Elon Musk (aka. Technoking of Tesla) and Tesla have together created the world’s best-selling electric passenger cars, with legion of followers of its EV cars and soaring stock prices.
Here is a short, curated timeline of events that has helped shape this iconic company, and in doing so, has managed to throw the traditional automobile industry rule book out of the window!
BRIEF HISTORY of Tesla:
• 2003 – Tesla Motors came into existence with the vision of Martin Eberhard (CEO) and Marc Tarpenning (CFO) in California, USA.
• 2004 – Musk invested $30M and joined Tesla as the Chairman of its Board.
• 2006 – Tesla showcases its 1st car, the Roadster – which was an all-electric prototype.
• 2007 – Eberhard resigns as CEO of Tesla and Drori took over as the CEO.
• 2008 – The Roadster enters into production. Elon Musk became the new CEO replacing Drori.
• 2009 – Due to financial problems, Tesla sought investment from Daimler and loans from Energy Dept.
• 2009 – Tesla moves HQ to Palo Alto, California
• 2010 – Tesla goes public, raising $226 M with the Initial Publis Offering.
• 2011 – Tesla brings out the prototype for its first sedan – Model S.
• 2012 – Model S goes full-time production. Tesla discontinues production of the Roadster. Launch of the 1st charging stations (‘Supercharger ‘) with 6 locations in CA.
• 2013 – Tesla became profitable for the first time on its quarterly reporting.
• 2014 – Tesla announces its Nevada Gigafactory, built to manufacture batteries.
• 2015 – Tesla enters the solar power market, announcing products that use batteries and solar panels.
• 2016 – Tesla announces the Model 3 sedan, aimed at the mass passenger market.
• 2017 – Tesla Motors became Tesla, Inc.
• 2018 – Tesla misses quotas for the Model 3 sedan, producing in 3 months less than half of what it had forecast it could make in 7 days.
• 2019 – Musk and Tesla unveil the “Cybertruck,” an electric six-seater pickup truck. Musk later claims that Tesla has gotten 250,000 orders for the Cybertruck.
• 2020 – Due to solid fiscal quarters and ratings upgrade from analysts, Tesla’s stock surges to $900+.
• 2021 – Elon Musk has dropped his CEO job title and crowned himself “Technoking of Tesla.” Tesla’s CFO, Zach Kirkhorn, got himself a new title of “Master of Coin.”
• 2021 — October 2021, Tesla’s market capitalization reached $1 trillion, the sixth company to do so in U.S. history, on news that car rental company Hertz had placed an order for 100,000 Tesla vehicles for its fleet.
• 2022- In August 2022, Musk claimed that Tesla had made more than 3 million cars.
Here I put the history of Tesla. Now your turn to write a comment.
