We all know the internet, in particular the journalists who write for the internet, likes a juicy story. And when it comes to larger-than-life Elon Musk and equally big BMW going to head-to-head over something, well, that’s just fuel for the interwebz fire.
As such, it seems many took Elon’s comments about a potential alliance with BMW not being viable way out of context.
Let’s start with the facts: An alliance between the two companies was never in the cards. In fact, according to a Tesla representative, the moment those speculations started to surface, Tesla representatives sought to dispel them immediately. Elon has the utmost respect for BMW and their technology, however, but he never stated at any point that a partnership was on the table.
And that brings us to the off-hand remark Elon made at the beginning of the week being blown out of proportion in regards to BMW. Certain papers even claimed that Elon lied about an alliance with BMW simply to gain some good press and get his name out there.
According to Tesla’s rep who contacted us directly, Elon was asked a question by Der Spiegel to which he gave a very honest and frank response. Any and all information outside of that is simply speculation and guesswork.
Um, do those media outlets really think Elon needs to pull such a stunt to get good press? Did he not just launch the D? Does he not have one of the most successful high-performance electric vehicles on the road right now?
All that to say; Elon Musk did not put BMW down. He did not say he never wanted to work with them. He did not diss them as a company in any way. A deal was never on the table to take away in the first place, so this was all just speculation on the part of over-active media representatives.
Now let’s all relax and toast both BMW and Elon on their electric-vehicle accomplishments with some spiked eggnog.
Sources: Clean Technica, Seeking Alpha