Elon Musk’s Dad Says He Turned Down a Free Tesla

Calling Freud

Tech billionaire Elon Musk clearly has daddy issues. As laid out in the new biography by Walter Isaacson, the younger Musk detests his dad Errol — but, in key ways, seems to be becoming more and more like him.

Now the plot thickens. In the midst of it all, according to Insider, Elon tried to give Errol a free Tesla back in 2020. But Old Man Musk turned him down in favor of his trusty, gas-powered Rolls-Royce. Ouch.

Sure, it feels personal. But maybe it was just old-fashioned frugality, since Errol told Insider it was going to cost over $180,000 total to acquire the car and ship it to South Africa.

Even though Elon had offered to pay for everything, Insider reported that Errol turned him down due to the eye-watering total and the fact that South Africa has poor charging infrastructure. Teslas are not currently sold in South Africa, which is estimated to have just 1,500 electric vehicles and about 300 charging stations total as of earlier this year.

"There's no service facility here. There's no Tesla representation yet," Errol told Insider. "No charging stations. I said, 'Please, we don't want to do this.'"

No word on how Elon reacted.

Car Wars

While Errol isn't behind the wheel of a Tesla in South Africa, he has driven the car in America and says he would own one if he lived in the country, according to Insider.

Instead of his son's brand name car, Insider reported that Errol makes do with a sports car and a Rolls-Royce, which presumably has enough room for his step-daughter-slash-baby mama and their two children, which adds to the septuagenarian's seven total offspring. For the record, Elon has 11 known kids, beating his old man by four. Take that, Dad!

In the new biography, Insider reported, Elon Musk's mother Maye Musk expressed concern that Musk "might become his father."

Between the snazzy cars, the ever growing brood, the mercurial personality and a growing penchant for deranged conspiracy theories, it's starting to look like the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

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