Dinner with Elon Musk begins with a drive in a Tesla. I am seated in the back, next to X, the billionaire’s two-and-a-half-year-old son. It’s around 7pm in Austin, and X is, as one would expect, cranky. We had set off to Fonda San Miguel, Musk’s favourite Mexican restaurant, after a visit with an FT colleague to the Tesla Gigafactory on the banks of the Colorado river. In this massive site Musk is producing the Y electric SUVs, the latest model in the Tesla collection that has catapulted him to the top of the world’s rich list (net worth: $232bn). Musk, with X perched on his shoulders, had proudly shown off the factory floor as he periodically raged against sluggish investment in lithium refining, which is desperately needed to ease battery shortages around the world.
與埃隆·馬斯克(Elon Musk)的晚餐從駕駛特斯拉開始。我坐在后排,挨著這位億萬富翁兩歲半的兒子X?,F在是奧斯汀的晚上7點左右,X和我預料的一樣,有點鬧困。在與英國《金融時報》的一位同事參觀了位于科羅拉多河畔的特斯拉超級工廠(Tesla Gigafactory)后,我們動身前往馬斯克最喜歡的墨西哥餐廳Fonda San Miguel。在這個巨大的工廠里,馬斯克生產Y型電動SUV,這是特斯拉系列中的最新車型,使他躍居世界富豪榜榜首(凈資產:2320億美元)。馬斯克把X放在肩膀上,自豪地展示了工廠車間,他時不時地對鋰精煉投資低迷表示憤怒,鋰精煉是緩解全球電池短缺的迫切需要。