Power Play
Elon Musk is among the most controversial titans of Silicon Valley. To some, he is a genius and a visionary; to others, he's a mercurial huckster. 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. Power Play is the riveting inside story of Elon Musk and Tesla's bid to build the world's greatest car. A story of power, recklessness, struggle, and triumph, this book takes an exhilarating look at how a team of eccentrics and innovators beat the odds—and changed the future.
Praise for Power Play
“[A] sweeping history of the electric-car juggernaut. I’ve covered Tesla as a reporter since 2016. When Higgins writes about facts and situations I’m familiar with, I can attest he’s right on the button, every time.”
“Higgins, who covers technology and autos for the Wall Street Journal, has done an outstanding job. He's performed a deep dive into the nuts and volts of Tesla. His book is extensively researched, including interviews with (unfortunately but understandably) anonymous current and former execs.”
— Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Richly detailed. Higgins manages to deliver an evenhanded account that brings us up to date from Ashlee Vance’s 2015 biography of Musk—the prior definitive Tesla account—and has a more urgent feel, given everything that has happened the past few years.”
— The Information
“Higgins has written entertainingly about the financial Bet of the Century. [He] is exemplary in describing many of these extraordinary machinations. He has interviewed hundreds of people associated with Tesla, both past and present. He knows the financial story like the back of his hand.”
—The Times
"A masterclass in narrative journalism, telling the extraordinary story of Tesla's rise to become one of the most fascinating companies of the 21st century, with inside-the-room detail and color that give it a cinematic feel."
— Bradley Hope, New York Times bestselling co-author of Billion Dollar Whale
"Tim Higgins’s electric narrative takes us through Tesla’s every hairpin turn. This case study on the thin line between madness and genius is set against a monumental backdrop: the rivalry between Silicon Valley and Detroit to develop and popularize the electric car. Having covered the industry from both locales, Higgins is uniquely equipped to lucidly and colorfully explain why the former triumphed—and how it is that an impossible person can ultimately will an improbable success."
— John Helyar, #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of Barbarians at the Gate
"No matter how you slice it, the story of Elon Musk and Tesla is a riveting one. In Power Play, Tim Higgins also makes the tale of Musk and Tesla compulsively readable, to say nothing of lively, fun and insightful!”
— William D. Cohan, New York Times bestselling author of House of Cards
“Tim Higgins's portrait of Tesla in Power Play is simultaneously inspirational and troubling, revealing Elon Musk's risky scrambles to invent the future he's constantly promising to deliver. Through the tales of Tesla's frequent near-death experiences and executive firings, readers benefit from Higgins's depth of reporting in both Silicon Valley and Detroit.”
— Sarah Frier, award-winning author of No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram
“In-depth and well-balanced. A sometimes appalling, occasionally inspiring, and always entertaining saga.”
— Publishers Weekly
"A well-documented and comprehensive look at Tesla, Elon Musk, and the people involved with its creation and successes."
— Library Journal