green energy

Founded in 2003, Tesla Inc is currently one of the well-known companies especially when it comes to manufacturing electric vehicles and green energy. The company also designs battery energy storage, solar panels, solar roof tiles, and other related products that help in minimizing the usage of non-renewable resources. When talking about Tesla Inc, we find pictures of Elon Musk crawling in the media with big headlines. But, the original founders of the company are Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. The founders named the company Tesla to pay a tribute to the famous scientist and inventor, Nikola Tesla. Tesla’s main markets are Europe, North America, Oceania, and East and West Asia. Elon Musk is the current CEO of the company and he is serving in this position since 2008.

Early Days

The two founders, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning officially incorporated Tesla on July 1, 2003. They served as the CEO and CFO of the company respectively. When Tesla Inc was founded, Eberhard expressed his interest that he wanted to build a car manufacturer that is a technology company as well. As the number of employees started increasing, Ian Wright joined as the third member of the company. In early 2004, the company’s Series A funding round took place in which it raised $7.5 million and the major contribution of $6.5 million was from Elon Musk. Thus, Musk became the largest shareholder of the company and he was also made the Chairman of the Board of Directors. In May 2004, J. B. Straubel joined the company as its CTO. In 2009, after a lawsuit was settled, Musk, Wright, and Straubel became the co-founders of the company along with the original founders. 

After Musk became one of the c-founders of the company, he participated very actively. The main target of the company was to start with a premium sports car and then eventually shift to mainstream and more affordable vehicles. Tesla’s Series B funding round took place in February 2006 in which it raised $13 million followed by a Series C funding round after a few months in which it raised $40 million. Google’s co-founders and Jeff Skoll, former eBay President also invested in the company. A year later, Tesla raised $45 million in a Series D funding round. In 2008, the original co-founders left the company and Musk succeeded as the new CEO. He started the production of Roadster in the same year. 

Tesla Going Public

To expand the production of various models, Tesla bought what today is known as Tesla Factory from Toyota in 2010. The deal was closed for $42 million. In the same year, the company offered an IPO and became the first American car company after Ford to go public. After a couple of years, Tesla discontinued the production of the Roadster and launched the Model S luxury sedan. This model became Motor Trend Car of the Year in 2013. The company also rolled out Tesla Autopilot, a driver-assistant system in 2014 and eventually started shipping all its cars with the same technology. 

In 2015, Tesla entered the energy storage market and within a year acquired SolarCity for $2.6 billion. As Tesla started expanding its business to the energy sector, the company changed its name from Tesla Motors to Tesla in 2017. In the same year, the company started selling the Model 3 sedan which became the world’s best-selling plug-in electric car in 2018. In 2019, the company opened its first “Gigafactory” outside the US in China and it was built within six months. Next year, the company started delivering its fifth vehicle model, the Model Y crossover. The future products of the company are Roadster (second generation), Tesla Semi, and Cybertruck. 

Elon Musk – Co-founder and CEO

Elon Musk is one of the most prominent businessmen and investors in the world. Apart from being the CEO of Tesla, he is also the founder, CEO, and chief engineer at SpaceX. He also founded The Boring Company and co-founded Neuralink and OpenAI. According to both Forbes and Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he is currently the wealthiest man in the world. His entrepreneurial journey started when he co-founded a web software company called Zip2 along with his brother. He is also the President of the Musk Foundation, an organization that donates to scientific research and education.