Remember that Martin Eberhard guy who co-founded Tesla and then left after butting heads with Elon Musk? Well, now he's back in the car game, and this time he's signed on with a serious player, at least when it comes to regular cars that is.
Green Car Advisor has confirmed that Eberhard was hired on full-time at Volkswagen's R&D center in Palo Alto, CA. That's the same Palo Alto that will soon house the headquarters of Tesla Motors. Small world eh?
What is Eberhard doing exactly? Volkswagen officials weren't about to go into that level of detail, probably because they don't know either. Stands to reason that he might be helping the company develop the electric cars it keeps showing off at auto shows. Wouldn't Martin just love to help develop a production version of the electric Up! city car and get it on the road before Tesla's planned "affordable" car?
Green Car Advisor: Tesla Co-Founder Martin Eberhard Now Working at Volkswagen R&D
estreka says:
01:42 PM, 01/19/10
I think it's a good move. VW could learn a lot from Eberhard. A diesel-electric VW sounds promising.
cwc1 says:
09:23 PM, 01/19/10
Or Eberhard could learn a lot from VW. Tesla, after all, was the start up company that didn't think they needed to be "burdened" with executives who'd actually worked for a car company and/or knew something about building cars profitably.