Tesla

History of Tesla

Marc Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard were inspired by the EV1( the production of this car stopped immediately because no one bought it), so they sold their e-book business for 187 million and started Tesla Motors. Elon Musk joined as an early investor and 2 others, JB Straubel and Ian Wright joined as well. Their plan was simple, but genius. They were going use Li-ion(Lithium Ion) batteries, which are very powerful, to fuel the car. They weren't cheap, but Musk and the others were sure they would eventually become cheaper. Their next step was to create a high performance, high margin sports car. They would use their revenue to create a more affordable car and then use their profit to create other EVs(Electric Vehicles) like semi-trucks. They were also planning to create self driving cars down the road. With their plan ready, Tesla Motors was prepared to make their first car, the Roadster. They sped up the production by putting the battery they developed into the existing chassis of the Lotus Elise. But they customized so many parts that the price for creating this car went out of control. In the end, the Roadster only had 7% of parts that were the same as the Lotus Elise. Because they spent so much money creating the Roadster and not many people were buying it, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. CEOs were coming and going until Elon Musk took the job. He made huge changes to save the company. He cut 25% of the work force, recalled 75% of Roadsters, raised 40 million dollars of debt finance, formed a strategic partnership with Daimler(better known as Mercedes-Benz), and borrowed 465 million dollars from the government. A total of 2450 Roadster were made. Tesla then made an IPO(Initial Public Offering) on the NASDAQ, which raised 226 million dollars. They were the first car company to go public since Ford, which made their IPO in 1956. Tesla the aimed for a wider market by focusing on 2 new cars, the Model S and Model X. They were poised for success but... the 2 new cars were still limited by the high cost of Li-ion batteries. So Musk revealed plans for a Gigafactory, the place where Tesla would mass produce Li-ion batteries and make EVs cheaper the gas. As the Gigafactory was being built, Tesla created 3 other products. The power wall, a Li-ion battery for the house, self driving cars and the Model S, the car for the masses. By the end of 2017, Tesla had passed Ford in market value and in 2020, Tesla had become the most valuable auto maker ever.