Tesla Motors
Encyclopedia
Tesla Motors, Inc. is a Silicon Valley
-based company that designs, manufactures and sells electric car
s and electric vehicle powertrain
components. It was the only automaker
building and selling a zero-emission sports car, the Tesla Roadster, in serial production (as opposed to prototype or evaluation series production). However, Tesla stopped taking orders for the Roadster around mid 2011. Tesla is also developing a zero-emission premium sedan, the Model S, which will be built at the 350000 square feet (32,516.1 m²) Tesla Factory in Fremont, California, starting in 2012. Tesla also sells electric powertrain components, including lithium-ion battery packs, to other automakers like Daimler and Toyota.
Nikola Tesla
. The Tesla Roadster uses an AC motor descended directly from Tesla's original 1882 design.
The Tesla Roadster
, the company's first vehicle, is the first production automobile to use lithium-ion battery cells and the first production EV with a range greater than 200 miles (321.9 km) per charge. The base model accelerates 0 to 60 mph (96.6 km/h) in 3.9 seconds and, according to Tesla Motor's environmental analysis, is twice as energy efficient as the Toyota Prius
. As of June 30 2011, Tesla had delivered more than 1,840 Roadsters in at least 30 countries. Tesla has said that it will produce a total serial production run of 2,400 Roadsters. Tesla began producing right-hand-drive Roadsters in early 2010 for the UK and Ireland markets, then expanded sales to right-hand-drive markets of Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Tesla is currently developing the Model S, an all-electric family sedan. Tesla unveiled the car March 26, 2009 with an anticipated base price of (or after a US federal tax credit). The Model S will have three battery pack options for a range of up to 300 miles (482.8 km) per charge. As of October 2011, Tesla has reached its limit of 6,500 reservations for the Model S and expects to begin delivering cars to customers in 2012. Tesla currently employs almost 900 full time employees and is aggressively recruiting employees for positions in the headquarters in Palo Alto, California; at its European headquarters in Maidenhead, UK; and at an increasing number of sales facilities throughout North America and Europe. Tesla plans to build the Model S in 2012 in Fremont, California
in an assembly plant formerly operated by NUMMI
, a now defunct joint venture of Toyota and General Motors
. Tesla purchased a stake in the site in May 2010 for , and opened the facility in October 2010 as the Tesla Factory
.
, a hybrid sedan that aims to reverse years of dwindling market share and massive financial losses for America's largest automaker. In an August 2009 edition of The New Yorker, Lutz was quoted as saying, "All the geniuses here at General Motors kept saying lithium-ion technology is 10 years away, and Toyota agreed with us -- and boom, along comes Tesla. So I said, 'How come some tiny little California startup, run by guys who know nothing about the car business, can do this, and we can't?' That was the crowbar that helped break up the log jam." Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk won the 2010 Automotive Executive of the Year Innovator Award for hastening the development of electric vehicles throughout the global automotive industry.
The Tesla Roadster has a base price of , or (not including numerous tax incentives, credits and waivers). Tesla's goal is to sell EVs to mainstream consumers at more affordable prices—but Tesla purposely aimed its first production vehicle at "early adopters" so that the company could optimize the technology before cascading it down to less expensive vehicles. The company's subsequent car, the Model S sedan, is anticipated to begin production for the 2012 model year with a base price of (or after a US federal tax credit), roughly half that of the Roadster. The company then plans to launch a vehicle, codenamed BlueStar
. Tesla also builds electric powertrain components for more affordable cars including the lowest priced car from Daimler, the Smart urban commuter car; the lowest priced car to carry the Mercedes badge, the A-Class hatch back; and the lowest priced SUV from Toyota, the RAV4.
Aiming premium products at affluent "thought leaders" is a well known business strategy in Silicon Valley and the global technology industry, where prices for the first versions of cellular phones, laptop computers and flat-screen televisions start high but drop in subsequent product cycles. However, this approach has been relatively rare in the global auto industry, where the prevailing business model has been one of mass production in assembly plants optimized to build hundreds of thousands of vehicles per year with comparatively low sticker prices. According to a blog post by Tesla CEO, Chairman and Product Architect Elon Musk, "New technology in any field takes a few versions to optimize before reaching the mass market and in this case it is competing with 150 years and trillions of dollars spent on gasoline cars."
and JB Straubel on the other, both sought to commercialize the T-Zero prototype electric sports car created by AC Propulsion.
Since college, Musk's primary goal was to commercialize electric vehicles all the way to mass market, starting with a premium sports car aimed at early adopters and then moving as rapidly as possible into more mainstream vehicles, including sedans and affordable compacts.
Tom Gage, the president of AC Propulsion, suggested that the two teams join forces to maximize the chances of success. They agreed to merge their efforts, with Musk becoming chairman and overall head of product design, Eberhard becoming CEO and Straubel becoming CTO.
Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design at a detailed level, but was not deeply involved in the day to day business operations; in fact, Eberhard acknowledged that Musk was the person who insisted from the beginning on a carbon fiber body, and he led design of components ranging from the power electronics module to the headlamps and other styling cues.
In addition to his daily operational roles, Musk was the controlling investor in Tesla from the first financing round, funding the vast majority of the Series A capital investment round of with personal funds.
From the beginning, Musk has consistently maintained that Tesla's long-term strategic goal is to create affordable mass market electric vehicles in order to have a material impact on oil consumption. Musk received the Global Green 2006 product design award for his design of the Tesla Roadster, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev
, and he received the 2007 Index Design award for his design of the Tesla Roadster.
Musk's Series A round included Compass Technology Partners and SDL Ventures, as well as many private investors. Musk later led Tesla Motors' Series B
, , investment round which added Valor Equity Partners to the funding team. Musk co-led the third, round in May 2006 along with Technology Partners. Tesla's third 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. The fourth round in May 2007 added another and brought the total investments to over through private financing.
In December 2007, Ze'ev Drori
became the CEO and President of Tesla Motors. In January 2008, Tesla Motors 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 percent to lower its burn rate, which was out of control in 2007.
The fifth round in February 2008 added another . Musk had contributed of his own money to the company by this time. In October 2008, Musk succeeded Ze'ev Drori as CEO. Drori became Vice Chairman. He left the company in December. By January 2009, Tesla had raised and delivered 147 cars.
On May 19, 2009, Germany's Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes, acquired an equity stake of less than 10 percent of Tesla for a reported . In July 2009, Daimler announced that Abu Dhabi
's Aabar Investments bought 40 percent of Daimler's interest in Tesla.
In June 2009 Tesla was approved to receive in interest-bearing loans from the United States
Department of Energy. The funding, part of an program for advanced vehicle technologies (Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program
), supports engineering and production of the Model S sedan, as well as the development of powertrain technology that Tesla plans to sell to other automakers. The low-interest loans are not related to the "bailout" funds that GM and Chrysler have received, nor are they related to the 2009 economic stimulus package. The Department of Energy loan program was created in 2007 during the George Bush administration in order to get more fuel-efficient vehicle options to U.S. consumers and to decrease the country's dependence on foreign oil.
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 an round to accelerate Tesla's retail expansion in advance of the Model S. Daimler participated in the round to maintain equity ownership from its initial investment. A new investor was Fjord Capital Partners, under the leadership of founders Michael Obermayer (a former senior partner and director of McKinsey & Company, Inc.), Arild Nerdrum and Xavier de La Rochefoucauld. Fjord is a specialized European private equity manager investing into the clean energy sector globally. Fjord invests growth capital
in renewable and low-carbon companies and projects.
