Jay Leno said he believes Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s gender was “building the infrastructure as he was building the vehicle.”
“Even today, many of the major manufacturers build an electric car, but, oh, where do you spend it?” Leno told “The News with Shepard Smith” in an interview Friday night. “Elon was resilient, when he started, he knew this idea would work and so he built cost stations.”
Electric car maker Tesla will be the newest member of the S&P 500 on Monday at its fully-adjusted market capitalization.
2020 has been a monster year for Tesla, the sixth largest company in the world – its stock is up about 700% this year. CNBC’s “Jay Leno Garage” guest said he was confident Tesla would be able to maintain its dominance in electric vehicles and said it had seen European electric cars fall short.
“They don’t have the range of Tesla,” Leno said. “No, because Tesla is in charge of the field. We seem to have this inferior position that things in Europe are better than what was built here.”
Leno hosted Shepard Smith examples of American innovation, including General Motors ’Corvette, which he said competes with the Lamborghini and Ferrari and is only $ 60,000.
Reflecting American leadership in private industry, he celebrated Musk’s success when it came to the space industry.
“The fact that Elon can send a rocket into space and take it back to Earth for, what, one-tenth the price of the U.S. government?” Leno said. “Well, that’s what private business has to do – cheaper, faster, more efficient.”
Leno suggested that those who want to feel “roomy underneath” should “buy another car.” He acknowledged that he likes Ferraris, Ford Cobra, and Lamborghinis on the weekends. , but are not just practical sit in traffic and drive locally.
“If you’re in a quiet, electric vehicle, you’re not polluting and you’re saving,” Leno said. “When I want to have fun, I take out my 1960 Triumph TR3 and bomb around, but for everyday vehicles, you can’t beat it [the Tesla]. “