The Tesla Doctrine

Did you catch the Brooklyn E-Prix electric car race that returned to New York after a Covid induced break? Formula E is growing as fans flock to the faster, slightly STEM oriented version of NASCAR with 16 races from Vancouver to Cape Town. The Red Hook, Brooklyn race signals the first street racing in New York in over 100 years. Watch the highlights on CBS sports coverage on YouTube — it’s amazing. Attack mode gives an extra 35 kilowatts of power — electric motor verve replaces internal combustion engine growl as BMW’s Max Gunther defeated Audi’s Lucas Di Grassi.

It seems clear that the way to grow excitement about electric vehicles (“EV”) is to show EV is just superior to ICE (“internal combustion engines”). YouTube, Tik Tok and all social media show EV’s destroying “rotten dinosaurs” like this video viewed over 16 million times showing a Tesla almost beating a Lamborghini.

While some may poo poo the puerile instincts of many to just drive fast, if there is one thing impact investors and environmentalists should learn from Tesla is that by making products cool and clearly superior to their gas guzzling predecessors creates huge buzz that drives sales and ultimately impact. Tesla still effectively spends zero dollars on marketing. Without Tesla, the EV industry would likely still be dominated by the small batch Prius.

Every sustainable oriented company should consider the “Tesla Doctrine”: sell the cool factor, wow factor, efficacy, and quality of your product over the sustainability part. Sustainability is a nice to have, performance is a must have.

As Elon Musk says: “Make it cool”.