Tesla Motors signed a production contract on 11 July 2005 with Group Lotus to produce "gliders" for Tesla. Tesla Motors originally signed a production contract with Group Lotus good through March 2011, but the two automakers revealed they have extended the deal to keep the electric Roadster in production through December 2011 with a minimum number of 2,400 units, when production is unlikely to continue mostly because of tooling changes orchestrated by one of its suppliers.
with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as a preliminary prospectus
indicating its intention to file an initial public offering
(IPO) underwritten by Goldman Sachs
, Morgan Stanley
, J. P. Morgan
, and Deutsche Bank Securities
. In a standard S-1 update filed March 26, Tesla added fourth-quarter 2009 data to the initial filing. According to the update, Tesla sold 937 Tesla Roadsters to customers in 18 countries and generated in revenue as of Dec. 31, 2009. 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 Tesla's planned 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.
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. On June 29, 2010 Tesla Motors launched its initial public offering on NASDAQ
under the symbol TSLA. The IPO raised for the company. It was the first American car maker to go public since the Ford Motor Company
had its IPO in 1956.
drove the entire 313 miles (503.7 km) segment of Australia's annual Global Green Challenge on a single charge, at an average speed of 25 mi/h. The Tesla Roadster can accelerate from zero to 60 mph (96.6 km/h)
in under 4 seconds and has a top speed of 125 mph (201.2 km/h).
The base price of the car is , or . The cost of powering the Roadster is estimated at per mile, compared with roughly per mile for a comparable sports car.
Prototypes were introduced to the public in July 2006, and the Tesla Roadster was featured on the cover of Time
in December 2006 as the recipient of the magazine's "Best Inventions 2006—Transportation Invention" award. The first "Signature One Hundred" set of fully equipped Roadsters sold out in less than three weeks, the second hundred sold out by October 2007, and general production began on March 17, 2008.
Since February 2008, when production first began, two new models have been introduced, one in July 2009, and another in July 2010. Both new models feature various upgrades. In January 2010, Tesla began producing its first right-hand-drive Roadsters for the UK and Ireland, then began selling them in mid-2010 in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.
Tesla says the Roadster Sport accelerates from 0 to 60 mph (96.6 km/h) in 3.7 seconds, compared with 3.9 seconds for the standard Roadster. The Roadster Sport price starts at in the United States and (excluding VAT) in Europe. Deliveries began in July 2009. The Roadster Sport is the first derivative of Tesla’s proprietary, patented powertrain.
The Roadster Sport has been acclaimed by Engineering Editor Kim Reynolds of MotorTrend
, whose magazine recorded a 0-60 mph of 3.70 seconds and a quarter-mile test at 12.6 sec @ 102.6 mi/h. Reynolds called the acceleration "breathtaking" and said that the car's sales confirm "Tesla as an actual car company. ...Tesla is the first maker to crack the EV legitimacy barrier in a century."
In the March 2010 print edition of British enthusiast magazine EVO (p. 120), editor Richard Meaden was the first to review the new right-hand-drive version of the Roadster Sport. He said the car had "serious, instantaneous muscle." "With so much torque from literally no revs the acceleration punch is wholly alien. Away from traffic lights you'd murder anything, be it a 911 Turbo, GT-R or 599, simply because while they have to mess about with balancing revs and clutch, or fiddle with launch controls and invalid warranties, all you have to do is floor the throttle and wave goodbye."
The Model S is designed as an alternative to cars such as the BMW 5 Series
, the Audi A6
, and the Mercedes-Benz E-Class
, with an anticipated base price of . Tesla plans to sell the car worldwide and will introduce regional pricing closer to the beginning of deliveries in 2012. Tesla is planning on having three options for battery packs, allowing customers to select from 160 mi (257.5 km), 230 mi (370.1 km) or 300 mi (482.8 km) per charge before it must be recharged.
On March 26, 2009, Tesla unveiled the Model S design to the public by introducing a concept version of the car in the Tesla Design Studio in Hawthorne, California. This car included a touch-screen dashboard with wireless Internet access and remote-programming abilities. It seats five adults (plus two children in rear-facing child seats) and has a 0 to 60 mph (96.6 km/h) time of 5.5 seconds.
, is building electric powertrain components for the Mercedes A-Class E-Cell, an electric car
with a range
of 200 km (124 mi), and 214 foot-pounds (290.1 N·m) of torque. The 36 kWh battery pack will contain approximately 4,000 individual lithium-ion cells. Daimler is not expected to lease the electric version outside of Europe. The Mercedes-Benz A-Class E-Cell was unveiled at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. Only 500 cars will be built for trial purposes in Europe beginning in September 2011.
A second generation RAV4 EV demonstrator was unveiled at the October 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show. Toyota is building 35 of these converted RAV4s for a demonstration and evaluation program that will run through 2011. The lithium metal-oxide battery and other powertrain components are supplied by Tesla Motors.
Its said to achieve an average charge range of 80-120 miles per charge, depending on your driving habits. It takes 6-8 hours to charge on a standard 120VAC 15A home outlet and 2-3 hours on a 220VAC, which is not always available in-home. 480 VAC rapid charge is still in development, and would only be available at charge stations. 480 VAC is said to be capable of fully charging the battery in only 25 minutes.
platform, along with the Tesla Model X
crossover SUV.
The company is supplying battery packs for Freightliner Trucks
's Custom Chassis Electric Van.
, where much of the development of the Tesla Roadster occurred.
Tesla announced in August 2009 that it planned to move its corporate headquarters and build a powertrain development facility at 3500 Deer Creek Road, in the Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto, California. Tesla said it would finance the project in part through of the federal low-interest loans. The facility, a 369000 square feet (34,281.2 m²) facility on a 23 acres (93,077.8 m²) parcel previously occupied by Agilent Technologies. Tesla completed the headquarters move in February 2010. The powertrain facility will produce electric vehicle components for Tesla and for other automakers, including Germany's Daimler, which is using Tesla's battery packs and chargers for an upcoming electric version of its Smart city car. About 350 employees are expected to be based at the Stanford site initially, potentially increasing to 650. Stanford Research Park is also home to Facebook, Hewlett Packard, Xerox PARC and other Silicon Valley companies.
site on existing industrial property—a preference of the federal government in approving candidates for interest-bearing loans from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program.
On 20 May 2010, Tesla announced that it would partner with Toyota to produce the Model S at the former NUMMI
plant. The facility opened on October 27, 2010 as the Tesla Factory.
in Hethel, England. The Roadster has a unique chassis, with the car being longer and wider and having lower door sills than the Lotus Elise. The two cars have a parts overlap of less than 6 percent.
In June 2009, Tesla opened its first store in Europe—a showroom in central London's Knightsbridge district. In September 2009, Tesla opened its first store in continental Europe—a showroom in downtown Munich. Tesla opened a store in Monaco in November 2009 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony by CEO Elon Musk and car enthusiast Prince Albert II. Tesla opened stores in Zurich, Copenhagen and Paris in mid 2010. Tesla opened a showroom in Milan's fashion district in December 2010. In addition to these regional stores and service centers, Tesla has sales representatives in the Netherlands, Oslo, Vienna, Hamburg and Madrid.
