This is the corporate history of

Tesla, Inc. Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Tesla designs and manufactures electric vehicles (electric cars and trucks), battery energy storage from home to grid- ...

, an

electric vehicle An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. It can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or it can be powered autonomously by a battery (sometimes cha ...

manufacturer and

clean energy Clean may refer to: * Cleaning, the process of removing unwanted substances, such as dirt, infectious agents, and other impurities, from an object or environment * Cleanliness, the state of being clean and free from dirt Arts and media Music Al ...

company founded in

San Carlos, California San Carlos (Spanish for "St. Charles") is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. The population is 30,722 per the 2020 census. History Native Americans Prior to the Spanish arrival in 1769, the land of San Carlos was occupi ...

in 2003 by American entrepreneurs

Martin Eberhard Martin Eberhard (born ) is an American inventor, engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Tesla, Inc. (then Tesla Motors) with Marc Tarpenning in 2003. Eberhard served as Tesla's original chairman, and its CEO until late 2007. In 2015, he was in ...

and

Marc Tarpenning Marc Tarpenning (born June 1, 1964) is an American engineer and technology entrepreneur who is the co-founder of Tesla Inc. with Martin Eberhard in 2003. Tarpenning served as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Vice President of Engineering of ...

. The company is named after Serbian-American inventor

Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla ( ; ,"Tesla"
''

and

in San Carlos, California. The founders were influenced to start the company after

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

recalled all its

EV1 The General Motors EV1 was an electric car produced and leased by General Motors from 1996 to 1999. It was the first mass-produced and purpose-designed electric vehicle of the modern era from a major automaker and the first GM car designed to ...

electric cars in 2003 and then destroyed them, and seeing the higher

fuel efficiency Fuel efficiency is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or work. Overall fuel efficiency may vary per device, wh ...

of battery-electric cars as an opportunity to break the usual correlation between high performance and low

fuel economy in automobiles The fuel economy of an automobile relates distance traveled by a vehicle and the amount of fuel consumed. Consumption can be expressed in terms of volume of fuel to travel a distance, or the distance traveled per unit volume of fuel consumed. S ...

. The

AC Propulsion tzero The tzero is a handmade battery electric vehicle, electric sports car designed and built in very limited numbers by the U.S. company AC Propulsion in the early 2000s. It was the direct predecessor of the Tesla, Inc., Tesla line of electric cars. Th ...

also inspired the company's first vehicle, the Roadster. 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". Ian Wright was the third employee, joining a few months later. The three went looking for

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

(VC) funding in January 2004 and connected with

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...

, who contributed US$6.5 million of the initial (

Series A A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

) US$7.5 million round of investment in February 2004 and became chairman of the board of directors. Musk then appointed Eberhard as the CEO. J.B. Straubel joined in May 2004 as the fifth employee. 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. Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design, but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations. Musk insisted from the beginning on a

carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

body and contributed to the car style. Tesla Motors received the

Global Green Global Green is the American affiliate of Green Cross International, an international non-governmental organization founded by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1993 to "foster a global value shift toward a sustainable and secure future. ...

2006 product design award for the design of the Tesla Roadster, presented by

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

. Elon Musk, Martin Eberhard, Barney Hatt, Tesla Motors also received the 2007 Index Design award for their design of the Tesla Roadster. Tesla Roadster Sport insignia

Musk consistently maintained that Tesla's long-term strategic goal was to create affordable mass market electric vehicles. 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. Musk's Series A investment round of US$7.5 million in February 2004 included Compass Technology Partners and SDL Ventures, as well as many private investors. In February 2005, Musk led Tesla's

Series B A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the ...

investment round which added Valor Equity Partners to the funding team. Musk co-led the third, round in May 2006 along with Technology Partners. This round included investment from prominent entrepreneurs including

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

co-founders

Sergey Brin Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (russian: link=no, Сергей Михайлович Брин; born August 21, 1973) is an American business magnate, computer scientist, and internet entrepreneur, who co-founded Google with Larry Page. Brin was the ...

Larry Page Lawrence Edward Page (born March 26, 1973) is an American business magnate, computer scientist and internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-founding Google with Sergey Brin. Page was the chief executive officer of Google from 1997 unt ...

, former

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

President

Jeff Skoll Jeffrey Stuart Skoll, OC (born January 16, 1965) is a Canadian engineer, billionaire internet entrepreneur and film producer. He was the first president of eBay, eventually using the wealth this gave him to become a philanthropist, particularly ...

