An Automotive Rebirth

Tweet

This is very cool: 

With one wave of his hand, Elon Musk, the CEO of electric-car startup Tesla, breathed new life into the former Nummi auto manufacturing plant in Fremont, shuttered since General Motors and Toyota walked away from the factory in the last year.

I know, I know, some remain skeptical of Tesla. But given all that's happened over the past few years: The bankruptcy of GM, the Toyota recalls, the widespread layoffs in the auto-industry, it's pretty amazing to see an American car company opening a factory. Not only that, but we're talking about an American car company determined to do something about global warming.

And it's run by one of the most fascinating entrepreneurs working today. (Do you smell a plug for my Elon Musk profile this month?)

Senior contributing writer Max Chafkin has profiled companies such as Yelp, Zappos, Twitter, Threadless, and Tesla for the magazine. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. @chafkin