While the EPA in the US is promising to toughen up emissions tests in the aftermath of the Volkswagen cheating scandal, Tesla founder Elon Musk has a slightly different take: Petrol is dead and it’s time to go electric, people.
While speaking to a room full of reporters yesterday, Musk was asked whether dieselgate would cause people to lose faith in green technologies.
“Well, I think it’s more the opposite,” Musk replied. “What Volkswagen is really showing is that we’ve reached the limit of what’s possible with diesel and gasoline. The time has come to move to a new generation of technology.”
Of course, that new technology Musk is referring to here is electric cars. But despite his obvious bias on the matter, the man may be onto something. Nearly every major carmaker is now clamouring to get in on the burgeoning EV market. Apple recently announced its intentions to field an electric car in 2019.
Even the disgraced VW might be able to save itself with a definitive pivot toward gas-free automobiles.
Or, you know, Musk has a car or two lying around. Skip to 1:12 in the video to hear his remarks.
Top image via Ringo H.W. Chiu / AP