Philipp Schröder built the Tesla business in Germany for Elon Musk. However, the fame it brought him seems to annoy the current founder.
He is perhaps the most famous Tesla manager in Germany beyond Elon Musk: Philipp Schröder. Although the ex-Germany boss hasn’t worked for Tesla since 2015, Schröder regularly associated in the media with his time at the electric car pioneer. Schröder also described the start-up scene over the past year. Report on your new climate startup as “Elon Musk’s confidante.”
However, Schröder is trying to free himself from it, as he does now in conversation with online time Explained. “I’ve always been asked a lot about my time with Elon Musk. But at some point you no longer want Tesla in your personal life,” Schroder says. Instead of a Tesla vehicle, the 38-year-old now relies on an electric make by BMW. When asked about the start-up scene, he left unanswered what model it actually is.
Elon Musk hired Schröder from Allgau solar storage manufacturer Sonnen in 2013 and commissioned him to build the German business. During that time he worked 90 hours a week, Schröder told Zeit Online. Within just two years, he hired 150 people, established 50 Superchargers and six Tesla branches.
Tesla Became “Too Corporate” for Him
However, at some point, the electric car startup had become “too corporate” for that, i.e. too big and not too nimble. According to Zeit Online, Schroder no longer reported directly to Elon Musk. This is another reason why Schröder returned to his previous employer Sonnen in November 2015. When the solar startup was sold to oil company Shell in 2018, the Hamburg native finally established himself. Which Schröder successfully sold two years later.
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Then he founded it last year Energy Startup 1Komma5, The company buys electrician companies and modernizes them using software and IT. Electricians, in turn, equip homes with solar systems and electricity storage systems, among other things. 1Komma5 also offers its own electricity charges. Customers must be able to feed their (unused) electricity into the grid using a special energy computer. In the long term, a decentralized power grid can be built beyond large providers like RWE or Eon. Schröder hopes this will help achieve the 1.5° target. In this sense, similarities with Tesla will remain.
