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| Formerly | Tesla Motors, Inc. (2003–February 2017) |
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| Type | Public |
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Traded as
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| ISIN | US88160R1014 |
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| Founded | July 1, 2003 in San Carlos, California, U.S. |
| Founders | See § Founding |
| Headquarters | 13101 Tesla Road,
Austin, Texas
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United States
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Number of locations
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655 retail stores/galleries and service centers (2021) |
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Area served
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Key people
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| Products |
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Production output
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| Services |
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| Revenue |  US$53.8 billion (2021) |
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Operating income
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US$6.52 billion (2021) |
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Net income
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US$5.52 billion (2021) |
| Total assets | US$62.1 billion (2021) |
| Total equity | US$30.2 billion (2021) |
| Owner |
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Number of employees
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99,290 (2021) |
| Subsidiaries |
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| Website | tesla.com |
| Footnotes / references [2][3][4][5][6] |
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Founded in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning as Tesla Motors, the company's name is a tribute to inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla. In February 2004, via a $6.5 million investment, X.com co-founder Elon Musk became the largest shareholder of the company and its chairman. He has served as CEO since 2008. According to Musk, the purpose of Tesla is to help expedite the move to sustainable transport and energy, obtained through electric vehicles and solar power. Tesla began production of its first car model, the Roadster sports car, in 2009. This was followed by the Model S sedan in 2012, the Model X SUV in 2015, the Model 3 sedan in 2017, and the Model Y crossover in 2020. The Model 3 is the all-time best-selling plug-in electric car worldwide, and, in June 2021, became the first electric car to sell 1 million units globally. Tesla's global sales were 936,222 cars in 2021, a 87% increase over the previous year, and cumulative sales totaled 2.3 million cars at the end of 2021. In October 2021, Tesla's market capitalization reached $1 trillion, the sixth company to do so in U.S. history.Tesla, Inc. (/ˈtɛslə/ TESS-lə or /ˈtɛzlə/ TEZ-lə) is an American automotive electric vehicle and clean energy company based in Austin, Texas. Tesla designs and manufactures electric cars, battery energy storage from home to grid-scale, solar panels and solar roof tiles, and related products and services. Tesla is one of the world's most valuable companies and remains the world's most valuable automaker with a market capitalization of more than US $1 trillion. The company had the most worldwide sales of battery electric vehicles and plug-in electric vehicles, capturing 23% of the battery-electric (purely electric) market and 16% of the plug-in market (which includes plug-in hybrids) in 2020. Through its subsidiary Tesla Energy, the company develops and is a major installer of photovoltaic systems in the United States. Tesla Energy is also one of the largest global suppliers of battery energy storage systems, with 3.99 gigawatt-hours (GWh) installed in 2021.
Tesla has been the subject of many lawsuits and controversies arising from statements and acts of CEO Elon Musk and from allegations of creative accounting, whistleblower retaliation, worker rights violations, and unresolved and dangerous technical problems with their products. In September 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) ordered Tesla to submit data pertaining to all sold US vehicles equipped with Autopilot following the agency's investigations into traffic deaths involving the use of Autopilot.
History
Founding (2003–2004)
The company was incorporated as Tesla Motors, Inc. on July 1, 2003, by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Eberhard and Tarpenning served as CEO and CFO, respectively. 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. In February 2004, the company raised $7.5 million in series A funding, including $6.5 million from Elon Musk, who had received $100 million from the sale of his interest in PayPal two years earlier. Musk became the chairman of the board of directors and the largest shareholder of Tesla. J. B. Straubel joined Tesla in May 2004 as chief technical officer.
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.
Source: Wikipedia
