'He had a point': Elon Musk on Aston Martin CEO treating him like 'amateur car builder'

Tesla head Elon Musk was treated like an “amateur car builder” by the CEO of the world’s leading luxury car manufacturers, Aston Martin. Back in 2008, Musk had visited the Aston Martin factory, when the CEO of the company had acted “quite grumpy” with the SpaceX owner. The incident was first revealed in the 2015 book ‘Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future’ by Ashlee Vance, however, it recently gained attention after a tweet by ‘Tesla Owners Silicon Valley’ went viral. 

The tweet described the visit and further asked Musk how the 2008 visit to Aston Martin factory had changed what he did with Tesla. The social media post also quoted a line from the book, which revealed that the Tesla CEO was treated like an amateur car manufacturer. Musk responded to the tweet and confirmed the incident. 

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He also admitted that the Aston Martin CEO was not wrong as even he did not know what he was dong with his company at that point. Musk said that he was “quite grumpy” but “he had a point”. 

According to Yahoo News, in the book, Vance had written that Musk had fallen into a slump after his divorce in 2008. In a bid to lift his spirits, one of his friends had asked him to accompany him on a visit to London, during which Musk visited the Aston Martin factory. While back then the CEO treated Musk like an amateur, now his company, Tesla Inc is the world’s highest-valued automaker, overtaking Toyota Motors Corp. 

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Tesla’s record deliveries 

The year 2020 has also been pleasantly good for Musk with his fortunes being directly linked to Tesla of which according to Bloomberg, the last own 20% of the company’s stock. Meanwhile, this year, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Tesla’s stock spiked almost 524% contributing to Musk adding over $100 billion to his wealth. Tesla CEO Elon Musk surpassed Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates earlier this week and became the world’s second-richest person with net worth soaring from $7.2 billion to $127.9 billion.  

Tesla has reportedly sold more than 1,70,000 vehicles in the first half of the year, while Musk and his investors have set a target of delivering 5,00,000 units by the end of 2020. Tesla has become a major hit among rich car owners who want to switch to electric vehicles with superior technology, without compromising on the looks. The company was launched in 2003 and since then it has become one of the best electric car sellers in the global market.

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