, beverages and snacks, coffee bars and couches. Prospective customers can test-drive cars with a salesperson. The company's executives say they model showrooms after retailers such as Apple and Starbucks
. In July 2010, Tesla hired former Apple and Gap Executive George Blankenship as Vice President of Design and Store Development to build Tesla's retail strategy and network of retail locations worldwide.
Tesla recommends that customers bring in their car for inspection and firmware
updates every year or every 12000 miles (19,312.1 km). Tesla operates mobile service squads for customers who do not live near the regional sales and service centers. There is minimal maintenance required of an electric vehicle. Because there is no internal combustion engine, there are no routine oil changes. Transmission, brake, and cooling system fluid changes will be required roughly every five to seven years or as needed. Tesla is the only automaker to offer "house calls" in which mobile service technicians perform routine software upgrades or annual inspections.
's Custom Chassis Electric Van.
On May 19, 2009, Germany's Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes, acquired an equity stake of less than 10% in Tesla for a reported . As part of the collaboration, Prof. Herbert Kohler, Vice President E-Drive and Future Mobility at Daimler AG, took a seat on Tesla’s board of directors.
On July 13, 2009, Daimler AG sold 40% of their May acquisition to Aabar Investments PJSC. Aabar is an investment company controlled by the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), which is wholly owned by the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi
. In March 2009, Aabar purchased a 9% stake in Daimler for .
The jointly developed RAV4 electric vehicle will be built at Toyota's Woodstock, Ontario
.
In April 2010, Panasonic Energy Company President Naoto Noguchi presented Tesla Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel with the first production Lithium-ion cells manufactured at the new facility in Suminoe, Japan. The Suminoe factory will start producing 3.1Ah battery cells, the highest energy density cells available in the market. The facility will produce more than 300 million cells per year.
On 5 November 2010, Panasonic invested for multi-year collaboration on the development of next generation battery cells designed specifically for electric vehicles.
.
When the company began in 2003, Tesla licensed AC Propulsion
's Reductive Charging patent, which integrates the charging electronics into the inverter in a way that reduces mass and complexity. Shortly after the company's founding, Tesla Motors developed a powertrain well beyond what the company initially licensed from AC Propulsion. The company no longer employs any of AC Propulsion's original intellectual property.
, alleging that Henrik Fisker "stole design ideas and confidential information related to the design of hybrid and electric cars" and was using that information to develop the Fisker Karma
, which was announced at the North American International Auto Show
in January, 2008. Tesla had hired Fisker Coachbuild
to design the WhiteStar sedan but decided against the design as it was considered "substandard" by Tesla chairman Elon Musk
. On November 3, 2008, Fisker Automotive Inc. issued a press release indicating that an arbitrator has issued an interim award finding in favor of Fisker Automotive, Inc. and against Tesla Motors Inc. on all claims. Tesla said the ruling was binding and would not pursue the case.
Also in March 2008, Magna International
filed a lawsuit against Tesla claiming that it was never paid for services rendered. Tesla hired Magna to help design a 2-speed transmission for its Roadster. The Magna-designed transmission is not in use for the current model.
The founding of the company and who can rightly be called "founder" was the subject of a lawsuit filed in May 2009 and later dropped after an out of court settlement. On May 26, 2009, Eberhard filed suit in San Mateo County, California against Tesla and Elon Musk (Chairman and CEO of Tesla) for slander, libel and breach of contract. Musk wrote a lengthy blog post that included original source documents, including e-mails between senior executives and other artifacts demonstrating that Eberhard was unanimously fired by Tesla's full board of directors. On July 29, 2009, a judge in San Mateo County, Calif., Superior Court struck down a claim by former CEO Eberhard, who asked to be declared one of only two founders of the company. Tesla said in a statement that the ruling is "consistent with Tesla’s belief in a team of founders, including the company’s current CEO and Product Architect Elon Musk, and Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel, who were both fundamental to the creation of Tesla from inception." In early August, Eberhard withdrew the case, and the parties reached a final settlement on September 21. Some provisions are confidential, but the agreement includes a provision that the parties will consider Martin Eberhard, Elon Musk, JB Straubel, Marc Tarpenning, and Ian Wright to be the five co-founders. Eberhard also issued a statement about Musk's foundational role in the company: "As a co-founder of the company, Elon's contributions to Tesla have been extraordinary."
Tesla sued Top Gear for the review of their Tesla Roadster in a 2008 episode in which Jeremy Clarkson
could be seen driving one around the Top Gear test track, complaining about a range of only 55 miles (88.5 km) before showing that car being pushed into the garage, supposedly out of charge. Tesla has filed a lawsuit against the BBC for libel and malicious falsehood, claiming that two cars were provided and that at any point, at least one of them was ready to drive. In addition, Tesla believes that neither car ever dropped below 25 percent charge, and that the scene was staged. On October 19, 2011, the High Court in London rejected Tesla's libel claim.
The falsehood claims have yet to be decided.
for 345 Roadsters manufactured before April 22, 2009. Tesla sent technicians to customers' homes to tighten the rear, inner hub flange bolts. Using common verbiage from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, Tesla told customers that without this adjustment, the driver could lose control of the car. The problem originated at the Lotus assembly line, where the Roadster glider is built. Lotus also recalled some Lotus Elise and Exige vehicles for the same reason. Tesla reminded customers that millions of cars are recalled every year.
On October 1, 2010, Tesla issued a second product safety recall in the USA affecting 439 Roadsters. The recall involved the 12V low-voltage auxiliary cable from a redundant back-up system (which in the unlikely event of the primary 12V power failing or dropping below a minimum threshold level, provides power to various systems; including the headlamps, tail lights, airbags, turn signals and hazard light). Tesla decided to initiate a recall after an incident where the low voltage auxiliary cable in a vehicle chafed against the edge of a carbon fiber panel in the vehicle causing a short, smoke and a possible fire behind the right front headlamp of the vehicle. This issue was limited to the 12V low-voltage auxiliary cable and did not involve the main battery pack or main power system.
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
-based company that designs, manufactures and sells electric car
Electric car
An electric car is an automobile which is propelled by electric motor, using electrical energy stored in batteries or another energy storage device. Electric cars were popular in the late-19th century and early 20th century, until advances in internal combustion engine technology and mass...
s and electric vehicle powertrain
Powertrain
In a motor vehicle, the term powertrain or powerplant refers to the group of components that generate power and deliver it to the road surface, water, or air. This includes the engine, transmission, drive shafts, differentials, and the final drive...
components. It was the only automaker
Automaker
The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells motor vehicles, and is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue....
building and selling a zero-emission sports car, the Tesla Roadster, in serial production (as opposed to prototype or evaluation series production). However, Tesla stopped taking orders for the Roadster around mid 2011. Tesla is also developing a zero-emission premium sedan, the Model S, which will be built at the 350000 square feet (32,516.1 m²) Tesla Factory in Fremont, California, starting in 2012. Tesla also sells electric powertrain components, including lithium-ion battery packs, to other automakers like Daimler and Toyota.
Overview
Tesla Motors is named after electrical engineer and physicistPhysicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
. The Tesla Roadster uses an AC motor descended directly from Tesla's original 1882 design.
The Tesla Roadster
Tesla Roadster
The Tesla Roadster is a battery electric vehicle sports car produced by the electric car firm Tesla Motors in California. The Roadster was the first highway-capable all-electric vehicle in serial production available in the United States. Since 2008 Tesla has sold 2,024 Roadsters in 30 countries...
