Revenge 251
To motivate people to begin driving electric vehicles,
the Norwegians established a number of incentives. “The
benefits are too good,” a Norwegian said. “You can take bus
lanes, get free parking and it costs very little to refuel.”^378
These incentives seem to work. While three percent of all
cars sold in Norway are electric, the same number in US
is 0.1 percent. The current number of electric cars on the
Norwegian roads today is 7 000, and the total amount of
cars is 2.4 million. About 40 percent of those who own an
electric car also own a gasoline car. But the goal of the
Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association is to have 100 000
electric cars in Norway before year 2020 – the same year as
Elon estimated peak oil will happen. These numbers can be
compared with the neighboring country Sweden where the
incentives are less favorable. The Swedes have 4.4 million
cars, but only 600 of those are electric.
Without much success, the Norwegians have earlier
tried to produce electric cars through the company Think
Global. For the fourth time in twenty years, the company
filed for bankruptcy in 2011. Several experts argued that
also Tesla was close to bankruptcy, so the car after the
Roadster, the Model S, would never see daylight.
In 2012, Tesla manufactured and delivered the first
Model S. The customers were happy and described Elon
as the Steve Jobs of heavy industry. Apple’s customers
are known for loving their products, and Tesla’s customers
have begun to love their cars – and Elon himself. Probably
as the first CEO of a car company ever, Elon was asked to
write his autograph on the inside of a Model S.