Apple's (AAPL +1.18%) remaining co-founder has been wanting a Tesla Motors (TSLA +2.40%) Model S for months. Now he has one.
Steve Wozniak tweeted that he was picking up his new ride on Thursday. Despite having nearly 200,000 followers, it's easy to see how the revelation may have been missed at first. No offense to Wozniak, but he has one of the duller Twitter feeds out there, consisting primarily of Foursquare check-ins. We get it, Woz. You love casual-dining chains.
However, after lamenting this summer that he had to cancel his Model S order -- heeding his wife's desire to go with a Mercedes -- Tesla's Elon Musk took interest in making sure that Wozniak got his electric car. Musk drew attention to the move by re-tweeting the post -- he has more than twice as many followers than Wozniak and posts less frequently yet more substantively -- a day later.
Here to pick up my new car! (at @TeslaMotors w/ 2 others) http://t.co/35BXB3Kjep
— Steve Wozniak (@stevewoz) October 31, 2013
Tesla's selling roughly 2,000 cars a month. Its stock is on fire. It doesn't necessarily need validation from a consumer-tech icon. However, Wozniak's lack of owning a Tesla did turn heads after an appearance -- oddly enough -- at a Ford conference. He explained how he wanted the Model S, but the Mercedes S-Class sedan was the better option for his wife in terms of price, technology, and range anxiety.
"Musk wrote me," he revealed during the conference, as retold by The Verge. "He sent me some emails. He was [upset] that I was getting a gas guzzler."
Now, Wozniak has had Foursquare check-ins at Tesla charging stations in recent weeks. It's not all Outback Steakhouse, Famous Dave's, and Baskin-Robbins in his Foursquare feed. It's quite possible that Musk found a way to get Wozniak behind the wheel of a test vehicle this summer, culminating in Thursday's new Tesla.
It's a happy ending to a potentially happier beginning.
