About exactly this time last year, in an interview, Bill Gates called Tesla “an amazing product” but said that otherwise in the market “there’ll be a lot of really great electric cars to choose from.”
In a follow-up interview with the same YouTube host, Marques Brownlee, filmed in January and posted Saturday, the Microsoft co-founder, philanthropist, and humanitarian again gave Tesla props. But he also revealed he recently purchased a Porsche Taycan.
“It is very, very cool,” he said. “That’s my first electric car and I’m enjoying it a lot.”
2020 Porsche Taycan Turbo S
Gates again pointed to Tesla and its role in the rapid adoption of EVs, summing that “if you had to name one company that’s helped drive that, it’s them.”
Holding true to his pragmatic roots, Gates noted the ongoing range and charging obstacles—and the simple fact that electric-vehicle batteries hold far less energy than what’s in a tank of gas.
“The amount of energy that’s going in per minute of filling your tank is kind of mind-blowing,” he said. Gasoline’s energy content of 33.7 kilowatt-hours per gallon is indeed hard to beat—although we could certainly do without the emissions from burning it, extracting it, and transporting it.
“The biggest concern is, will the consumers overcome their range anxiety,” he said.
Despite this concern, Gates pointed toward what can be accomplished by electric cars: “Of all the climate areas I would say that one’s the most hopeful.”
Although Elon Musk might have taken it personally with his vehicle choice and pragmatic comments, many have forgotten to note that Gates has been a longtime Porsche collector and enthusiast.
My conversations with Gates have been underwhelming tbh
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 18, 2020
The interview, which you should watch below, treads not into Tesla vs. Porsche debate, but into some of the many causes Gates has championed.
Given the Microsoft vs. Apple period that was formative for tech today, we can’t help but wonder, with Gates giving props to Tesla but not opting for one, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in a love-hate spiral with Tesla, what exactly Steve Jobs would be driving today.