of the eccentric Musk is plausible and the insights into Silicon Valley have been borne out elsewhere. Tim Higgins, a Wall Street Journal technology reporter, is on solid ground when he writes the history of the electric car, which began with the birth of the automobile. Henry Ford’s wife drove one—until the Model T drove alternatives to internal combustion off the road. Among the problems confronting electric cars are the availability of charging stations and the costliness of the batteries needed to propel them. Musk had an answer: start by making expensive electric cars and then move down market as technology advances and becomes more affordable.
Whether or not Higgins nails Musk’s personality or the internal workings of his empire, Power Play accurately sketches out the context. Tesla’s value floats on stock market euphoria that continues as ambitious targets remain unhit. “Investors believed in the potential for growth, which in turn further stoked excitement for more growth.”