Hyatt Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vacat ...

heir Nick Pritzker and added the VC firms

Draper Fisher Jurvetson Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) is an American venture capital firm focused on investments in enterprise, consumer and disruptive technologies. In January 2019, DFJ Venture, the early-stage team, spun out and formed Threshold Ventures. DFJ Growth ...

, Capricorn Management, and The Bay Area Equity Fund managed by

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...

. Musk led the fourth round in May 2008 which added another US$40,167,530 in debt financing, and brought the total investments to over US$100 million through private financing. Also in the 2006 "Tesla master plan" a partnership with

SolarCity SolarCity Corporation was a publicly traded company headquartered in Fremont, California that sold and installed solar energy generation systems as well as other related products and services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers ...

was announced to co-market photovoltaic

solar panels A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a phot ...

, which could be installed on the roof of a carport, allowing those who drive less than 350 miles/week to become "energy positive" with respect to personal transport. Eberhard served as CEO until he was asked to step down from the position in August 2007 by the board of directors. Eberhard then took the title of "President of Technology" before ultimately leaving the company in January 2008. Co-founder Marc Tarpenning, who served as the Vice President of Electrical Engineering of the company, also left the company in January 2008. In August 2007, Michael Marks was brought in as interim CEO, and in December 2007,

Ze'ev Drori Ze'ev Drori ( he, זאב דרורי; born in Tel Aviv) is an Israeli-born American technology entrepreneur currently residing in California. Drori was the founder and Chief Executive of Monolithic Memories, before the company merged with Advanced ...

became CEO and President. In January 2008, Tesla fired several key personnel who had been involved from the inception after a performance review by the new CEO. According to Musk, Tesla was forced to reduce the company workforce by about 10% to lower its

burn rate Burn rate is the rate at which a company is losing money. It is typically expressed in monthly terms. E.g., "the company's burn rate is currently $65,000 per month." In this sense, the word "burn" is a synonymous term for negative cash flow. ...

, which was out of control in 2007. In May 2008, "

The Truth About Cars ''The Truth About Cars'' (TTAC) is a blog covering automobiles, automotive products and the auto industry, begun in 2002 featuring a mix of automotive reviews, editorials and news. It is home to the annual Ten Worst Automobiles awards, which are ...

" website launched a "Tesla Death Watch", as Tesla needed another round of financing to survive. In October 2008, Musk succeeded Drori as CEO and fired 25% of Tesla employees. Drori became vice-chairman, but then left the company in December 2008. In December a fifth round of investment turned into debt financing and added another , avoiding bankruptcy. By January 2009, Tesla had raised and delivered 147 cars. Musk had contributed of his own money to the company. On May 19, 2009, Germany's Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes-Benz, acquired an equity stake of less than 10% of Tesla for a reported . According to Musk, the Daimler investment saved Tesla. In July 2009, Daimler announced that

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi (, ; ar, أَبُو ظَبْيٍ ' ) is the capital and second-most populous city (after Dubai) of the United Arab Emirates. It is also the capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the centre of the Abu Dhabi Metropolitan Area. ...

Aabar Investments Mubadala Investment Company PJSC ( ar, شركة مبادلة للاستثمار), or simply Mubadala, is an Emirati state-owned holding company that acts as a sovereign wealth fund. The company was established in 2017 when then-named Mubadala Dev ...

bought 40% of Daimler's interest in Tesla.

2009 Department of Energy loan

In June 2009 Tesla was approved to receive in

interest In finance and economics, interest is payment from a borrower or deposit-taking financial institution to a lender or depositor of an amount above repayment of the principal sum (that is, the amount borrowed), at a particular rate. It is distinct ...

-bearing loans from the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...

. The funding, part of the

Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program is a $25 billion direct loan program funded by Congress in fall 2008 to provide debt capital to the U.S. automotive industry for the purpose of funding projects that help vehicles ...

