Tesla co-founder's entrepreneurial journey after leaving the company

More than 20 years ago, a high-performance racing car manufacturing expert came to the United States from New Zealand and joined an optimization switch system company called Altamar Networks, where he worked in the United States for ten years in obscurity.

In 2003, a neighbor of his named Martin Eberhard founded a company and invited him to join. He immediately accepted the invitation and became one of the founders of the company. Later, with the participation of an investor, the company grew into a world-renowned technology company in the following decade.

| Leaving Tesla

The expert mentioned above is called Ian Wright, the company is the world-renowned electric car brand Tesla, and the investor is the famous Iron Man Elon Musk. Now, in the eyes of most people in the industry, the latter two have always appeared in the public eye together, and Tesla's success has also been to some extent due to Elon Musk's personal charm. Compared with the latter two, Ian Wright, who entered Tesla earlier than Musk, has not received as much attention.

During his time at Tesla, Ian Wright was mainly responsible for system startup optimization, which established the technical and financial foundation for the early Tesla Motors. Later, Tesla Motors encountered financial difficulties and had to change its product strategy to make its products more user-friendly. Ian Wright then left Tesla. Since he did not receive much attention, there are few online reports about the reasons for his leaving Tesla. Leifeng.com found an ambiguous answer in an interview with Ian Wright in a foreign media. Ian Wright told the media:

There are many reasons why I left Tesla. Of course, the most fundamental reason I know is that I have different visions for the future from Tesla. I wanted to make high-performance electric cars, but later Tesla thought that the R&D cost of such electric cars was too high to be economically affordable. Later, Tesla turned to making mass-market sedans, which was not in line with my philosophy, so I chose to leave.

It can be seen that Tesla's mass-market strategy was the main reason for Ian Wright's departure. After leaving Tesla, Ian Wright chose to start his own business and founded a car company named Wrightspeed.

| Restarting a business

Unlike Tesla, Wrightspeed did not build its own factory to produce electric vehicles. Instead, it provided a set of pure electric vehicle power solutions. Its initial business project was to carry out heavy transformation of ordinary fuel vehicles and design high-performance electric motors, controllers and various software systems.

At first, Wrightspeed launched a high-performance pure electric vehicle solution - The Circuit. This solution used for the first time one of their company's core technologies, the GTD (Geared Traction Drive) unit. This GTD unit integrates a 250-horsepower electric motor and a multi-speed transmission. The entire system can independently control each tire and provide 250 horsepower, which can provide a total of more than 1,000 horsepower. Ian Wright also used The Circuit platform to personally design a high-performance electric sports car called Wrightspeed X1. According to test data, the car can accelerate from 0 to 100 kilometers in 2.9 seconds and has a maximum speed of 167.37 km/h. If the tires and batteries are improved, the performance will be improved to a higher level.

| Commercial Truck Strategy

Pursuing a high-performance electric sports car has always been Ian Wright's dream, but at the beginning of his business, he thought that this niche and unpopular project would not allow his company to get money in the capital market. Later, Ian Wright changed his strategy and shifted his high-performance electric vehicle strategy from civilian cars to commercial vehicles, which also attracted the attention of the capital market and enabled Wrightspeed to develop smoothly.

Wrightspeed has targeted its commercial vehicle strategy at large trucks for transporting goods. Ian Wright explained that Wrightspeed chose trucks as its entry point because trucks travel longer every day, consume more energy and cost more than cars. If traditional fuel trucks are converted into electric vehicle drivetrain trucks, a lot of costs can be saved and the return rate is faster than electric cars.

Wrightspeed provides a The Route platform, which is specially designed for large trucks to manufacture electric power systems. Electric power systems are more efficient and simpler than mechanical power systems, and can also reduce a lot of fuel consumption. In the gas-electric hybrid method adopted by this platform, diesel, liquefied natural gas, compressed natural gas and even various recycled biogas can be used as fuel. The engine of this platform is unique, using a micro jet turbine engine similar to a jet aircraft engine, which can generate very strong power. The attached battery can also support the truck to run 50 kilometers in pure electric mode, and the energy recovered by its engine in oil-powered state can also charge the battery.

After the platform was launched, FedEx ordered 25 new trucks, 2 of which have been put into use. Just recently, Leifeng.com reported that Ian Wright will modify garbage trucks to bring changes to the garbage transportation industry. At present, the first refurbished Mack LR garbage truck is about to be put into use.

As major automakers have entered the electric vehicle field, Tesla will face more intense competition in the field of civilian electric vehicles. The strategic direction of Wrightspeed founded by Ian Wright in commercial electric vehicles is a good idea. It can not only avoid the competition in the field of civilian electric vehicles, but also quickly establish a mature new business model, give priority to occupying the commercial electric vehicle market, and get profits and returns faster. In addition, electric trucks will also bring some changes in social significance such as environmental protection.

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