History

2003–2004: Founding

Founded as Tesla Motors, Tesla was incorporated on July 1, 2003, by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. The two founders were influenced to start the company after GM recalled all its EV1 electric cars in 2003 and then destroyed them, and seeing the higher efficiency of battery-electric cars as an opportunity to break the usual correlation between high performance and low mileage. The AC Propulsion tzero 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 Tesla's third employee, joining a few months later. The three raised US$7.5 million in Series A funding in February 2004, with Elon Musk contributing $6.5 million. Musk became chairman of the board of directors, and appointed Eberhard as CEO. J. B. Straubel joined Tesla in May 2004. 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.

2005–2009: Roadster

Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design at a detailed level, but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations. Eberhard acknowledged that Musk was the person who insisted from the beginning on a carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer body and that Musk led design of components ranging from the power electronics module to the headlamps and other styling. Musk received the Global Green 2006 product design award for his design of the Tesla Roadster, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev, and he also received the 2007 Index Design award for his design of the Tesla Roadster.

From the beginning, 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.

In February 2006, Musk led Tesla's Series B $13 million investment round which added Valor Equity Partners to the funding team. Musk co-led the third, $40 million round in May 2006 along with Technology Partners. This 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. Musk led the fourth round in May 2008 which added another $40,167,530 in debt financing, and brought the total investments to over $100 million through private financing.

Prototypes of the Tesla's first car, the Roadster, were officially revealed to the public on July 19, 2006, in Santa Monica, California, at a 350-person invitation-only event held in Barker Hangar at Santa Monica Airport. Tesla began production of the Roadster in 2008.

2010–2015: IPO, Model S and Model X

In January 2010 Tesla received a $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, which it repaid in 2013.

In May 2010, Tesla purchased what would become the Tesla Factory in Fremont, California, for $42 million, and opened the facility in October 2010 where Model S would be produced.

On June 29, 2010, Tesla Motors launched its initial public offering (IPO) on NASDAQ, the first American car company to do so since the Ford Motor Company had its IPO in 1956.

In June 2012, Tesla launched its second car, the Model S luxury sedan.

In September 2015, Tesla launched its first SUV, the Model X.

2016–present: SolarCity, Model 3 and Model Y

In November 2016, Tesla acquired SolarCity.

In February 2017, Tesla Motors shortened its name to Tesla, Inc. Tesla began selling the Model 3 sedan in July 2017.

For the year 2019, Tesla posted a loss of $862 million on total revenues of $24.6 billion.

On January 10, 2020, Tesla become the most valuable American automaker to ever exist, with a market capitalization of $86 billion.

In March 2020, Tesla began deliveries of the Model Y crossover.

On June 10, 2020, Tesla's market capitalization surpassed those of BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen's combined marked capitalization. The value for Tesla was 165 billion €, the combined value for the 3 German car manufacturer's was 156 billion €.

On July 1, 2020, Tesla reached a market capitalization of $206 billion, surpassing Toyota's $202 billion to become the world's most valuable automaker by market capitalization.

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; it was announced on November 16, 2020, that it will occur prior to trading on December 21, 2020.

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

In November 2020, it was announced that Tesla would be added to the S&P 500 on December 21st of the same year. This would be an unprecedented addition for the S&P, with Tesla being the largest company to join as the sixth largest company in the index.