, supported engineering and production of the Model S sedan, as well as the development of commercial powertrain technology. The low-interest loan program was created in 2007 during the

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

administration, and is not related to the "bailout" funds that GM and Chrysler received, nor are they related to the 2009 economic stimulus package. Tesla repaid the loan in May 2013, with a US$12 million interest. Tesla was the first car company to have fully repaid the government; Nissan repaid their loan in 2017, and Fisker went bankrupt and defaulted on their loan. The company announced in early August 2009 that it had achieved overall corporate profitability for the month of July 2009. The company said it earned approximately on revenue of . Profitability arose primarily from improved gross margin on the 2010 Roadster, the second iteration of Tesla's award-winning sports car. Tesla, which like all automakers records revenue when products are delivered, shipped a record 109 vehicles in July and reported a surge in new Roadster purchases. In September 2009, Tesla announced a round to accelerate Tesla's retail expansion. Daimler participated in the round to maintain equity ownership from its initial investment.

Lotus supply of Roadster parts

Tesla Motors signed a production contract on July 11, 2005, with

Group Lotus Lotus Cars Limited is a British automotive company headquartered in Norfolk, England which manufactures sports cars and racing cars noted for their light weight and fine handling characteristics. Lotus was previously involved in Formula One r ...

to produce "gliders" (complete cars minus powertrain). The contract ran through March 2011, but the two automakers extended the deal to keep the electric Roadster in production through December 2011 with a minimum number of 2,400 units, when production ended, mostly because of tooling changes orchestrated by one of its suppliers. In June 2010, it was reported that Tesla sold a total of zero emission vehicle credits to other automakers, including Honda, up to March 31, 2010.

IPO and Model S

On January 29, 2010, Tesla Motors filed

Form S-1 Form S-1 is an SEC filing used by companies planning on going public to register their securities with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as the "registration statement by the Securities Act of 1933". The S-1 contains the basic b ...

with the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

, as a preliminary prospectus indicating its intention to file an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

(IPO) underwritten by

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...

, and

Deutsche Bank Securities Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock ...

. On May 21, 2010, Tesla announced a "strategic partnership" with Toyota, which agreed to purchase in Tesla common stock issued in a private placement to close immediately after the IPO. Executives at both companies said that they would cooperate on "the development of electric vehicles, parts, and production system and engineering support." Less than two months later, Toyota and Tesla confirmed that their first platform collaboration would be to build an electric version of the

RAV4 EV The Toyota RAV4 EV is an all-electric version of the popular RAV4 SUV produced by Toyota until 2014. Two generations of the EV model were sold in California, and to fleets elsewhere in the US, with a gap of almost ten years between them. The fi ...

. In October 2014, both Daimler and Toyota sold their holdings of Tesla shares with a combined profit of over US$1 billion. On June 29, 2010, Tesla Motors launched its initial public offering on

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

. 13,300,000 shares of common stock were issued to the public at a price of US$17.00 per share. The IPO raised for the company. It was the first American car maker to go public since the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

had its IPO in 1956, and by 2014 Tesla had market value half that of Ford. In early 2013, Tesla had problems producing the Model S, and was running out of money. Musk proposed a US$11 billion deal with Google, but improved production and a sales push gave Tesla its first profitable quarter, and the deal was abandoned. During November 2013, following news of a third Model S fire, Tesla's stock fell more than 20 percent. All of those Model S fires had developed several minutes after the cars had struck significant

road debris Road debris, a form of road hazard, is debris on or off a road. Road debris includes substances, materials, and objects that are foreign to the normal roadway environment. Debris may be produced by vehicular or non-vehicular sources, but in all ...

at high speeds and all of the vehicles had provided warnings to the occupants of serious battery damage, advising that an immediate stop was required. All three owners ordered new Model Ss. In the following months Tesla developed a battery protection system as a no-cost retrofit to all Model Ss. No further regulatory action was taken, although there have been a few incidents since, most recently January 2016, with a Model S charging at a Norwegian Supercharger station. Despite the drop in stock price, Tesla was still the top performer on the

Nasdaq 100 The Nasdaq-100 (^NDX) is a stock market index made up of 101 equity securities issued by 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. It is a modified capitalization-weighted index. The stocks' weights in the in ...

index in 2013. Tesla was seeking to sell 40,000 electric vehicles worldwide in 2014, adding China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia to the list of countries where it exports cars, but in November 2014 Tesla reduced its guidance on sales down to 33,000 units for 2014. As of the 2014 model year, Tesla had a US Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) of 276.7 MPG. Tesla's production of cars began at the

Tesla Factory The Tesla Fremont Factory is an automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont, California, operated by Tesla, Inc. The facility opened as General Motors' Fremont Assembly in 1962, and was later operated by NUMMI, a GM–Toyota joint venture. Tes ...