, the company's first vehicle, is the first production automobile to use lithium-ion battery cells and the first production EV with a range greater than 200 miles (321.9 km) per charge. The base model accelerates 0 to 60 mph (96.6 km/h) in 3.9 seconds and, according to Tesla Motor's environmental analysis, is twice as energy efficient as the Toyota Prius
Toyota Prius
The Toyota Prius is a full hybrid electric mid-size hatchback, formerly a compact sedan developed and manufactured by the Toyota Motor Corporation...
. As of June 30 2011, Tesla had delivered more than 1,840 Roadsters in at least 30 countries. Tesla has said that it will produce a total serial production run of 2,400 Roadsters. Tesla began producing right-hand-drive Roadsters in early 2010 for the UK and Ireland markets, then expanded sales to right-hand-drive markets of Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Tesla is currently developing the Model S, an all-electric family sedan. Tesla unveiled the car March 26, 2009 with an anticipated base price of (or after a US federal tax credit). The Model S will have three battery pack options for a range of up to 300 miles (482.8 km) per charge. As of October 2011, Tesla has reached its limit of 6,500 reservations for the Model S and expects to begin delivering cars to customers in 2012. Tesla currently employs almost 900 full time employees and is aggressively recruiting employees for positions in the headquarters in Palo Alto, California; at its European headquarters in Maidenhead, UK; and at an increasing number of sales facilities throughout North America and Europe. Tesla plans to build the Model S in 2012 in Fremont, California
Fremont, California
Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs...
in an assembly plant formerly operated by NUMMI
NUMMI
New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. was an automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont, California, opened in 1984 and closed in 2010. On October 27, 2010 it reopened as a 100% Tesla Motors-owned production facility, known as the Tesla Factory...
, a now defunct joint venture of Toyota and General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
. Tesla purchased a stake in the site in May 2010 for , and opened the facility in October 2010 as the Tesla Factory
Tesla Factory
The Tesla Factory is an automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont, California owned and operated by Tesla Motors. The facility was formerly known as New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. , a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota...
.
Corporate strategy
One of Tesla's stated goals is to increase the number and variety of EVs available to mainstream consumers in three ways: Tesla sells its own vehicles in a growing number of company-owned showrooms and online; it sells patented electric powertrain components to other automakers so that they may get their own EVs to customers sooner; and it serves as a catalyst and positive example to other automakers, demonstrating that there is pent-up consumer demand for vehicles that are both high-performance and efficient. General Motors' then-Vice Chairman Robert Lutz said in 2007 that the Tesla Roadster inspired him to push GM to develop the Chevrolet VoltChevrolet Volt
The Chevrolet Volt is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle manufactured by General Motors. The Volt has been on sale in the U.S. market since mid-December 2010, and is the most fuel-efficient compact car sold in the United States, as rated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency...
, a hybrid sedan that aims to reverse years of dwindling market share and massive financial losses for America's largest automaker. In an August 2009 edition of The New Yorker, Lutz was quoted as saying, "All the geniuses here at General Motors kept saying lithium-ion technology is 10 years away, and Toyota agreed with us -- and boom, along comes Tesla. So I said, 'How come some tiny little California startup, run by guys who know nothing about the car business, can do this, and we can't?' That was the crowbar that helped break up the log jam." Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk won the 2010 Automotive Executive of the Year Innovator Award for hastening the development of electric vehicles throughout the global automotive industry.
The Tesla Roadster has a base price of , or (not including numerous tax incentives, credits and waivers). Tesla's goal is to sell EVs to mainstream consumers at more affordable prices—but Tesla purposely aimed its first production vehicle at "early adopters" so that the company could optimize the technology before cascading it down to less expensive vehicles. The company's subsequent car, the Model S sedan, is anticipated to begin production for the 2012 model year with a base price of (or after a US federal tax credit), roughly half that of the Roadster. The company then plans to launch a vehicle, codenamed BlueStar
Tesla BlueStar
The Tesla BlueStar is the proposed third battery electric car to be manufactured by Tesla Motors, with a production goal of 2015. Tesla wants the car to cost between and...
. Tesla also builds electric powertrain components for more affordable cars including the lowest priced car from Daimler, the Smart urban commuter car; the lowest priced car to carry the Mercedes badge, the A-Class hatch back; and the lowest priced SUV from Toyota, the RAV4.
Aiming premium products at affluent "thought leaders" is a well known business strategy in Silicon Valley and the global technology industry, where prices for the first versions of cellular phones, laptop computers and flat-screen televisions start high but drop in subsequent product cycles. However, this approach has been relatively rare in the global auto industry, where the prevailing business model has been one of mass production in assembly plants optimized to build hundreds of thousands of vehicles per year with comparatively low sticker prices. According to a blog post by Tesla CEO, Chairman and Product Architect Elon Musk, "New technology in any field takes a few versions to optimize before reaching the mass market and in this case it is competing with 150 years and trillions of dollars spent on gasoline cars."
History and financing
In 2003, two independent teams, consisting of Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning and Ian Wright on the one hand, and Elon MuskElon Musk
Elon Musk is an American engineer and entrepreneur heritage best known for co-founding PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla Motors. He is currently the CEO and CTO of SpaceX, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors and Chairman of SolarCity...
and JB Straubel on the other, both sought to commercialize the T-Zero prototype electric sports car created by AC Propulsion.
Since college, Musk's primary goal was to commercialize electric vehicles all the way to mass market, starting with a premium sports car aimed at early adopters and then moving as rapidly as possible into more mainstream vehicles, including sedans and affordable compacts.
Tom Gage, the president of AC Propulsion, suggested that the two teams join forces to maximize the chances of success. They agreed to merge their efforts, with Musk becoming chairman and overall head of product design, Eberhard becoming CEO and Straubel becoming CTO.
Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design at a detailed level, but was not deeply involved in the day to day business operations; in fact, Eberhard acknowledged that Musk was the person who insisted from the beginning on a carbon fiber body, and he led design of components ranging from the power electronics module to the headlamps and other styling cues.
In addition to his daily operational roles, Musk was the controlling investor in Tesla from the first financing round, funding the vast majority of the Series A capital investment round of with personal funds.
From the beginning, Musk has consistently maintained that Tesla's long-term strategic goal is to create affordable mass market electric vehicles in order to have a material impact on oil consumption. Musk received the Global Green 2006 product design award for his design of the Tesla Roadster, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
, and he received the 2007 Index Design award for his design of the Tesla Roadster.
Musk's Series A round included Compass Technology Partners and SDL Ventures, as well as many private investors. Musk later led Tesla Motors' Series B
Venture round
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 primary stimuli for the development of new companies...
, , investment round which added Valor Equity Partners to the funding team. Musk co-led the third, round in May 2006 along with Technology Partners. Tesla's third round included investment from prominent entrepreneurs including Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
co-founders Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin
Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin is a Russian-born American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur who, with Larry Page, co-founded Google, one of the largest internet companies. , his personal wealth is estimated to be $16.7 billion....
& Larry Page
Larry Page
Lawrence "Larry" Page is an American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur who, with Sergey Brin, is best known as the co-founder of Google. As of April 4, 2011, he is also the chief executive of Google, as announced on January 20, 2011...
, former eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
President Jeff Skoll, Hyatt
Hyatt
Hyatt Hotels Corporation , is an international operator of hotels.Hyatt Center is the headquarters for Hyatt corporation...
heir Nick Pritzker
Nicholas J. Pritzker
Nicholas J. Pritzker is Chairman of the Board and CEO of the Hyatt Development Corporation. He is a member of the Pritzker family, which owns the Hyatt hotel group. His current net worth is approximately 1.2 billion USD...
and added the VC firms Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California with affiliate offices in more than 30 cities around the world and over $7 billion in capital commitments....
