, Columnist
The Tesla-SolarCity Vision Collision
The automaker risks diluting its most valuable resource.
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"We're trying to have the non-weird future get here as quickly as possible."
That was Elon Musk on a Wednesday morning call rooted in a decidedly weird present. His explanations of why it makes sense for Tesla Motors to buy SolarCity were heavy on long-term vision, light on the actual near-term benefits for shareholders of two companies that collectively burned through almost $5 billion of cash last year. Besides holding out the prospect of transforming Tesla into a $1 trillion company, there was talk of "the tide of history" and "alien dreadnoughts," and a lengthy discourse on the subject of volumetric efficiency in manufacturing.