28 MAY / JUNE 2022 popularmechanics.co.za‘When something is
important enough, you
do it even if the odds are
not in your favour...’- Elon Musk
BOOK REVIEW
/ BY TIANA CLINE /T
ESLA NEARLY
didn’t happen. In
the early 2000s,
the company had
a bit of a rocky start.
In fact, it wasn’t
even Elon Musk’s
idea, although he was open
to investing millions in the
dream of two Silicon Valley
entrepreneurs who wanted to
sell a high-end electric sports
car – sustainable and sexy.
Power Play is the story of how
it all came together, and Tim
Higgins, the book’s author who
also happens to be a reporter
for The Wall Street Journal,
explores exactly what it took
to turn the auto industry on
its head. While it may feel now
that every carmaker today is
going the electric or hybrid
route, Elon Musk was the
person who spearheaded the
electric vehicle (EV) marketA not-so-brief history of the rise,
and rise, of Tesla.Power Play: Tesla, Elon
Musk, and the Bet of the
Century by Tim Higgins
(Penguin Random
House) is available
online, and wherever
good books are sold.and beat the odds doing so.
He took risks, he invested his
entire fortune in Tesla, he
managed to secure additional
funding, again and again, and
work around potentially
disastrous engineering
debacles. It’s quite a dramatic
tale and Higgins does an
exceptional job weaving key
players such as JB Straubel,
Sterling Anderson and Peter
Rawlinson into the book.
Higgins conducted hundreds
of interviews with Tesla insiders
to get the full picture of a
company that, by all accounts,
went on a roller-coaster ride –
skirting bankruptcy more than
once – to get where it is today.
It doesn’t make a difference if
you’re a Musk fan or critic, if
you think he’s a crazy genius
or an anti-hero trying to get
us all to Mars – this is an
extraordinary and riveting
(but sometimes appalling)
tale for anyone interested
in comprehensive and well-
documented insights into
Tesla’s road to success.
And who wouldn’t be? The
company’s market value sits
at $625 billion today. PH
OTOGRAPH
Y:^
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