Elon Musk vs Bill Gates: Bit of underwhelming car banter between billionaires?

By Craig Trudell

(Bloomberg) – Bill Gates paid Tesla a compliment for coaxing the car industry to go electric. If he was expecting kind words in return from Elon Musk, he apparently shouldn’t have spoken about challenges that still lie ahead – or about his new Porsche.

Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, spoke with a YouTube influencer last week about the challenges of reducing emissions to slow climate change. He called the passenger-car industry “one of the most hopeful” sectors taking action in this regard.

“And certainly Tesla, if you had to name one company that’s helped drive that, it’s them,” Gates told YouTuber Marques Brownlee.

Then Gates discussed recently buying a Porsche Taycan. While he called the electric sports car “very, very cool”, he acknowledged its premium price – the initial Turbo S models start at $185,000 – and said consumers still have to overcome anxieties about EVs offering limited range and taking longer to recharge. Gasoline-powered cars travel longer between quick refuels at stations that outnumber charging points.

When a Tesla enthusiast posted about being disappointed in Gates’s decision to buy a Taycan instead of a Tesla and his comments about range anxiety, Musk replied: “My conversations with Gates have been underwhelming tbh.”