History of Tesla
Tesla, Inc. was founded in 2003 by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, with the goal of building electric cars that could compete with petrol vehicles. Elon Musk led the company's early funding round in 2004 and became chairman, later taking over as CEO in 2008. JB Straubel and Ian Wright were also early members of the team and are often counted among the company's co-founders.
Tesla's first car, the Roadster, launched in 2008 and showed that electric vehicles could be fast and desirable. In 2010, Tesla went public, becoming one of the first American carmakers to do so since Ford in 1956. The Model S luxury sedan followed in 2012, gaining attention for its range and performance, and the Model X SUV arrived in 2015.
The more affordable Model 3, launched in 2017, and the Model Y crossover in 2020 turned Tesla into a mass-market carmaker. To support this growth, it built large factories, called Gigafactories, in Nevada, Shanghai, Berlin, and Texas. In 2016, Tesla acquired SolarCity, expanding into solar panels and home energy storage products such as the Powerwall. The company also changed its name from Tesla Motors to Tesla, Inc. in 2017 to reflect its broader business.
Tesla has become one of the world's most valuable car companies, although it faces growing competition from Chinese and European electric carmakers. The Cybertruck entered production in 2023, and the company continues to invest in driver-assistance software, robotaxis, and robotics. Elon Musk's political activity has also drawn significant public attention and has affected the brand's reputation in some markets.