Tesla Motors has a mission: to prove to the world, and especially to consumers, that fully electric cars can compete today in the huge US automobile market, and be fun. cool and awesome, too.
Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal, helped Tesla Motors get started in 2004 with an initial investment of $6.3 million. As a start-up the company had a three stage business plan: first they wanted to develop a high-end sports car as a way to prove that electric cars were both cool and a real possibility. The second step was to produce a luxury sedan that could compete with such stars as BMW and Mercedes. The last step is the production of thousands of inexpensive electric cars that anyone can afford.
Step one was accomplished in 2008 when Tesla manufactured the ‘Roadster.’ About 1,300 of these two-seater sports cars were sold that year. In 2009 the company was able to acquire a loan of $465 from the government from a fund dedicated to supporting the manufacture of alternative vehicles. Thus step two, a head-on confrontation with the conventional car industry by mass-production of the Tesla Model S, a beautiful four-door sedan which got its power from over 7,000 lithium-ion batteries.
Step three is still in the future, but Tesla is looking forward to achieving profitability by 2013, a step which will surely lead it to its final destination as an accepted source of automobiles for the mass of consumers of cars in the United States.
Tesla Motors is headquartered in Palo Alto and employees over 1,400 people. They have over 21 stores all over the world with cars being driven in over 32 countries. Tesla became a publicly owned company on June 29, 2010, and is now listed on NASDAQ.
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