in Fremont, California. In October 2015, Tesla Motor announced the company was negotiating with the Chinese government on producing cars in China. Local production in China has the potential to reduce the sales prices of Tesla models by a third; however, foreign automakers are generally required to establish a joint venture with a Chinese company to produce cars domestically.

clarified at that time that production will remain in the U.S. in the foreseeable future, but if there's sufficient local demand for the

Tesla Model 3 The Tesla Model 3 is a compact executive sedan that is battery powered and produced by Tesla. Limited production of the Model 3 began in mid-2017, with the first production vehicle rolling off the assembly line on July 7, 2017. The officia ...

in China, a factory could be built in the country as soon as a year after the launch of the new model. Production in Europe will also depend on the region's demand for the Model 3. Tesla was also considering building a manufacturing plant in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, according to Tesla's Chief Information Officer, Jay Vijayan. This would help Tesla to avoid 100% import duty which is applicable on import of CBU (Completely Built Unit) cars in India. Tesla was also considering building a battery plant in India. "Given high local demand, a Gigafactory in India would probably make sense in the long term," Musk said in response to a specific question about whether he would consider a factory in India too. Tesla announced in November 2015 that during the third quarter of 2015 it produced a record 13,091 vehicles, and also revised its target sales for 2015 to between 50,000 and 52,000 vehicles, including both of its models available for retail sales. The company expects to achieve an average production and deliveries of 1,600 to 1,800 vehicles per week for Model S and Model X combined during 2016, ''Tesla global electric car sales totaled 11,603 units during the third quarter of 2015, including six

Tesla Model X The Tesla Model X is a Battery electric vehicle, battery electric Mid-size crossover SUV#Luxury, mid-size luxury crossover SUV produced by Tesla, Inc. since 2015. Developed from the full-size car, full-sized sedan platform of the Tesla Model S, ...

units.'' adding up to 80,000 to 90,000 new Model S and Model X vehicles in 2016. ''A total of 17,478 units were delivered globally during the fourth quarter of 2015, including 206 Model X vehicles. Model S sales in the United States totaled 16,689 units in 2014 and 25,202 in 2015.''

Used vehicles

Under a buyback program called the ''Resale Value Guarantee'' available in 37 U.S. states, a Tesla Model S sold new before July 1, 2016, included the right to return it after three years with reimbursement of 43% to 50% of its initial price. This reimbursement matched the trade-in values of competitive German luxury cars of that age. In addition to maintaining the resale value, Tesla hoped to secure a supply of used cars to refurbish and re-sell with

warranty In contract law, a warranty is a promise which is not a condition of the contract or an innominate term: (1) it is a term "not going to the root of the contract",Hogg M. (2011). ''Promises and Contract Law: Comparative Perspectives''p. 48 Cambrid ...

. According to

Automotive News ''Automotive News'' is a weekly newspaper written for the automotive industry, predominantly individuals corresponding with automobile manufacturers and automotive suppliers. Based in Detroit and owned by Crain Communications Inc, ''Automotive ...

, the

profit margin Profit margin is a measure of profitability. It is calculated by finding the profit as a percentage of the revenue. \text = = There are 3 types of profit margins: gross profit margin, operating profit margin and net profit margin. * Gross Prof ...

on used car sales in the U.S. is about triple that on new cars, and Tesla's direct sales would allow them to capture resale profits. In May 2015, Tesla started selling refurbished Model S cars in the U.S. and within a month sold 1,600 cars. As of July 2017, over 80 used Model S and Model X cars were for sale, with either a four-year, 50,000-mile warranty or a two-year, 100,000-mile warranty for vehicles above 50,000 miles. As of September 2015, similar programs existed in Canada, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Britain, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

Acquisitions

In 2015, Tesla acquired Riviera Tool & Die (with 100 employees in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...

), one of its suppliers of stamping items. They initially renamed the facility "Tesla Michigan", and subsequently refer to the facility as Tesla Tool and Die. In 2017, Tesla acquired Perbix Machine Company, a manufacturer of automated manufacturing equipment, that had been an equipment supplier for over three years.A look at the company Tesla just bought as the owner gets ~$10 million worth of TSLA shares
Electrek, 7 November 2017, accessed 5 June 2020. In December 2017, Tesla acquired the factory automation firm Compass Automation of

Elgin, Illinois Elgin ( ) is a city in Cook and Kane counties in the northern part of the U.S. state of Illinois. Elgin is located northwest of Chicago, along the Fox River. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 114,797, the seventh-large ...

