伊隆‧馬斯克是矽谷最具爭議的大人物之一。有些人覺得他是有遠見的天才。但對某些人來說，他是個善變的商人。光是從他在推特上的言論，就引發公司數十億美元震盪。儘管他誇誇其談著各種科技狂想令人瞠目結舌，但他最大膽，也最接地氣的願景卻是一電動汽車「特斯拉」。

           

「特斯拉」於 2000 年代成立時，電動車仍是新的嘗試。一個多世紀以來，許多汽車製造商投入研發，卻都以失敗告終。

但排除短視近利的人只看見失敗，一部分矽谷工程師和企業家卻看到了  潛力。

他認為，汽車2.0 蓄勢待發。因此，他與世界上最大、最兇狠的競爭對手較量，著手製造比對手更快、外型更性感流線、能源更乾淨的汽車。

俗話說，要在這行發小財，得先砸重本。但在競爭對手的圍伺，投資者的壓力，告密者拖累，甚至是忠實者的支持，都讓特斯拉經歷真正地獄般的15年。

馬斯克本人經常成為公司最大的威脅—他的脫序行為不止一次將自己的公司推向崩潰邊緣。他究竟是失敗者，反派英雄、騙子，抑或三者皆是？

《華爾街日報》科技記者提姆．希金斯目睹這場戲劇性的崛起，爭奪的故事以及最不可能的結果—成功。一個關於權力、魯莽、鬥爭和勝利的版本。

本書帶著我們見證如變種人般的創新者，如何克服困難並改變未來。

“A deeply reported and business-savvy chronicle of Tesla’s wild ride.”
— Walter Isaacson, New York Times Book Review
 
The outrageous inside story of Elon Musk and Tesla’s bid to build the world’s greatest car—from award-winning Wall Street Journal tech and auto reporter Tim Higgins

Elon Musk is among the most controversial titans of Silicon Valley. To some he’s a genius and a visionary; to others he’s a mercurial huckster. Billions of dollars have been gained and lost on his tweets; his personal exploits are the stuff of tabloids. But for all his outrageous talk of mind-uploading and space travel, his most audacious vision is the one closest to the ground: the electric car.

When Tesla was founded in the 2000s, electric cars were novelties, trotted out and thrown on the scrap heap by carmakers for more than a century. But where most onlookers saw only failure, a small band of Silicon Valley engineers and entrepreneurs saw potential. The gas-guzzling car was in need of disruption; the world was ready for Car 2.0. So they pitted themselves against the biggest, fiercest business rivals in the world, setting out to make a car that was quicker, sexier, smoother, cleaner than the competition.

But as the saying goes, to make a small fortune in cars, start with a big fortune. Tesla would undergo a truly hellish fifteen years, beset by rivals, pressured by investors, hobbled by whistleblowers, buoyed by its loyal supporters. Musk himself would often prove Tesla’s worst enemy–his antics more than once took the company he had initially funded largely with his own money to the brink of collapse. Was he an underdog, an antihero, a conman, or some combination of the three?

Wall Street Journal tech and auto reporter Tim Higgins had a front-row seat for the drama: the pileups, wrestling for control, meltdowns, and the unlikeliest outcome of all, success. A story of power, recklessness, struggle, and triumph, Power Play is an exhilarating look at how a team of eccentrics and innovators beat the odds–and changed the future.