Tesla: Corporation Blog

Tesla is considered the most popular electric car manufacturer but like a lot of companies, their journey to what they have accomplished today has been rough. Tesla was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in San Carlos, California and they first started off by producing an entirely electric sports car in 2008 called the Roadster. The car itself was a successful achievement because its battery range was about 250 miles and it could be charged by simply plugging it in to a standard wall outlet. However, the vehicle was more $100,000, which meant that most consumers couldn’t afford it. After the Roadster was released, changes were announced to the leadership team. Elon Musk, who everyone associates with Tesla today, took over as CEO in October of 2008. The year after, Tesla faced financial problems. The company had insufficient cash on hand but in June of 2009, the Department of Energy handed Tesla a loan of $465 million, which was enough for the company to survive. Tesla also solved their financial problems by entering the stock market. They opened on NASDAQ at $17 a share and raised $226 million. In 2012, the company started producing the Model S, which was a way more affordable car than the roadster. A year later, Tesla announced its first ever quarterly profit. With Tesla vehicles being more in demand, the company decided to build a gigafactory in Nevada. They stated that they would build the batteries for all their factories here and their products expanded to a market outside of electric vehicles. In 2015, Tesla entered the solar power market where they introduced a line of products that would power homes and businesses. It wasn’t a surprise that Elon Musk and the company started producing solar power products. “Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy”(Tesla.com). The company believes that the faster the world stops relying on fossil fuels, the better. With electric vehicles, it’s a step towards a zero emission future. However, in order for Tesla’s vehicles to be efficient, in terms of zero emissions, the electricity that they use has to be sustainable. This means that the electricity it uses can’t come from fossil fuels, which is an issue because most of the world still relies on fossil fuels for their energy. Another issue that Tesla is criticized for their batteries. Their batteries consist of lithium, which isn’t great for the environment. The extraction of lithium is very damaging to the environment and disposing lithium batteries can be difficult. But the damage that Tesla does to the environment is nothing compared to what a conventional car company does. Tesla is becoming more and more popular because it’s a car company that no one has ever seen before. They are technologically advanced, saving the environment, and becoming more affordable. The company just unveiled a new vehicle called the Cybertruck, which is a vehicle that we have never seen before. It has better utility than a truck and more performance than a sports car and its exterior is an exoskeleton made up of stainless steel and armor glass. It’s amazing to see what Tesla is doing at the moment and their future is very promising.