, Capricorn Management and The Bay Area Equity Fund managed by JPMorgan Chase. The fourth round in May 2007 added another and brought the total investments to over through private financing.
In December 2007, Ze'ev Drori
Ze'ev Drori
Ze'ev Drori is an Israeli-born American technology entrepreneur currently residing in California. Mr. Drori was the founder and Chief Executive of Monolithic Memories, before the company merged with Advanced Micro Devices...
became the CEO and President of Tesla Motors. In January 2008, Tesla Motors 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 percent to lower its burn rate, which was out of control in 2007.
The fifth round in February 2008 added another . Musk had contributed of his own money to the company by this time. In October 2008, Musk succeeded Ze'ev Drori as CEO. Drori became Vice Chairman. He left the company in December. By January 2009, Tesla had raised and delivered 147 cars.
On May 19, 2009, Germany's Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes, acquired an equity stake of less than 10 percent of Tesla for a reported . In July 2009, Daimler announced that Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
's Aabar Investments bought 40 percent of Daimler's interest in Tesla.
In June 2009 Tesla was approved to receive in interest-bearing loans from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Department of Energy. The funding, part of an program for advanced vehicle technologies (Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program
Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program
Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing 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 manufactured in the U.S. meet higher mileage requirements and...
), supports engineering and production of the Model S sedan, as well as the development of powertrain technology that Tesla plans to sell to other automakers. The low-interest loans are not related to the "bailout" funds that GM and Chrysler have received, nor are they related to the 2009 economic stimulus package. The Department of Energy loan program was created in 2007 during the George Bush administration in order to get more fuel-efficient vehicle options to U.S. consumers and to decrease the country's dependence on foreign oil.
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 an round to accelerate Tesla's retail expansion in advance of the Model S. Daimler participated in the round to maintain equity ownership from its initial investment. A new investor was Fjord Capital Partners, under the leadership of founders Michael Obermayer (a former senior partner and director of McKinsey & Company, Inc.), Arild Nerdrum and Xavier de La Rochefoucauld. Fjord is a specialized European private equity manager investing into the clean energy sector globally. Fjord invests growth capital
Growth capital
Growth capital is a type of private equity investment, most often a minority investment, in relatively mature companies that are looking for capital to expand or restructure operations, enter new markets or finance a significant acquisition without a change of control of the business.Companies...
in renewable and low-carbon companies and projects.
Tesla Motors signed a production contract on 11 July 2005 with Group Lotus to produce "gliders" for Tesla. Tesla Motors originally signed a production contract with Group Lotus good through March 2011, but the two automakers revealed they have extended the deal to keep the electric Roadster in production through December 2011 with a minimum number of 2,400 units, when production is unlikely to continue mostly because of tooling changes orchestrated by one of its suppliers.
2010 initial public offering
On 29 January 2010, Tesla Motors filed Form S-1Form S-1
Form S-1 is an SEC filing used by public companies to register their securities with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as the "registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933". The S-1 contains the basic business and financial information on an issuer with respect to a specific...
with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as a preliminary prospectus
Prospectus (finance)
In finance, a prospectus is a document that describes a financial security for potential buyers. A prospectus commonly provides investors with material information about mutual funds, stocks, bonds and other investments, such as a description of the company's business, financial statements,...
indicating its intention to file an initial public offering
Initial public offering
An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
(IPO) underwritten by Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...
, Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City serving a diversified group of corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley also operates in 36 countries around the world, with over 600 offices and a workforce of over 60,000....
, J. P. Morgan
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric...
, and Deutsche Bank Securities
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...
. In a standard S-1 update filed March 26, Tesla added fourth-quarter 2009 data to the initial filing. According to the update, Tesla sold 937 Tesla Roadsters to customers in 18 countries and generated in revenue as of Dec. 31, 2009. 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 Tesla's planned 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.
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. On June 29, 2010 Tesla Motors launched its initial public offering on NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
under the symbol TSLA. The IPO raised for the company. It was the first American car maker to go public since the Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
had its IPO in 1956.
Car models
Tesla Roadster
Tesla Motors' first production vehicle, the Tesla Roadster, is an all-electric sports car. Tesla announced in January 2011 that it had delivered more than 1500 Roadsters in at least 30 countries. The car has a range of 245 miles (394.3 km) per charge on average according to testing done by Tesla. On Oct. 27, 2009, the Roadster driven by Simon HackettSimon Hackett
Simon Walter Hackett is the co-founder and managing director of Internode Pty Ltd.In 1997 Hackett founded Agile Communications, a company that builds broadband network infrastructure...
drove the entire 313 miles (503.7 km) segment of Australia's annual Global Green Challenge on a single charge, at an average speed of 25 mi/h. The Tesla Roadster can accelerate from zero to 60 mph (96.6 km/h)
0 to 60 mph
The time it takes to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph is a commonly used performance measure for automotive acceleration in the United States and the United Kingdom. In the rest of the world 0 to 100 km/h is used...
in under 4 seconds and has a top speed of 125 mph (201.2 km/h).
The base price of the car is , or . The cost of powering the Roadster is estimated at per mile, compared with roughly per mile for a comparable sports car.
Prototypes were introduced to the public in July 2006, and the Tesla Roadster was featured on the cover of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
in December 2006 as the recipient of the magazine's "Best Inventions 2006—Transportation Invention" award. The first "Signature One Hundred" set of fully equipped Roadsters sold out in less than three weeks, the second hundred sold out by October 2007, and general production began on March 17, 2008.
Since February 2008, when production first began, two new models have been introduced, one in July 2009, and another in July 2010. Both new models feature various upgrades. In January 2010, Tesla began producing its first right-hand-drive Roadsters for the UK and Ireland, then began selling them in mid-2010 in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.
Tesla Roadster Sport
Tesla began taking orders in January 2009 for the Roadster Sport, a higher performance sports car based on the Roadster.Tesla says the Roadster Sport accelerates from 0 to 60 mph (96.6 km/h) in 3.7 seconds, compared with 3.9 seconds for the standard Roadster. The Roadster Sport price starts at in the United States and (excluding VAT) in Europe. Deliveries began in July 2009. The Roadster Sport is the first derivative of Tesla’s proprietary, patented powertrain.
The Roadster Sport has been acclaimed by Engineering Editor Kim Reynolds of MotorTrend
Motor Trend
Motor Trend is an American automobile magazine. It first appeared in September 1949, issued by Petersen Publishing Company in Los Angeles, and bearing the tag line "The Magazine for a Motoring World". Petersen Publishing was sold to British publisher EMAP in 1998, who sold the former Petersen...
, whose magazine recorded a 0-60 mph of 3.70 seconds and a quarter-mile test at 12.6 sec @ 102.6 mi/h. Reynolds called the acceleration "breathtaking" and said that the car's sales confirm "Tesla as an actual car company. ...Tesla is the first maker to crack the EV legitimacy barrier in a century."
In the March 2010 print edition of British enthusiast magazine EVO (p. 120), editor Richard Meaden was the first to review the new right-hand-drive version of the Roadster Sport. He said the car had "serious, instantaneous muscle." "With so much torque from literally no revs the acceleration punch is wholly alien. Away from traffic lights you'd murder anything, be it a 911 Turbo, GT-R or 599, simply because while they have to mess about with balancing revs and clutch, or fiddle with launch controls and invalid warranties, all you have to do is floor the throttle and wave goodbye."
