Tesla Motors

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tesla Motors, Inc.
Type Startup
Founded 2003
Headquarters San Carlos, California
Key people Martin Eberhard (CEO)
Elon Musk (Chairman of the Board)
Industry Automotive
Products Tesla Roadster
Employees 170 +
Website http://www.teslamotors.com
Motto: "Burn rubber, not gasoline"

Tesla Motors, Inc. is a Silicon Valley automobile startup company focusing on the production of high performance, consumer-oriented electric vehicles. The firm was started in 2003 by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in San Carlos, and has since grown to include several team members with extensive computer, electrical, and automotive engineering backgrounds from around the world.

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Initial investment came from PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, who became Tesla's Chairman of the Board, leading Tesla's first two rounds and co-leading the third together with VantagePoint Venture Partners. Tesla's third round also included investment from prominent entrepreneurs, such as Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and former eBay president Jeff Skoll.

The company has raised over $60 million US through private financing. Elon Musk, who was President of PayPal before being bought by eBay, has contributed $30 million of his own money into the company.

Tesla Motors' first production vehicle, the Tesla Roadster, is a performance sports car. According to the company, the car has a range of 250 miles (400 km), acceleration from 0 to 60 mph (100 km/h) in 3.9 seconds, and a top speed of 130 mph (210 km/h). Prototypes were introduced to the public in July 2006, and the first production models are planned for fall 2007. Demand was high for the first 'Signature One Hundred' Roadsters, which sold out in less than three weeks.[1] According to a note on the company's web site, as of November 2006 the full run of the "2007 1/2" model have been sold out, constituting 220+ cars. As of March 15 2007, over 350 Tesla Roadsters have been reserved.[1]

Tesla plans to offer home roof mounted solar-photovoltaic systems through Solar City that will offset power used by the home charger, allowing 50 miles (80 km) of travel per day without burdening the power grid, thus making the package "energy positive" for a driver whose average daily mileage is less than that.

Tesla is also currently working on an unannounced sedan, codenamed "White Star", which may be introduced in 2009 as a 2010 model. It is being designed as an alternative to the BMW 5 Series, with an estimated price of $50,000-70,000. [2] White Star is to be built in a new plant in New Mexico.

Future plans include a more affordable third model. The development and production of this unnamed model will be funded by profits from the White Star sedan.[2]

Tesla Motors' headquarters are located in San Carlos, California. Much of the development of the Tesla Roadster occurred here.

Tesla Motors has facilities in England related to the assembly of the Tesla Roadster.

The Tesla Roadster is currently being manufactured by Lotus Cars in Hethel, England.

Tesla Motors has facilities in Taiwan for motor production. These will be used in the Tesla Roadster and the Tesla White Star.

The Michigan Technical Center, located in Rochester Hills, Michigan, opened January 26, 2007. It is a 19,240 square-foot facility located at 1840 Enterprise Drive. Approximately $47.7 million will be spent on tooling.

The primary focus of the facility is on research & development for future Tesla products. The first priority is the four-door electric sports sedan project codenamed “WhiteStar”. It will be a four door, five-passenger, lightweight, high-performance sedan planned for production around 2009.

The unnamed affordable third model will also be developed here.

The region has an existing base of automotive companies, facilities and engineering talent, with thousands of highly experienced automotive experts. Utilizing these existing resources will reduce costly investments for Tesla Motors.

Tesla Motors is constructing a new plant for mass production of its next vehicles, currently known as the Tesla White Star. The company announced plans to build the facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The facility is in Cordera Mesa, Bernalillo County, adjacent to a new Tempur-Pedic plant on the west side of the city,

Over 400 people will work at the assembly facility. A total capital investment of $35 million is projected to be be spent on the 150,000 square foot plant. Competition for the plant was intense, as several states including California, Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Michigan were vying for the investment.

SunCal, a land development company, has pledged to provide up to 75 acres (300,000 m²) of land next to the initial site at no cost, if Tesla Motors undertakes a major expansion in the future. SunCal recently acquired approximately 57,000 acres (230 km²) acres on Albuquerque’s west side.

Construction will begin in April 2007, with completion expected by 2009, including tooling. Tesla Motors has stated that it intends to offer the Tesla White Star for sale in the Fall of 2009.

This facility will be the world's first factory dedicated to the mass production of electric vehicles. Tesla Motors expects to initially build several thousand sedans a year but may later expand.[3][4] The company intends to produce at least 10,000 Tesla White Stars per year.

Service Centers for the Tesla Roadster are planned for the following United States Metropolitan Areas:

There are currently no planned service center locations outside of the United States.

There is minimal maintenance required of an electric vehicle. There are no oil changes and brake maintenance is minor due to regenerative braking.

Tesla Motors will build additional service centers over the next few years in order to support sales of its next vehicle, the sports sedan currently codename the Tesla White Star. "To do 10,000 units for Whitestar, we need to be in a lot more places," said Darryl Siry, Vice president of Marketing.

Tesla uses several domestic and overseas suppliers and partners.

Tesla Motors has licensed key technologies from AC Propulsion, including a modified drivetrain.

Tesla has a significant relationship with Lotus Cars. A design contest was held for the final styling of the Tesla Roadster, then codenamed Dark Star, which Lotus's design studio won. The roadster is based on a modified Lotus Elise chassis, and includes other components from the Elise. Final assembly of the Tesla Roadster is done by Lotus Cars in Hethel, England.

The brakes and airbags of the Tesla Roadster are made in Germany

The chassis of the Tesla Roadster is made in Norway

The batteries are assembled into sheets for integration into the Energy Storage System by Tesla in Thailand.[3]

Tesla Motors is named after Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer and scientist. The principal visionary and inventor of alternating current, Tesla's designs and ideas changed the world, providing a stable means of delivering electricity over enormous distances; his battle with Edison over this issue went on for years with Tesla and Westinghouse ultimately triumphing. The Tesla Roadster's powerplant is basically a Tesla three-phase electric motor.

  • Elon Musk - Chairman of the board of directors, former President of Paypal, founder and CEO of SpaceX
  • Martin Eberhard - Co-founder and CEO of Tesla Motors
  • Jim Marver - Co-founder and managing partner, VantagePoint Venture Partners
  • Kimbal Musk - CEO of Medium, Inc.
  • Simon Rothman - Former global vice president and general manager for eBay Motors
  • Steve Westly - Former Controller for California
  • Laurie Yoler - Principal, GrowthPoint Technology Partners

  1. ^ "Tesla to open five dealer outlets" (HTML), ZDnet, 2007-03-15. Retrieved on 2007-03-16. (in English)
  2. ^ http://www.teslamotors.com/blog1/?p=8
  3. ^ http://www.forbes.com/technology/2007/03/18/tesla-electric-car-tech-cz_ec_0319valleyletter.html?partner=rss

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