, with expertise in automated assembly and inspection systems; by the end of 2018 the company was working exclusively for Tesla.Tesla quietly acquired automated manufacturing firm to design factories
Electrek, 4 June 2020, accessed 5 June 2020.

SolarCity acquisition

On August 1, 2016, Tesla agreed to acquire

Corp. for US$2.6 billion in stock. SolarCity was then the largest installer of rooftop solar systems in the United States. More than 85% of unaffiliated Tesla and SolarCity shareholders voted to approve the acquisition, which closed on November 21, 2016. After it acquired SolarCity, Tesla stopped using door to door sales tactics for solar systems; instead, it markets and sells its products at company showrooms. For a short time, Tesla partnered with

Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational corporation, multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the l ...

to sell solar and energy products through in store kiosks. At the time, it did not provide a leasing option for solar panels, and consumers had to purchase them.

Model 3 rollout

Model 3 was unveiled in March 2016. A week after the unveiling, global reservations totaled 325,000 units. As a result of the demand for Model 3, in May 2016, Tesla advanced its 500,000 annual unit build plan (for all models) by two years to 2018. This would in turn allow more Model 3 buyers to benefit from the full US$7,500 U.S.

tax credit A tax credit is a tax incentive which allows certain taxpayers to subtract the amount of the credit they have accrued from the total they owe the state. It may also be a credit granted in recognition of taxes already paid or a form of state "disc ...

before the limit of 200,000 cars per maker since 2010 reduces the credit. On February 1, 2017, the company changed its name from Tesla Motors to Tesla. In late March 2017, Tesla Inc. announced that Tencent Holdings Ltd., at the time China's "most valuable company," had purchased a 5% stake in Tesla for US$1.8 billion. In 2017, Tesla surpassed Ford Motor Company and General Motors in

market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by t ...

for a couple of months, making it the most valuable American automaker. In June 2017, Tesla appeared for the first time in the

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

list. In the week preceding the debut on July 7, 2017, of the Model 3 sedan, Tesla's stock-market value declined by more than US$12 billion from a previous value of US$63 billion. The loss was a result of a combination of factors that disappointed investors. Demand for Tesla's existing luxury models, Model S and Model X, did not grow in the second quarter. Brian Johnson of

Barclays Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

said that customer deposits for the Model S and Model X fell by US$50 million, potentially indicating that Tesla's introduction of the Model 3 could be adversely affecting their sales. Tesla predicted that luxury sales would reach 100,000 per year, below some analysts' expectations. Investors expressed concern about Tesla's plans for execution and its competitive risk, as

Volvo Cars Volvo Cars ( sv, Volvo personvagnar, styled VOLVO in the company's logo) is a Swedish multinational manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Torslanda, Gothenburg. The company manufactures SUVs, station wagons, and sedans. The company's ...

committed to introduce only electric and electric-assisted vehicles by 2019. Johnson claimed that "Tesla will face intense competition by the next decade." Morningstar analyst David Whiston foresaw a revised, slower timetable for the Model 3 and a company acknowledgement of problems with building battery packs for its cars. In 2016 Musk predicted 100,000 Model 3 units would be sold in 2017, but that production may reach only 20,000 by December. Axel Schmidt, a managing director at consulting firm

Accenture Accenture plc is an Irish-American professional services company based in Dublin, specializing in information technology (IT) services and consulting. A ''Fortune'' Global 500 company, it reported revenues of $61.6 billion in 2022. Accentur ...

, said that Tesla's problems with Gigafactory 1 prove that increasing Model 3 production "remains a huge challenge". In October 2017, Tesla reported delivery of 220 Model 3 cars, acknowledging this was "less than anticipated due to production bottlenecks". In early November 2017, Musk advised investors of a production delay that was primarily due to difficulties with the new battery that would allow Tesla to significantly reduce the manufacturing cost of the Model 3. The company was having difficulties with robots on the assembly line, but the most serious issue was with one of the four zones in the battery manufacturing, caused by a "systems integration subcontractor", according to Musk. "We had to rewrite all of the software from scratch for the battery module", he reported. He assured investors that Tesla had "reallocated" top engineers to work on achieving a solution. By that time, Jon Wagner, director of battery engineering, had left the company. Also in November, Musk postponed the target date for manufacturing 5000 of the vehicles per week from December 2017 to "sometime in March" 2018; about which an analyst with Cowan and Company commented that "Elon Musk needs to stop over promising and under delivering". On November 21, 2017, Bloomberg stated that "over the past 12 months, the electric-car maker has been burning money at a clip of about $8,000 a minute (or $480,000 an hour)" preparing for Model 3. In April 2018, Musk increased the 5000 per week number by 20%, forecasting Tesla could achieve 6,000 units per week by the end of June 2018. When asked when the company would reach a production level of 10,000 units per week, he declined to speculate. Tesla sold around 140,000 Model 3 vehicles worldwide in 2018. In 2016,