Model S
Tesla has built a driving prototype and is working on production engineering of the Model S sedan, originally code-named "Whitestar," which the company plans to begin delivering to customers in 2012. Tesla plans to build an assembly plant in California for production of the Model S. As of March 2010, Tesla has already taken about 2,000 reservations for the Model S in North America and Europe.The Model S is designed as an alternative to cars such as the BMW 5 Series
BMW 5 Series
The BMW 5 Series is a mid-size / executive car manufactured by BMW since 1972. The car, now in its sixth generation, is sold in sedan and touring body styles....
, the Audi A6
Audi A6
The Audi A6 is an executive car marketed by the German automaker Audi AG, now in its fourth generation. As the successor to the Audi 100, the A6 is manufactured in Neckarsulm, Germany – and is available in saloon, and wagon configurations, the latter marketed by Audi as the Avant.All generations...
, and the Mercedes-Benz E-Class
Mercedes-Benz E-Class
The Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a range of executive-size cars manufactured by Mercedes-Benz in various engine and body configurations. The E initially stood for Einspritzmotor, ; a new feature in volume production vehicles at the time that the E-Class first appeared, with the E as a suffix to the...
, with an anticipated base price of . Tesla plans to sell the car worldwide and will introduce regional pricing closer to the beginning of deliveries in 2012. Tesla is planning on having three options for battery packs, allowing customers to select from 160 mi (257.5 km), 230 mi (370.1 km) or 300 mi (482.8 km) per charge before it must be recharged.
On March 26, 2009, Tesla unveiled the Model S design to the public by introducing a concept version of the car in the Tesla Design Studio in Hawthorne, California. This car included a touch-screen dashboard with wireless Internet access and remote-programming abilities. It seats five adults (plus two children in rear-facing child seats) and has a 0 to 60 mph (96.6 km/h) time of 5.5 seconds.
Mercedes A-Class
Tesla, as part of its collaboration with Mercedes-BenzMercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
, is building electric powertrain components for the Mercedes A-Class E-Cell, an electric car
Electric car
An electric car is an automobile which is propelled by electric motor, using electrical energy stored in batteries or another energy storage device. Electric cars were popular in the late-19th century and early 20th century, until advances in internal combustion engine technology and mass...
with a range
All-electric range
All-electric range is the driving range of a vehicle using only power from its electric battery pack to traverse a given driving cycle. In the case of a battery electric vehicle, it means the total range per charge. For a plug-in hybrid , it means the range of the vehicle in charge-depleting mode...
of 200 km (124 mi), and 214 foot-pounds (290.1 N·m) of torque. The 36 kWh battery pack will contain approximately 4,000 individual lithium-ion cells. Daimler is not expected to lease the electric version outside of Europe. The Mercedes-Benz A-Class E-Cell was unveiled at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. Only 500 cars will be built for trial purposes in Europe beginning in September 2011.
Daimler Smart
In late 2007, Tesla began working with Germany's Daimler AG on powertrain components for an electric version of the German company's Smart two-seater city car. Tesla is producing the battery packs and chargers for an initial 1,000-unit fleet of EV Smarts. Daimler has not released details about the vehicle's pricing or timing. The two companies announced that they were working together on the Smart in January 2009.Toyota RAV4 EV crossover SUV
Tesla Motors and Toyota announced in July 2010 that the two companies have signed an agreement to initiate the development of a second generation of the compact Toyota RAV4 EV. Toyota plans to introduce the model into the market by 2012.A second generation RAV4 EV demonstrator was unveiled at the October 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show. Toyota is building 35 of these converted RAV4s for a demonstration and evaluation program that will run through 2011. The lithium metal-oxide battery and other powertrain components are supplied by Tesla Motors.
Its said to achieve an average charge range of 80-120 miles per charge, depending on your driving habits. It takes 6-8 hours to charge on a standard 120VAC 15A home outlet and 2-3 hours on a 220VAC, which is not always available in-home. 480 VAC rapid charge is still in development, and would only be available at charge stations. 480 VAC is said to be capable of fully charging the battery in only 25 minutes.
Minivan, crossover, utility fleet van, cabriolet
Tesla Motors also announced in June 2009, along with their loans from the DOE, that they plan to build electric family-sized minivans, electric SUV crossovers, and electric fleet vans for municipal governments. The utility van and cabriolet are expected to be based on the Tesla Model STesla Model S
The Tesla Model S is a full-sized battery electric sedan developed by Tesla Motors. It is an electric car that was initially codenamed WhiteStar during research and preliminary development. Model S was announced in a press release on June 30, 2008...
platform, along with the Tesla Model X
Tesla Model X
The Tesla Model X is a proposed full-sized battery electric crossover SUV being designed by Tesla Motors. Current plans are for a market launch by 2014, with an unveiling in late December 2011....
crossover SUV.
The company is supplying battery packs for Freightliner Trucks
Freightliner Trucks
Freightliner Trucks is an American manufacturer of heavy duty trucks, chassis and semi-trailer trucks in the United States. The company was founded as Freightliner Inc in 1942 and is now a division of Daimler Trucks North America, a subsidiary of the German Daimler AG...
's Custom Chassis Electric Van.
Facilities
Tesla Motors' headquarters are located in Palo Alto, CaliforniaPalo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
, where much of the development of the Tesla Roadster occurred.
United States
Tesla was founded in San Carlos, California, a city in the region known as Silicon Valley. Tesla opened its first retail store in West Los Angeles, Calif., in April 2008. The company opened its second retail store in Menlo Park, Calif., in July 2008. The company opened a display showroom in New York City's Chelsea Art District in July 2009. It also opened a store in Seattle in July 2009. Tesla subsequently opened stores in Washington, DC; New York City; Chicago; Dania Beach, Florida; Boulder, Colorado; Orange County, California; San Jose, California and Denver, Colorado.Tesla announced in August 2009 that it planned to move its corporate headquarters and build a powertrain development facility at 3500 Deer Creek Road, in the Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto, California. Tesla said it would finance the project in part through of the federal low-interest loans. The facility, a 369000 square feet (34,281.2 m²) facility on a 23 acres (93,077.8 m²) parcel previously occupied by Agilent Technologies. Tesla completed the headquarters move in February 2010. The powertrain facility will produce electric vehicle components for Tesla and for other automakers, including Germany's Daimler, which is using Tesla's battery packs and chargers for an upcoming electric version of its Smart city car. About 350 employees are expected to be based at the Stanford site initially, potentially increasing to 650. Stanford Research Park is also home to Facebook, Hewlett Packard, Xerox PARC and other Silicon Valley companies.
Tesla Factory
Using in federal low-interest loans, Tesla had planned to build a Model S assembly plant in California with a fully ramped-up annual output of 20,000 sedans. Tesla did not announce a specific location, though unconfirmed media reports had focused on Southern California. In mid 2009, many speculative media reports suggested that Tesla could occupy the NUMMI assembly plant in Fremont, California, which General Motors and Toyota had signaled they planned to vacate. Tesla stated it would develop a brownfieldBrownfield land
Brownfield sites are abandoned or underused industrial and commercial facilities available for re-use. Expansion or redevelopment of such a facility may be complicated by real or perceived environmental contaminations. Cf. Waste...
site on existing industrial property—a preference of the federal government in approving candidates for interest-bearing loans from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program.
