Bloomberg Opinion Columnist: BP plc Should Buy Tesla Motors Inc.

BP plc

should acquire Tesla Motors Inc.

in the view of an opinion columnist working for Bloomberg L.P. http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-21/oil-giant-bp-should-buy-tesla-from-elon-musk In the April 21 column, Mark Gilbert suggested that Buying Tesla would "put BP at the vanguard of efforts to wean the auto industry off the internal combustion engine, and fit the company's advertising claims to be moving "Beyond Petroleum." BP has a market capitalization of about $131 billion, versus Tesla's market cap of about $28 billion. GIlbert's notion was apparently suggested by claims in a forthcoming book disclosed last week that Tesla's Chief Executive Elon Musk sought to sell a nearly bankrupt Tesla to Google Inc.

in 2013. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-20/elon-musk-had-a-deal-to-sell-tesla-to-google-in-2013 The book, "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future," is expected to be published next month by an imprint of News Corp.'s

HarperCollins. Gilbert, Bloomberg's former London bureau chief and a member of the company's Bloomberg View editorial board, likened the petroleum industry to those of the buggy whip and music recordings on vinyl disks. U.S. consumption of petroleum products peaked more than a decade ago, according to Gilbert. "BP must know that the oil industry's best days are behind it, no matter what happens to the price of crude," Gilbert said.