BYD Auto BYD Auto Co., Ltd. ("Build Your Dreams") is the automotive subsidiary of the publicly-listed Chinese multinational manufacturer BYD Company, headquartered in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China. It was founded in January 2003, following BYD Compa ...

was the world's top selling plug-in car manufacturer with 101,183 units sold, followed by Tesla with 76,243. However, Tesla revenues ranked first with $6.35 billion, while BYD notched $3.88 billion. Also in 2016, Tesla sold $1 billion worth of cars in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, the world's largest market for electric vehicles. In October of the following year it reached an agreement with the Chinese government to build a factory in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

Tesla electric cars lineup DCA 08 2018 0282

After ranking third by brand in 2017, behind BYD and

BAIC Beijing Automotive Group Co., Ltd. (BAIC) is a Chinese state-owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Shunyi, Beijing. Founded in 1958, it is the sixth largest automobile manufacturer in China, with 1.723 million sales in 2021. The comp ...

, "BYD sold 108,612 passenger plug-in cars in China in 2017, enough to make it the world's top selling plug-in car manufacturer for the third year in a row." Tesla ranked as the world's best selling plug-in passenger car manufacturer in 2018, both as a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

and by automotive group, with 245,240 units delivered, capturing a market share of 12% of all plug-in cars sold globally in 2018, "Tesla led plug-in car sales among automotive groups in 2018, with 245,240 units delivered, followed by BYD with 229,338, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance with 192,711." ''The global share of plug-in electric cars by brand in 2018 was led by Tesla with 12%, followed by BYD with 11%, BMW with 9%, BAIC with 6%, and Roewe and Nissan, both with 5%.'' followed by BYD Auto with 227,152 plug-in passenger cars delivered. ''BYD Auto sold 247,811 new energy vehicles in 2018 (including commercial heavy-duty vehicles), up 118% from 2018, of which, 227,152 were passenger cars, consisting of 103,263 units all-electric cars and 123,889 units were plug-in hybrid vehicles. In addition, 20,659 new energy commercial vehicles were sold in 2018.'' In August 2015, Tesla launched a revamp of its stores to include interactive displays focused on safety, autopilot, charging network and motors. , Tesla operated about 260 galleries or retail locations in the United States. In June 2016, Tesla opened its first store-within-a-store: a small outpost within the

Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, and ...

department store at The Grove shopping mall in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. In 2017, Tesla opened retail locations in

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. Foreseeing Germany as its second market after the U.S. (and the largest in Europe), in 2016 Tesla stated the -issued Whole Vehicle Type Approval (WVTA) should be accepted as a legal compliance document, with no need to seek specific national type of approvals in EU member states. In 2017, Tesla had a $52 million

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

budget and used a referral program and

word of mouth Word of mouth, or ''viva voce'', is the passing of information from person to person using oral communication, which could be as simple as telling someone the time of day. Storytelling is a common form of word-of-mouth communication where one pe ...

to attract buyers.

2018 consideration of taking Tesla private

In a tweet on August 7, 2018, Elon Musk said: "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured." On Tesla's blog Musk elaborated that Tesla's status as a public company subjects it to the quarterly earnings cycle that puts enormous pressure on the company to make decisions that may be right for a given quarter, but not necessarily right for the company's long-term growth. Additionally, as the most shorted stock in the history of the stock market, being a publicly traded company means that there are large numbers of investors who may have the incentive to attack the company. Musk released a considerably more detailed statement on the Tesla Blog the following week indicating that the proposal was by him in his personal capacity, and not as CEO of Tesla. Furthermore, he indicated that he had high confidence in the funding being secured based on discussions with the managing director of the

Saudi Saudi may refer to: * Saudi Arabia * Saudis, people from Saudi Arabia * Saudi culture, the culture of Saudi Arabia * House of Saud The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is c ...

sovereign wealth fund A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), sovereign investment fund, or social wealth fund is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such ...

