Richard Branson Setting Sights On Tesla With Possible Virgin EV

Cameron Aubernon
by Cameron Aubernon

Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson has tackled everything from space and music, to airlines and MVNOs. Now, he has his sights on Tesla.

Bloomberg reports Branson explained his motive for his Virgin Racing subsidiary’s involvement in Formula E when the he and and the team were in Miami last weekend:

We have teams of people working on electric cars. So you never know — you may find Virgin competing with the Tesla in the car business as we do in the space business. We will see what happens.

Virgin Engineering is among the few companies working on electric vehicles, which include Nissan, Audi and Apple. However, Branson concedes that Tesla is the one leading the way, proclaiming the company’s cars “as sexy as any other car on the road today.”

Cameron Aubernon
Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

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  • Danio3834 Danio3834 on Mar 20, 2015

    Gotta love a good billionaire p1ssing contest.

  • Corey Lewis Corey Lewis on Mar 20, 2015

    Man that F1 racer has such a 90s color scheme going on.

  • Willyam Willyam on Mar 20, 2015

    Ok, to be completely politically incorrect, what will these cars be named? Come on, you know we have to go there at least a little bit.

  • Wmba Wmba on Mar 20, 2015

    "Virgin Engineering is among the few companies working on electric vehicles, which include Nissan, Audi and Apple." And the VW e-Golf is a vision? What about Mitsubishi, BYD? And all the companies selling hybrids/plug-ins are answering pretty much the same questions - like Ford, BMW,Toyota and on and on. If this is PR fluff from Virgin, then they seem a bit ignorant of the huge challenge they face. Just another "bit of a lark!" for Branson who always seems to start at the amateur end and surprisingly ends up doing quite well later on when he finally "gets" it. He's probably about to lose a lot of money, though. Herring in shark-infested waters.

    • Lou_BC Lou_BC on Mar 23, 2015

      You are implying that he starts out as a naïve virgin and then gets .........

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