The order of 100,000 Tesla Model 3s is potentially the largest ever purchase of electric vehicles. The announcement drove Tesla’s market value beyond $1 trillion on Monday and pumped up Elon Musk’s personal wealth up by $36 billion. The tycoon is now worth an eye-watering $289 billion. Our thoughts and prayers are with Jeff Bezos at this difficult time. These figures, however, barely scratch the surface. To understand the true enormity of the deal, you’d need a team of math whizzes. Unfortunately, I’m all you’ve got — so strap in, number fans.
How deep would Elon have to dig into his pockets to buy 100,000 Teslas?
Elon Musk could buy an everlasting array of crap with his astronomical wealth. The mogul could reportedly have bought everyone in LA a Rolex or given the entire world a one-month subscription to Netflix, and that was back in March — when he was worth a measly $166 billion. The vast majority of Space Karen’s wealth is tied to his 23% stake in Tesla. After the company’s share price surged nearly 13% on Monday, Musk’s estimated net worth eclipsed the market value of Toyota. With the entry-level Tesla Model 3 retailing at a suggested $39,490, Musk could snap up 100,000 of them for around $4 billion — just 1.38% of his net worth.
How big a parking lot would you need for 100,000 Model 3s?
Now Musk owns 100,000 Teslas, he’ll need somewhere to park them, so let’s work that out. The Model 3 measures 4,694 mm in length and 2,088 mm in width. Because we’re feeling generous, we’re gonna give each lucky car a parking space that’s 6 meters long and 3 meters wide. To fit in 100,000 cars, our parking lot will be 100 vehicles across and 1,000 cars deep. That means we’ll need a single-level parking lot of 1,800 km2 — just 300 km² smaller than Monaco — and that’s without building any drive paths. Don’t worry though, Elon can drop each vehicle into its space via some sort of SpaceX rocket. Or Hyperloop. Whatever, he’ll find a way.
Could a stack of 100,000 Teslas reach space?
Let’s try and work out what Musk would do next. When he’s not working on cars, our beloved manchild focuses on brain implants, “revolutionary” subway systems, and his comedy career. Oh, and space colonization. His SpaceX rockets have already sent civilians into Earth orbit. This presents us with an interesting question: could a tower made of Hertz’s Model 3s have carried them further? No. Absolutely not. No way. Not even close. A single Tesla Model 3 is 1.445m tall. If you stack 100,000 of them they’ll reach 144.5km. That’s high enough to reach the thermosphere, but it ain’t gonna get you to space. Still, it’s a bit higher than Elon got when he tried to smoke weed on Joe Rogan’s podcast (WA-HEY).
