I stumbled across this really neat video of a tour of a SpaceX manufacturing facility in California conducted by Elon Musk himself.

Aside from manufacturing state of the art electric vehicles like the Tesla, and cutting edge space launch vehicles like the Dragon Series of rockets, it seems they could oh so easily transition into aircraft. Elon probably has bigger ambitions like Mars at the moment, but a Cessna-like electric plane such a "Tesla 172X" would be really revolutionary. Currently of course it's a battery issue, but as that technology continues to improve, maybe rockets won't be the only Tesla product that flies through the air.

In the video Elon talks about "engineering test" and "qualification quality" vehicles, and finally "flight fidelity" level vehicles and parts. It is a 21 minute video that makes you develop a real appreciation re what this company is doing. As I write this (April 8, 2016) SpaceX just successfully landed their Dragon Rocket First Stage Assembly back on a sea-based platform. Wow.

The Germans seem to currently have really high quality motors, and their aeronautical design expertise is certainly world class. If Elon's company can make a break through on the batteries and then integrate these components into a viable airplane, that would be very cool. I believe they are building a huge battery research and manufacturing facility in Texas. Stay tuned...film at 11.

Cool video. Thanks for posting. Not many Teslas in Interior Alaska currently, but I got to drive one last fall in the Bay Area. Wow. If I lived in civilization I'd own one. On the other hand, there are plenty of off-the-grid systems up here that would be good candidates for the Tesla Power Wall. The thought of bringing this kind of vision to GA is heady stuff.

-DP

In related developments...

A company called Luminati has just introduced an all elecric plane at SunNFun 2016

" Luminati Debuts Solar Single-Seater "

Link: http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Luminati-Debuts-Solar-Single-Seater-226027-1.html

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Luminati Aerospace, a technology company based on Long Island, New York, brought a new solar-electric-powered single-seat airplane to Sun 'n Fun this week. CEO Daniel Preston told AVweb the V-Zero Substrata airplane will fly at the show on Saturday in the Experimental Showcase. It has a four-hour endurance with the motor running, he said, and a 200-nm range. Preston said he plans to next produce six twin-seat versions of the airplane, starting later this summer. Four of those will go to research institutions.

Preston said the company has been working on the airplane for about four months, and it's derived from a much larger UAV version that he's building for a client. "It's a wonderful airplane to fly," he said. "The technology has matured to the point where you can have a viable solar-electric aircraft. It has pretty respectable performance." The airplane has a top speed of about 70 knots and can fly up to 28,000 feet. "It has a 200-nm range. And you can park it in the sun, and four hours later it's ready to go again," Preston said.

Of course , let us not forget the fine efforts of Chip Erwin and his Merlin PSA which is also scheduled for electric propulsion very very soon.
http://aeromarine-lsa.com/merlin-psa/