tesla

Tesla, Inc. (formerly Tesla Motors, Inc.) is an American electric vehicle and clean energy company based in Palo Alto, California.^[10] The company specializes in electric vehicle manufacturing, battery energy storage from home to grid scale and, through its acquisition of SolarCity, solar panel and solar roof tile manufacturing.^[11]

Founded in July 2003 by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning as Tesla Motors, the company’s name is a tribute to inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla. The next three employees were Ian Wright, Elon Musk, and J. B. Straubel, all of whom are named as co-founders of the company.^[2] Musk, who formerly served as chairman and is the current CEO, said that he envisioned Tesla Motors as a technology company and independent automaker, aimed at eventually offering electric cars at prices affordable to the average consumer. In February 2017, Tesla Motors shortened its name to Tesla, Inc.

Tesla operates multiple production and assembly plants. Its main vehicle manufacturing facility is at Tesla Factory^[12] in Fremont, California; Giga Nevada,^[13] Giga New York, and Giga Shanghai are other facilities. Its main products include the Model S,^[14] Model 3,^[15] Model X,^[16] and Model Y^[17] cars, and the Powerwall,^[18] Powerpack,^[19] and Megapack^[20] batteries. It also produces and sells solar panels,^[21] solar roof tiles,^[22] and some related products.^[23]

After 11 years in the market, Tesla ranked as the world’s best-selling plug-in and battery electric passenger car manufacturer in 2019, both as a brand and by automotive group, with a market share of 17% of the plug-in segment and 23% of the battery electric segment.^[24] Tesla global vehicle sales increased 50% from 245,240 units in 2018^[25] to 367,849 units in 2019.^[24] In 2020, the company surpassed the 1 million mark of electric cars produced.^[26] The Model 3 ranks as the world’s all-time best-selling plug-in electric car, with more than 500,000 delivered.^[27]

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.^[28]

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