American businessmen Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning formed Tesla, Inc., a renewable energy and electric vehicle manufacturer, in San Carlos, California, in 2003. Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American inventor, is honored by the company's name. Tesla is the top producer of electric vehicles in the world; as of the end of 2021, the company had sold 2.3 million vehicles worldwide.
The first stages: roadster and private financing On July 1, 2003, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning incorporated Tesla (as Tesla Motors) in San Carlos, California.The company's founders saw an opportunity to break the conventional auto industry correlation between high performance and low fuel economy when General Motors recalled and destroyed all of its EV1 electric cars in 2003. This recall and subsequent destruction had a significant impact on their decision to found the company. The Roadster, the company's first car, was also influenced by the AC Propulsion tzero. Eberhard stated that his goal was to create "a car manufacturer that is also a technology company," with "the proprietary motor, the computer software, and the battery" serving as its three main technologies.
The third worker, Ian Wright, started a few months later. In January 2004, the three set out to find venture capital (VC) funding and made contact with Elon Musk, who became chairman of the board of directors and provided US$6.5 million of the US$7.5 million initial (Series A) round of investment in February 2004. After that, Musk named Eberhard the CEO. J.B. Straubel became the fifth employee in May 2004. In September 2009, Eberhard and Tesla reached a litigation settlement that permits all five individuals (Eberhard, Tarpenning, Wright, Musk, and Straubel) to identify as co-founders.
Musk was not heavily involved in day-to-day commercial operations, although he did play an active part in the company and oversee the creation of the Roadster product. Musk helped design the car's exterior and insisted on a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer body from the start.Mikhail Gorbachev gave the Global Green 2006 product design award to Tesla Motors for their design of the Tesla Roadster. For their work on the Tesla Roadster, Elon Musk, Martin Eberhard, Barney Hatt, and Tesla Motors were also honored with the 2007 Index Design Award.
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