Elon Musk Has No Fear!

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar acquisition of his cousins’ sustainable-energy company, solarcity, is totally logical—and hugely risky. Will Musk pull off another miracle?

- Austin Carr

Elon Musk stands in the middle of a residential street. It's shortly before sunset at a joint tesla- solarcity product launch, held last October at Universal Studios 'back lot in Los Angeles, and Musk, wearing a gray sweater and black jeans, is preched on a platform erected in the center of the manicured suburba that served as the set for desperate housewives. Musk begins his presentation with doom and gloom- rising co2 levels, the crisis of global warming- bust the audience of 200 or so is beaming.

They’re excited to see what fantastical invention he will unveil as a solution. As he stresses the need to transition the world to sustainable energy, an overzealous attendee yells out, “Save us, Elon!”

Musk’s big reveal: “The houses you see around you are all solar houses. Did you notice?” he says, gesturing toward the homes with a grin. They appear to have regular shingled rooftops, but Musk says they’ve actually been retrofitted with a new product called the Solar Roof, a potentially transformative system that’s nearly indistinguishable from a traditional rooftop—and one, he promises, that lasts longer and costs less, all while generating electricity. “Why would you buy anything else?” he says. The crowd cheers.