Zappos CEO Has Not Purchased Any Teslas, But His Downtown Project Is Considering Buying 100 Of The Electric Cars*
Getty Images/Ethan Miller
Update (3-11-13): We reported this story after speaking with a VegasTechFund entrepreneur who seemed certain this had happened. But Hsieh tells us this is not the case. He says he has "never purchased a Tesla" and he is "not creating a car rental service."
After reviewing some recent Zappos press, it seems something is going on with Hsieh's company and the 100 Teslas though. He recently told The Atlantic, "We're adding bike sharing and car sharing. We're actually in the process of actually buying 100 Teslas and our goal is to actually get people to get rid of their cars in the car sharing program." We've contacted Hsieh for further clarification. We apologize for the errors that were printed initially.
Original Story:
Amazon bought Zappos for $1.2 billion, and Hsieh has spent a large chunk of his fortune building a tech scene from scratch in Nevada. He's created VegasTechFund to invest in startups provided they meet one condition: they must be based in Las Vegas.
A Vegas entrepreneur told us about Hsieh's flashy new purchase. Hsieh isn't giving his Vegas founders the cars. Instead, this person says he's creating a Car2Go or ZipCar-like rental service. The community will be able to rent and share the 100 Teslas instead of buying their own cars, so they don't have to worry about their own modes of transportation.
This person says Hsieh has also been eyeing Google's self-driving cars, but Elon Musk's Teslas will have to do in the meantime.
It's just one of the many perks Hsieh's team is offering entrepreneurs they lure to Vegas to build a great startup culture.
Below is a picture of Elon Musk with one of his electric cars.
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