On 20 May 2010, Tesla announced that it would partner with Toyota to produce the Model S at the former NUMMI
NUMMI
New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. was an automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont, California, opened in 1984 and closed in 2010. On October 27, 2010 it reopened as a 100% Tesla Motors-owned production facility, known as the Tesla Factory...
plant. The facility opened on October 27, 2010 as the Tesla Factory.
Europe
Tesla's European headquarters are in Maidenhead, UK. The Roadster's chassis is currently being assembled by the contract manufacturing division of Lotus CarsLotus Cars
Lotus Cars is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars based at the former site of RAF Hethel, a World War II airfield in Norfolk. The company designs and builds race and production automobiles of light weight and fine handling characteristics...
in Hethel, England. The Roadster has a unique chassis, with the car being longer and wider and having lower door sills than the Lotus Elise. The two cars have a parts overlap of less than 6 percent.
In June 2009, Tesla opened its first store in Europe—a showroom in central London's Knightsbridge district. In September 2009, Tesla opened its first store in continental Europe—a showroom in downtown Munich. Tesla opened a store in Monaco in November 2009 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony by CEO Elon Musk and car enthusiast Prince Albert II. Tesla opened stores in Zurich, Copenhagen and Paris in mid 2010. Tesla opened a showroom in Milan's fashion district in December 2010. In addition to these regional stores and service centers, Tesla has sales representatives in the Netherlands, Oslo, Vienna, Hamburg and Madrid.
Regional sales and service centers
Tesla operates its own company-owned stores. Tesla showrooms include free Wi-FiWi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
, beverages and snacks, coffee bars and couches. Prospective customers can test-drive cars with a salesperson. The company's executives say they model showrooms after retailers such as Apple and Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
. In July 2010, Tesla hired former Apple and Gap Executive George Blankenship as Vice President of Design and Store Development to build Tesla's retail strategy and network of retail locations worldwide.
Tesla recommends that customers bring in their car for inspection and firmware
Firmware
In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices...
updates every year or every 12000 miles (19,312.1 km). Tesla operates mobile service squads for customers who do not live near the regional sales and service centers. There is minimal maintenance required of an electric vehicle. Because there is no internal combustion engine, there are no routine oil changes. Transmission, brake, and cooling system fluid changes will be required roughly every five to seven years or as needed. Tesla is the only automaker to offer "house calls" in which mobile service technicians perform routine software upgrades or annual inspections.
Partners
Tesla builds and sells its own cars, but unlike many traditional manufacturers it also operates as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), manufacturing electric vehicle powertrain components that other automakers may purchase and retail under their own brand names. Tesla has confirmed partnerships with two other automakers, Daimler and Toyota. Tesla also works closely with Panasonic as a strategic partner in battery cell research and development. The company is supplying battery packs for Freightliner TrucksFreightliner Trucks
Freightliner Trucks is an American manufacturer of heavy duty trucks, chassis and semi-trailer trucks in the United States. The company was founded as Freightliner Inc in 1942 and is now a division of Daimler Trucks North America, a subsidiary of the German Daimler AG...
's Custom Chassis Electric Van.
Daimler
Starting in late 2007, Daimler and Tesla Motors began working closely to integrate Tesla’s lithium-ion battery packs and charging electronics into the first 1,000 units of Daimler’s electric smart car. The two companies are expected to collaborate further, including working together on the Tesla Model S sedan. The collaboration is not expected to result in co-branded cars or the sale of Mercedes vehicles in Tesla showrooms, or vice-versa.On May 19, 2009, Germany's Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes, acquired an equity stake of less than 10% in Tesla for a reported . As part of the collaboration, Prof. Herbert Kohler, Vice President E-Drive and Future Mobility at Daimler AG, took a seat on Tesla’s board of directors.
On July 13, 2009, Daimler AG sold 40% of their May acquisition to Aabar Investments PJSC. Aabar is an investment company controlled by the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), which is wholly owned by the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
. In March 2009, Aabar purchased a 9% stake in Daimler for .
Toyota
On May 20, 2010, Tesla and Toyota announced a partnership to work on electric vehicle development, which included Toyota's future conditional investment in Tesla and Tesla's purchase of a portion of the former NUMMI factory. Musk said the Model S sedan will be built at the plant, which is about 20 miles (32.2 km) east of the company's headquarters in Palo Alto, California. Tesla and Toyota also said that they intend to cooperate on the development of electric vehicles, parts, and production system and engineering support. It was announced that an electric version of the Toyota RAV4 would be mass produced in 2012.The jointly developed RAV4 electric vehicle will be built at Toyota's Woodstock, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
.
Panasonic
On January 7, 2010, Tesla and battery cell maker Panasonic announced that they would together develop nickel-based lithium-ion battery cells for electric vehicles. Naoto Noguchi, President of Panasonic’s Energy Company, said the Japanese firm’s cells will be used for Tesla’s “current and next-generation EV battery pack.” The partnership was part of Panasonic's investment over three years in facilities for lithium-ion cell research, development and production. Tesla disclosed that the new cell resulting from its collaboration with Panasonic will allow Tesla to continue using cells from multiple suppliers.In April 2010, Panasonic Energy Company President Naoto Noguchi presented Tesla Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel with the first production Lithium-ion cells manufactured at the new facility in Suminoe, Japan. The Suminoe factory will start producing 3.1Ah battery cells, the highest energy density cells available in the market. The facility will produce more than 300 million cells per year.
On 5 November 2010, Panasonic invested for multi-year collaboration on the development of next generation battery cells designed specifically for electric vehicles.
Suppliers
Like virtually all production cars, the Tesla Roadster uses parts from around the world. Tesla's powertrain, which is proprietary, is designed and built in California. Tesla Motors maintains relationships with dozens of suppliers for other parts of the car, including Tesla's carbon fiber body panels which are made in France by Sotira. The panels are sent to England, where Tesla contracts with Lotus to build a unique chassis in Hethel, U.K. The cars are then sent to Menlo Park, California, where workers install all of Tesla's proprietary components. The battery pack is assembled in Palo Alto, California, using battery cells from Japan. The single-speed gearbox is built in Michigan by USA-based supplier BorgWarnerBorgWarner
BorgWarner Inc. is a United States-based worldwide automotive industry components and parts supplier. It is primarily known for its powertrain products, which include manual and automatic transmissions and transmission components, , turbochargers, engine valve timing system...
.
When the company began in 2003, Tesla licensed AC Propulsion
AC Propulsion
AC Propulsion is a San Dimas, California, USA company founded in 1992 by Alan Cocconi that specialises in alternating current-based drivetrain systems for electric vehicles. Tom Gage is currently the company's CEO. The company produces goods such as electric vehicle drive systems and their top of...
's Reductive Charging patent, which integrates the charging electronics into the inverter in a way that reduces mass and complexity. Shortly after the company's founding, Tesla Motors developed a powertrain well beyond what the company initially licensed from AC Propulsion. The company no longer employs any of AC Propulsion's original intellectual property.
Lawsuits
On April 14, 2008, Tesla Motors filed a lawsuit against Fisker AutomotiveFisker Automotive
Fisker Automotive is an American automaker based in Anaheim, California. The company's first product, the Fisker Karma is among the world's first true electric vehicles with extended range...