who had requested Musk consider taking Tesla private and indicated strong capital support for doing so. On August 24, Musk released a statement indicating that both he and the Tesla Board of Directors had made the decision for the company to remain public.Staying Public
Tesla Blog, Elon Musk, August 24, 2018, accessed August 25, 2018. In September 2018, Musk was sued by the

for the tweet claiming that funding had been secured for taking Tesla

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

. The lawsuit characterized the tweet as false, misleading, and damaging to investors, and sought to bar Musk from serving as CEO for publicly traded companies. Musk settled with the SEC two days later. The settlement terms required Musk to step down as chairman, and prohibited him from running for chairman again for three years. Additionally, he and Tesla Inc. were fined US$20M each to reimburse investors who were harmed by Musk's tweet.

Financials

Tesla has financed operations (production, development, administration, etc.) by sales income, stock offering and

bond Bond or bonds may refer to: Common meanings * Bond (finance), a type of debt security * Bail bond, a commercial third-party guarantor of surety bonds in the United States * Chemical bond, the attraction of atoms, ions or molecules to form chemical ...

sales. In May 2013 Tesla raised US$1.02 billion (US$660 million from bonds) partially to repay the Department of Energy loans received from the ATVM loan program after their first profitable quarter. In February 2014 Tesla raised US$2 billion from bonds to build the first GigaFactory. In August 2015, Tesla raised US$738 million in stock to build the Model X. In May 2016, Tesla raised US$1.46 billion in stock to build the Model 3. By 2016, Tesla had raised over US$4.5 billion since its IPO in 2010. Tesla entered the Interbrand Top100 Best Global Brands in 2016 in position 100 with a

brand valuation Brand valuation is the process of estimating the total financial value of a brand. A conflict of interest exists if those who value a brand were also involved in its creation. The ISO 10668 standard specifies six key requirements for the process of ...

of US$4 billion. In 2020,

Kantar A kantar is the official Egyptian weight unit for measuring cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Ma ...

rated Tesla's brand as worth US$11.35 billion, behind Toyota, Mercedes and BMW, but ahead of all other auto makers, and the only automotive brand whose value increased since the previous year. On October 26, 2016, Tesla posted a profitable quarter, their first in 8 quarters, defying industry expectations. According to the ''Wall Street Journal'', in September 2018, the company's stock fell to its lowest price in a year, around the time that CEO Elon Musk smoked marijuana during a live TV interview. As of December 31, 2019, Musk owns 38,658,670 Tesla shares or 20.8% of the company. On January 10, 2020, Tesla become the most valuable American automaker to ever exist, with a market capitalization of US$86 billion. On July 1, 2020, Tesla reached a market capitalization of US$206 billion, surpassing Toyota's US$202 billion to become the world's largest automaker by market capitalization. Tesla issued US$2 billion of new shares on February 18, 2020. From July 2019 to June 2020, Tesla recorded four profitable quarters in a row for the first time, which made it eligible for inclusion in the

S&P 500 The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of D ...

. On August 12, 2020, Tesla announced a 5-for-1 stock split, which took effect on August 31, 2020.

Timeline of production and sales

Tesla's global sales passed 250,000 units in September 2017, and its 300,000th vehicle was produced in February 2018.''At the end of the 4Q 2017, Tesla had delivered over 286,000 cars since its inception.'' Tesla's global sales achieved the 500,000 unit milestone in December 2018. ''By November 2018, Tesla has sold nearly 500,000 cars worldwide, which accounts for about 20% of all the battery-only electric vehicles on the road today, according to an estimate from Navigant Research.'' Tesla's global vehicle sales increased 50% from 245,240 units in 2018 to 367,849 units in 2019. On March 9, 2020, the company produced its 1 millionth electric car. In September 2021, Tesla sold its 2 millionth electric car, becoming the first auto manufacturer to achieve such a milestone. At the end of 2021, Tesla's global sales since 2012 totaled over 2.3 million units.

Tesla deliveries vary significantly by month due to regional issues such as

car carrier Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...

availability and registration. Tesla does not follow the former auto industry standard of monthly reporting; GM and Ford changed from monthly to quarterly sales reporting in 2018 and 2019. Some monthly sales are estimated by media.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Tesla Motors *

Tesla Motors Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Tesla designs and manufactures electric vehicles (electric cars and electric truck, trucks), battery energy storage from ...

Tesla