Tesla
Tesla, Inc. is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, it designs, manufactures and sells battery electric vehicles (BEVs), stationary battery energy storage devices from home to grid-scale, solar panels and solar shingles, and related products and services.
Tesla was founded in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning as Tesla Motors. Its name is a tribute to inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla. In February 2004, Elon Musk joined as Tesla's largest shareholder; in 2008, he was named chief executive officer. In 2008, the company began production of its first car model, the Roadster sports car, followed by the Model S sedan in 2012, the Model X SUV in 2015, the Model 3 sedan in 2017, the Model Y crossover in 2020, the Tesla Semi truck in 2022 and the Cybertruck pickup truck in 2023. In June 2021 the Model 3 became the first electric car to sell 1 million units globally. In 2023, the Model Y was the best-selling vehicle, of any kind, globally.
Tesla is one of the world's most valuable companies in terms of market capitalization. In October 2021, Tesla temporarily became a trillion-dollar company, the seventh U.S. company to do so. In 2023, the company led the battery electric vehicle market, with 19.9% share. Also in 2023, the company was ranked 69th in the Forbes Global 2000. As of March 2024, it is the world's most valuable automaker. Tesla has been the subject of lawsuits, government scrutiny, and journalistic criticism, stemming from allegations of multiple cases of whistleblower retaliation, worker rights violations such as sexual harassment and anti-union activities, safety defects leading to dozens of recalls, the lack of a public relations department, and controversial statements from Musk including overpromising on the company's driving assist technology and product release timelines.
On July 15, 2013, Tesla became a NASDAQ-100 company.
Tesla announced the Tesla Autopilot, a driver-assistance system, in 2014. In September that year, all Tesla cars started shipping with sensors and software to support the feature, with what would later be called "hardware version 1".
Tesla entered the energy storage market, unveiling its Tesla Powerwall (home) and Tesla Powerpack (business) battery packs in April 2015. The company received orders valued at $800 million within a week of the unveiling.
Tesla began shipping its third vehicle, the luxury SUV Tesla Model X, in September 2015, which had 25,000 pre-orders at the time.
The Cybertruck is a full-sized pickup truck. First announced in November 2019, pilot production began in July 2023, after being pushed back multiple times, and deliveries began on November 30, 2023. Tesla’s 2024 revenues were $97.7 bn.