Jorgenson: Tesla won Daimler by electrifying a Smart car in 30 hours
Eric Jorgenson · How Elon Musk Solves Problems | Eric Jorgenson · Jun 17, 2026 · at 53:48
Author Eric Jorgenson discusses Elon Musk's habit of prioritizing live, physical prototypes over slide presentations to win business partners.
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“He got the Daimler deal in part because at Tesla, the Tesla the executives from Daimler were coming to visit Tesla. And he's like, we have a slideshow. We have a presentation like that is insufficient evidence. So In, like, 30 hours, you grabbed engineers, and they had a, I think it was like a smart car, and they loaded an electric drive turned into a smart car, which absolutely ripped shit, because it was like, you know, this tiny little light car, and so it was zero to 60, and these guys are, like, experiencing acceleration that they've never felt before, and that was, that demo was in part what drove them.”
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