The story behind the great Tesla and its success often remains as a huge inspiration for people to reach greater heights and it helps to broaden the minds of people. The main motive of founding Tesla was the transition to sustainable energy. And, of course, Tesla was founded by the engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in San Carlos, California in 2003 as an initiative to build an entirely electric car that they dreamt of. They were influenced to start the company after General Motors‘ previous electric car experiment, the EV1. It was considered a success, though it was never released for public purchase. They determined to prove to the world that it was possible to invent an electric vehicle. They trusted that the future of the world would be better without the emission of gasoline sources and tended to find an alternative in the form of an electric vehicle. Tesla is noted for its contributions to electrical engineering and later became a cultural icon among engineers. It was named after the inventor of the 19th century, Nicola Tesla, because the brain of the company is its mechanism. The invention of the electric vehicle relies on his discovery of rotating electromagnetic fields.
Eberhard served as CEO and Tarpenning as CFO. And how does the story of Tesla and its success exist without Elon Musk? Right! He came into Tesla in 2004 as an investor as the three Eberhard, Tarpenning and Wright the third employee went on looking for venture capital and joined Elon Musk. He cofounded PayPal and founded the spacecraft company SpaceX. Prior to his arrival, both Eberhard and Tarpenning played an active role in the company’s development after Musk led a series in the first round of investment, he became the majority shareholder and joined the board of directors. He took an active role within the company, but he wasn’t involved in day-to-day business operations. He is the one to put forward many private investors in Tesla. He invested $6.5 million of the initial $7.5 million in 2004, which included many private investors, compass technology partners, and SDL ventures, and in February 2004, a $13 million investment round, which added Valor Equity Partners to the funding team. In May 2006, he joined hands with technology partners and led the third round of $40 million, which included investment from predominant entrepreneurs and corporates such as Google, former eBay president Nick Pritzker, VC firms, and Capricorn Management. And through the fourth round, he brought the total investment of $100 million through private financing. Apart from the investments, Musk insisted on the design of components that include electronics modules and styling designs, and he received the Global Green 2006 award for product design for the Roadster along with Mikhail Gorbachev, who received the Index Design Award for the Roadster.
However, in 2006, Tesla unveiled the prototype of the Roadster and it entered production in 2008. The Electric Roadster was the first model in the story of Tesla and reason for its success, and it achieved something that no company ever had. Many previous experiments by various ventures in this field were failed because they never met the desirable specifications, but Roadster met those needs. Mostly, companies found it difficult to produce the most powerful batteries to make the cars as efficient as gasoline-powered sports cars, but the Roadster achieved 245 miles on a single charge, and it could accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than four seconds and could reach a top speed of 125 miles per hour. Like many electronic devices, the Roadster also uses a lithium-ion battery structure, and consumers should recharge the car accordingly. However, due to the high costs, they were unable to make the roadster the most viable consumer product. The major issue the company faced is the charging time that is common in all electric vehicles. It requires between 24 and 48 hours to recharge the Roadster on a standard outlet. And the very big added advantage is the light weight of the car body and the fact that it is made of carbon fibre, for which Musk was awarded before. From 2010 to 2014, Tesla sold about 2450 Roadsters in over 30 countries and produced about 2,000 Roadsters.
A turning point in the story of Tesla took place in the 2007 and 2008 financial crisis as Eberhard resigned his post as a CEO and joined the advisory board of the latter, which was also mentioned by him as he was ousted from the firm. Eventually, he was let out of the company in 2008, and Tarpenning was also left out of the venture in 2008. This is when Elon Musk obtained the position of CEO, and in 2009 there was a lawsuit agreement. And in 2012, Tesla stopped the production of the Roadster and started to concentrate on its new Tesla Model S sedan, releasing it in 2013 and in 2016, the Model X sports utility vehicle (SUV), and the Model 3 in 2017. It built stations called “superchargers” in the United States and Europe designed for charging the batteries quickly and at considerable cost. It released the Model X, a crossover vehicle, in 2015 and another crossover, the Model Y, in 2020. Apart from electric vehicles, it branched out into solar energy products, converting battery usage to home appliances. It bought the solar panel company SolarCity in 2016, rooftop solar panel systems, and it footed its prints in vast areas.