Tesla Motors Inc May Face Competition From Richard Branson

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Tesla Motors’ rivals list may soon have another name, Richard Branson’s Virgin Racing. Virgin is looking to enter the electric car platform with its group of teams “trying” working on the technology, claimed Branson.

Potential rival for Tesla

In an interview with Bloomberg, Branson asserted the possibility of his firm battling Tesla on the ground like it does in space. “You never know. You may well find Virgin competing with Tesla in the car business as we do in the space business. We’ll see what happens.”

Virgin’s automobile plans could range from boutique to mass production. There exists a lot of auto makers in the world that could handle the production of an EV for Virgin. However, whatever the company’s plan might be, Branson is clear on going all-in on his pursuit of expanding into the EV business, according to TechCrunch.

For now, Branson is focusing all his efforts into racing. Virgin Racing is sponsoring a car in the Formula E racing series. Based on the Grand Prix format of racing, Formula E will display electric cars tearing through the course at over 150 mph.

Smart, electric vehicles attracting big names

Ranging from the music industry to the airline business, Branson has been successful in most of his undertakings, and now the billionaire aspires to make his mark in the EV business. Setting up a car business, which Tesla initiated almost a decade ago, is going to be a huge endeavor, but considering Branson’s entrepreneurial streak, which is similar to that of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, one should not count out the Virgin CEO.

Besides, automobiles, Branson competes with Tesla CEO in space travel with his Virgin Galactic. The program recently sustained a huge impediment when one of the spaceships crashed, killing a member of the crew and leaving others injured.

The business of manufacturing smart electric vehicles is gaining momentum these days. Apart from Tesla and now supposedly Virgin, Google is also carrying out its work aimed at designing autonomous cars. Moreover, Uber seems to have similar plans, and Apple too is reportedly developing EV cars. Thus, considering the growing market and Branson’s entrepreneurial run, the possibility of a Virgin electric car seems quite practical.

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