, alleging that Henrik Fisker "stole design ideas and confidential information related to the design of hybrid and electric cars" and was using that information to develop the Fisker Karma
Fisker Karma
The Fisker Karma is a plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan produced by Fisker Automotive and manufactured at Valmet Automotive in Finland. The United States Environmental Protection Agency rated the Karma's combined city/highway fuel economy at equivalent in all-electric mode, and at in...
, which was announced at the North American International Auto Show
North American International Auto Show
The North American International Auto Show is an annual auto show held in Detroit, Michigan at Cobo Center, usually in January. It is among the largest auto shows in North America.-History:...
in January, 2008. Tesla had hired Fisker Coachbuild
Fisker Coachbuild
For the manufacturer of the Fisker Karma, see Fisker AutomotiveFisker Coachbuild is a car design firm based in Orange County, California. The company produces custom sportscars. Its current models are the Tramonto and Latigo CS...
to design the WhiteStar sedan but decided against the design as it was considered "substandard" by Tesla chairman Elon Musk
Elon Musk
Elon Musk is an American engineer and entrepreneur heritage best known for co-founding PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla Motors. He is currently the CEO and CTO of SpaceX, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors and Chairman of SolarCity...
. On November 3, 2008, Fisker Automotive Inc. issued a press release indicating that an arbitrator has issued an interim award finding in favor of Fisker Automotive, Inc. and against Tesla Motors Inc. on all claims. Tesla said the ruling was binding and would not pursue the case.
Also in March 2008, Magna International
Magna International
Magna International Inc. , is an automotive supplier headquartered in Aurora, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's largest automobile parts manufacturer, and one of the country's largest companies. It owns the Magna Steyr automobile production company of Austria....
filed a lawsuit against Tesla claiming that it was never paid for services rendered. Tesla hired Magna to help design a 2-speed transmission for its Roadster. The Magna-designed transmission is not in use for the current model.
The founding of the company and who can rightly be called "founder" was the subject of a lawsuit filed in May 2009 and later dropped after an out of court settlement. On May 26, 2009, Eberhard filed suit in San Mateo County, California against Tesla and Elon Musk (Chairman and CEO of Tesla) for slander, libel and breach of contract. Musk wrote a lengthy blog post that included original source documents, including e-mails between senior executives and other artifacts demonstrating that Eberhard was unanimously fired by Tesla's full board of directors. On July 29, 2009, a judge in San Mateo County, Calif., Superior Court struck down a claim by former CEO Eberhard, who asked to be declared one of only two founders of the company. Tesla said in a statement that the ruling is "consistent with Tesla’s belief in a team of founders, including the company’s current CEO and Product Architect Elon Musk, and Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel, who were both fundamental to the creation of Tesla from inception." In early August, Eberhard withdrew the case, and the parties reached a final settlement on September 21. Some provisions are confidential, but the agreement includes a provision that the parties will consider Martin Eberhard, Elon Musk, JB Straubel, Marc Tarpenning, and Ian Wright to be the five co-founders. Eberhard also issued a statement about Musk's foundational role in the company: "As a co-founder of the company, Elon's contributions to Tesla have been extraordinary."
Tesla sued Top Gear for the review of their Tesla Roadster in a 2008 episode in which Jeremy Clarkson
Jeremy Clarkson
Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson is an English broadcaster, journalist and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for his role on the BBC TV show Top Gear along with co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May...
could be seen driving one around the Top Gear test track, complaining about a range of only 55 miles (88.5 km) before showing that car being pushed into the garage, supposedly out of charge. Tesla has filed a lawsuit against the BBC for libel and malicious falsehood, claiming that two cars were provided and that at any point, at least one of them was ready to drive. In addition, Tesla believes that neither car ever dropped below 25 percent charge, and that the scene was staged. On October 19, 2011, the High Court in London rejected Tesla's libel claim.
The falsehood claims have yet to be decided.
Recalls
In May 2009, Tesla issued a safety recallProduct recall
A product recall is a request to return to the maker a batch or an entire production run of a product, usually due to the discovery of safety issues. The recall is an effort to limit liability for corporate negligence and to improve or avoid damage to publicity...
for 345 Roadsters manufactured before April 22, 2009. Tesla sent technicians to customers' homes to tighten the rear, inner hub flange bolts. Using common verbiage from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, Tesla told customers that without this adjustment, the driver could lose control of the car. The problem originated at the Lotus assembly line, where the Roadster glider is built. Lotus also recalled some Lotus Elise and Exige vehicles for the same reason. Tesla reminded customers that millions of cars are recalled every year.
On October 1, 2010, Tesla issued a second product safety recall in the USA affecting 439 Roadsters. The recall involved the 12V low-voltage auxiliary cable from a redundant back-up system (which in the unlikely event of the primary 12V power failing or dropping below a minimum threshold level, provides power to various systems; including the headlamps, tail lights, airbags, turn signals and hazard light). Tesla decided to initiate a recall after an incident where the low voltage auxiliary cable in a vehicle chafed against the edge of a carbon fiber panel in the vehicle causing a short, smoke and a possible fire behind the right front headlamp of the vehicle. This issue was limited to the 12V low-voltage auxiliary cable and did not involve the main battery pack or main power system.
Board of directors
- Elon MuskElon MuskElon Musk is an American engineer and entrepreneur heritage best known for co-founding PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla Motors. He is currently the CEO and CTO of SpaceX, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors and Chairman of SolarCity...
-- Chairman of the board of directors, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla; former President of PaypalPayPalPayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
, founder, CEO and CTO of SpaceXSpaceXSpace Exploration Technologies Corporation, or more popularly and informally known as SpaceX, is an American space transport company that operates out of Hawthorne, California...
; Chairman of the board, SolarCitySolarCitySolarCity is an American provider of solar energy system design, financing, installation and related services and also builds charging stations for electric vehicles.... - H.E. Ahmed Saif Al Darmaki—Planning & Development Director of Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority
- Brad W. Buss—Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Secretary and Executive Vice President of Finance and Administration at Cypress Semiconductor Corp.
- Ira Ehrenpreis - General Partner, Technology Partners
- Antonio J. Gracias - CEO and Chairman of the Investment Committee at Valor Equity Partners
- Steve JurvetsonSteve JurvetsonSteven T. "Steve" Jurvetson is a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson . He was a Venture Capitalist investor in Hotmail, Interwoven, and Kana...
—Managing Director, Draper Fisher JurvetsonDraper Fisher JurvetsonDraper Fisher Jurvetson is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California with affiliate offices in more than 30 cities around the world and over $7 billion in capital commitments....
. - Herbert Kohler - Vice President E-Drive and Future Mobility at Daimler
- Kimbal MuskKimbal MuskKimbal Musk is an entrepreneur who has helped found, advise and invest in several software and technology companies. He is the owner of The Kitchen restaurant in Boulder, Colorado...
- CEO of Medium, Inc., Elon MuskElon MuskElon Musk is an American engineer and entrepreneur heritage best known for co-founding PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla Motors. He is currently the CEO and CTO of SpaceX, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors and Chairman of SolarCity...
's brother - Larry W. Sonsini - Outside counsel and non-directing board member of Tesla; Chairman, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & RosatiWilson Sonsini Goodrich & RosatiWilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is a law firm in the United States that specializes in business, securities, and intellectual property law. The firm's Chairman, Larry Sonsini, is well known as an attorney and advisor to technology companies....
External links
- Official Tesla Motors website
- Tesla Motors Club Owners and enthusiasts site
- All Tesla Motors patents and patent applications