JAMIE CARR: Elon Musk rewriting the way the motor industry operates
Musk has a reputation for setting targets that are on the ambitious side of achievable, but then he also keeps pulling off accomplishments that many an expert thought impossible
Tesla shooting for the starsSA minds may have been preoccupied by rather more earthly concerns this week, but the hyperactive Elon Musk has strung together his usual shopping list of achievements. SpaceX managed for the first time to reuse a rocket to launch a satellite into space, an achievement that has enormous implications for the cost of launching satellites. It represents a stepping stone in his ultimate vision of "making humans a multiplanetary species" and sticking the one-way ticket to Mars right at the top of the Christmas list for the mother-in-law.What may have more impact on the average punter is the quite astonishing ambition of his launch plan for the Tesla Model 3, the cheeky little electric speedster that, at US$35,000 is less than half the price of the Model S. Musk has announced he is planning production of 5,000 Model 3s a week by the end of 2017, rising to 10,000 a week by the end of 2018. He reckons that Tesla can grow production from 76,230 cars in 2016 to 500...
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