Tesla, Inc.

 (formerly Tesla Motors, Inc.) is an American electric vehicle and clean

energy company based in Palo Alto, California. Tesla's current products include electric cars,
battery energy storage from home to grid scale, solar panels and solar roof tiles, as well as other
related products and services.
Founded in July 2003 as Tesla Motors, the company's name is a tribute to inventor and electrical
engineer Nikola Tesla. Elon Musk, who contributed most of the funding in the early days, has
served as CEO since 2008. According to Musk, the purpose of Tesla is to help expedite the move
to sustainable transport and energy, obtained through electric vehicles and solar power.[10][11]
Tesla ranked as the world's best-selling plug-in and battery electric passenger car manufacturer
in 2019, with a market share of 17% of the plug-in segment and 23% of the battery electric
segment. Tesla global vehicle sales were 499,550 units in 2020, a 35.8% increase over the
previous year.[12] In 2020, the company surpassed the 1 million mark of electric cars produced.
[13]
 The Model 3 ranks as the world's all-time best-selling plug-in electric car, with more than
500,000 delivered.[14] Through its subsidiary SolarCity, Tesla develops and is a major installer
of solar photovoltaic systems in the United States. Tesla is also one of the largest global suppliers
of battery energy storage systems, from home-scale to grid-scale. Tesla installed some of the
largest battery storage plants in the world and supplied 1.65 GWh of battery storage in 2019.
Tesla has been the subject of numerous lawsuits and controversies, arising from the statements
and the conduct of CEO Elon Musk, allegations of whistleblower retaliation, alleged worker rights
violations, and allegedly unresolved and dangerous technical problems with their products.

2003–2004: Founding
Founded as Tesla Motors, Tesla was incorporated on July 1, 2003, by Martin Eberhard and Marc
Tarpenning.[15] The two founders were influenced to start the company after GM recalled all
its EV1 electric cars in 2003 and then destroyed them,[16] and seeing the higher efficiency of
battery-electric cars as an opportunity to break the usual correlation between high performance
and low mileage.[17] The AC Propulsion tzero also inspired the company's first vehicle,
the Roadster.[18][19] Eberhard said he wanted to build "a car manufacturer that is also a technology
company", with its core technologies as "the battery, the computer software, and the proprietary
motor".[20]
Ian Wright was Tesla's third employee, joining a few months later.[15] The three raised US$7.5
million in Series A funding in February 2004,[15] with Elon Musk contributing $6.5 million.[21][22] Musk
became chairman of the board of directors,[15] and appointed Eberhard as CEO.[23] J. B.
Straubel joined Tesla in May 2004.[15] A lawsuit settlement agreed to by Eberhard and Tesla in
September 2009 allows all five (Eberhard, Tarpenning, Wright, Musk and Straubel) to call
themselves co-founders.[24]

2005–2009: Roadster
Main article: Tesla Roadster (first generation)
Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design at a detailed
level, but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations. From the beginning, Musk
consistently maintained that Tesla's long-term strategic goal was to create affordable mass
market electric vehicles.[25] Tesla's goal was to start with a premium sports car aimed at early
adopters and then moving into more mainstream vehicles, including sedans and affordable
compacts.[10]
In February 2006, Musk led Tesla's Series B $13 million investment round which added Valor
Equity Partners to the funding team.[26][22] Musk co-led the third, $40 million round in May 2006
along with Technology Partners.[22] This round included investment from prominent entrepreneurs
including Google co-founders Sergey Brin & Larry Page, former eBay President Jeff
Skoll, Hyatt heir Nick Pritzker and added the VC firms Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Capricorn
Management, and The Bay Area Equity Fund managed by JPMorgan Chase.[27][22] Musk led the
fourth round in May 2008 which added another $40,167,530 in debt financing, and brought the
total investments to over $100 million through private financing.[22]
2010–2015: IPO, Model S and Model X
In January 2010 Tesla received a $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, which it
repaid in 2013.[30]
In May 2010, Tesla purchased what would become the Tesla Factory in Fremont, California, for
$42 million,[31] and opened the facility in October 2010 where Model S would be produced.[32]
On June 29, 2010, Tesla Motors launched its initial public offering (IPO) on NASDAQ, the first
American car company to do so since the Ford Motor Company had its IPO in 1956.[33]
On January 10, 2020, Tesla become the most valuable American automaker ever, with a market
capitalization of $86 billion.[47] On June 10, 2020, Tesla's market capitalization surpassed those of
BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen combined.[48] The next month, Tesla reached a market
capitalization of $206 billion, surpassing Toyota's $202 billion to become the world's most
valuable automaker by market capitalization.[49] On August 31, 2020, Tesla had a 5-for-1 stock
split following the increase in value.[50]
From July 2019 to June 2020, Tesla reported four profitable quarters in a row for the first time,
which made it eligible for inclusion in the S&P 500.[51] Tesla was added to the index on December
21 of the same year.[52] Tesla was the largest company ever added, and the sixth-largest company
in the index at the time of inclusion.[52] As investors tried to buy more shares as a result of this
inclusion, some analysts, such as J.P. Morgan's Ryan Brinkman, suggested investors exercise
caution as Tesla was "dramatically" overvalued.[53] In 2020, the share price of Tesla increased
740%,[54] and as of December 2020, its market capitalization was more than the next nine largest
automakers combined.[55]
It was announced in January 2021 that the company had hit its goal of building a half-million cars
in 2020.[56]

Board of directors
In an April 2017 public letter, an investor group asked Tesla to add two new independent
directors to its board "who do not have any ties with chief executive Elon Musk".[57] The investors
wrote that "five of six current non-executive directors have professional or personal ties to Mr.
Musk that could put at risk their ability to exercise independent judgement."[58] Tesla's directors at
the time included Brad Buss, who served as chief financial officer at SolarCity; Steve Jurvetson, a
venture capitalist who also sits on the board of SpaceX; Elon Musk's brother, Kimbal; and Ira
Ehrenpreis and Antonio Gracias, both of whom also invested in SpaceX.[59] The letter called for a
more independent board that could put a check on groupthink.[58] At first Musk responded on
Twitter, writing that the investors "should buy Ford stock" because "their governance is
amazing."[58] Two days later, he promised he would add two independent board members.[60]
Tesla's product release strategy is to emulate typical technological-product life cycles and initially
target affluent buyers, and then move into larger markets at lower price points.[10][72] The battery
and electric drivetrain technology for each model are developed and partially paid for through the
sales of earlier models.[10][73] The Roadster was low-volume and priced at $109,000. Model S and
Model X target the broader luxury market. Model 3 and the Model Y are aimed at a higher-volume
segment.[25][74] This strategy is common in the technology industry.[75]
With the Model S, Tesla's technology strategy was to start with a "clean-sheet" design,[76] and
build an integrated computer hardware and software architecture at the center of its vehicles.
[77]
 Doing so enables Tesla to provide online ("over-the-air") software updates to its cars,[78][79] which
allows Tesla to improve the functionality and performance of its already-sold cars for free.[77] Tesla
also continuously improve the hardware of its cars rather than waiting for a new model year, as
opposed to nearly every other car manufacturer.[77]