Jay Leno said he thinks the genius of Tesla CEO Elon Musk is that “he was building the infrastructure while he was building the vehicle.”
“Even today, many major manufacturers build an electric car, but, oh, where do you charge it?” Leno told “The News with Shepard Smith” during an interview on Friday night. “Elon was smart. When he started, he knew this idea would work, so he built charging stations.”
Electric carmaker Tesla will be the newest member of the S&P 500 on Monday based on its fully float-adjusted market cap.
2020 was a monster year for Tesla, the sixth largest company in the world – inventory is up about 700% this year. The host of CNBC’s “Jay Leno’s Garage” said he was confident that Tesla could maintain its dominance in electric vehicles and added that he has seen electric cars from Europe fall short.
“They don’t have the Tesla range,” Leno said. “They don’t, because Tesla is leading the field. We apparently have an inferiority complex that things in Europe are somehow better than things built here.”
Leno gave host Shepard Smith examples of superior American innovation, including General Motors’ Corvette, which he said rivals the Lamborghini and Ferrari and costs just $ 60,000.
He emphasized America’s dominance in private industry and pointed out Musk’s success when it came to the aerospace industry.
“The fact that Elon can send a rocket into space and land it back on Earth for, what, one-tenth the price of the US government?” Leno said. “Well, that’s what the private industry should be doing – cheaper, faster, more efficient.”
Leno suggested that those who want to feel the “rumble of a car under them” “buy another car.” He acknowledged that he likes Ferraris, Ford Cobra and Lamborghinis on weekends, but they just aren’t practical for sitting in traffic and driving locally.
“When you’re in a quiet, electric car, you’re not polluting and you’re saving,” Leno said. “When I want to have fun, I pull out my 1960 Triumph TR3 and shoot around, but in terms of everyday vehicles, you can’t beat it [the Tesla]. “