Tesla vs. Chrysler

At Seeking Alpha this morning, hyperprolific venture capitalist/blogger Paul Kedrosky has this to say about the Chrysler deal:

I'm sure I won't be the only [one] to be intrigued by the juxtaposition of Daimler (DCX) paying Cerberus almost a billion dollars to take Chrysler off its hands yesterday and last Friday's announcement that Tesla Motors had raised another $45 million. The comparison could hardly be more stark.

I'd missed that Friday announcement, but yeah, I'm intrigued. Tesla Motors is a Silicon-Valley-based maker of snazzy electric cars. It's run by a software engineer, natch. I'm not quite willing to follow Kedrosky to the optimistic conclusion that a new auto industry "is already emerging, in fits and starts, from the ashes of the old one." (And even if it is, it's not going to employ anywhere near as many people.) But still: pretty cool, no?