it is not to be confused with nikola tesla electric car hoax . tesla motors inc. tesla headquarters in palo alto type public traded as nasdaq tsla nasdaq 100 component1 spbex tsla industry automotive energy storage founded july 2003 ; 13 years ago 2003 07 founders martin eberhard original marc tarpenning original jb straubel elon musk ian wright headquarters palo alto california united states area served worldwide key people elon musk chairman ceo 1 jb straubel cto jason wheeler cfo products electric cars rechargeable battery systems revenue us 4.05 b 2 2015 operating income us 716.6 m 2 2015 net income us 888.7 m 2 2015 total assets us 8.09 b 2 2016 total equity us 1.08 b 2 2016 owner elon musk 22.25 % 3 number of employees 14k 2016 4 2016 website tesla.com footnotes references 5 tesla motors often shortened to tesla is an american automaker and energy storage company co founded in july 2003 originally by martin eberhard and marc tarpenning with jb straubel elon musk and ian wright and is based in palo alto california . the company specializes in electric cars and their powertrain components and also produces battery charging equipment . 6 7 8 tesla first gained widespread attention following its production of the tesla roadster the first electric sports car in 2008 . 9 the company s second vehicle the model s an electric luxury sedan debuted in 2012 . in q1 2013 tesla released its stock profits for the first time from its nasdaq ticker symbol . 10 11 global sales for the model s passed 100k units in december 2015 three and a half years after its introduction 12 and it was the world s best selling plug in vehicle that year . 13 as of october 2016 update it ranks as the world s second best selling plug in overall after the nissan leaf . 14 the car was then followed by the model x a crossover suv . tesla s next vehicle is the model 3 15 which was unveiled in march 2016 and is slated for release in 2017 with a price at us 35 000 before any government incentives . 16 17 as of 30 september 2016 update tesla has sold more than 163 000 cars worldwide since delivery of its first roadster in 2008 . 18 19 20 musk the ceo has said that he envisions tesla motors as an independent automaker 21 aimed at eventually offering electric cars at prices affordable to the average consumer . 22 23 tesla manufactures equipment for home and office battery charging and has installed a network of high powered superchargers across north america europe and asia . 24 the company also operates a destination charging program under which shops restaurants and other venues are offered fast chargers for their customers . 25 contents 1 overview 2 history 2.1 the beginnings roadster and private funding 2.2 ipo and model s 2.2.1 production and sales 3 corporate strategy 3.1 sales model 3.1.1 us dealerships and automotive dealership disputes 3.1.2 certified pre owned program 4 technology 4.1 batteries 4.2 technology sharing 4.3 autopilot 5 competition 6 car models 6.1 tesla roadster 6.2 model s 6.3 model x 6.4 model 3 6.5 future models 7 battery products 8 supercharger network 9 destination charging network 10 facilities 10.1 united states 10.1.1 tesla factory 10.1.2 gigafactory 10.2 canada 10.3 europe 10.4 asia 10.5 australia 11 partners 11.1 daimler ag 11.1.1 mercedes benz a class 11.1.2 mercedes benz b class ed 11.1.3 smart fortwo 11.2 toyota 11.2.1 toyota rav4 ev 11.2.2 freightliner electric van 11.3 panasonic 11.4 airbnb 12 lawsuits and controversies 12.1 fisker automotive 12.2 founder dispute 12.3 top gear 12.4 ecotricity 12.5 cold weather 12.6 website and twitter account compromised 12.7 electrical consumption of tesla model s 2014 variant 12.8 sec investigation 12.9 solarcity acquisition shareholder litigation 13 product issues 13.1 recalls 13.2 crashes and fires 13.3 delays 13.4 hacking 13.5 servicing 14 board of directors 15 see also 16 references 17 further reading 18 external links overview edit tesla motors financial performance tesla motors is named after electrical engineer and physicist nikola tesla . 26 27 the tesla roadster uses an ac motor descended directly from tesla s original 1882 design . 28 the tesla roadster the company s first vehicle was the first production automobile to use lithium ion battery cells and the first production ev with a range greater than 200 miles 320 km per charge . 29 between 2008 and march 2012 tesla sold more than 2 250 roadsters in 31 countries . 30 31 32 tesla stopped taking orders for the roadster in the u.s. market in august 2011 . 33 in december 2012 tesla employed almost 3 000 full time employees . 5 34 by december 31 2015 this number had grown to 13 058 employees . 35 tesla unveiled the tesla model s all electric sedan on march 26 2009 36 and began deliveries in june 2012 . 37 first deliveries of the model x began in september 2015 . 38 global sales of the model s passed the 100 000 unit milestone in december 2015 three years and a half after its introduction . 12 the model 3 the company s first model aimed for the mass market was unveiled in march 2016 . a week after the unveiling global reservations totaled 325 000 units representing potential sales of over us 14 billion . 16 39 history edit further information timeline of tesla motors main article history of tesla motors the beginnings roadster and private funding edit the insignia of tesla motors as seen on a tesla roadster sport tesla motors was incorporated in july 2003 by martin eberhard and marc tarpenning who financed the company until the series a round of funding . 40 musk led the series a round of investment in february 2004 joining tesla s board of directors as its chairman as well as in operational roles . musk was the controlling investor in tesla from the first financing round funding the large majority of the series a capital investment round of us 7.5 million with personal funds . tesla s early primary goal was to commercialize electric vehicles starting with a premium sports car aimed at early adopters and then moving as rapidly as possible into more mainstream vehicles including sedans and affordable compacts for the mass market 41 42 serving as a catalyst to accelerate the day of electric vehicles . 43 44 tesla motors signed a production contract on july 11 2005 with group lotus to produce gliders complete cars minus powertrain . 45 the contract ran through march 2011 but the two automakers extended the deal to keep the electric roadster in production through december 2011 with a minimum number of 2 400 units . 46 musk led tesla motors series b us 13 million investment round . musk co led the third us 40 million round in may 2006 . tesla s third round included investment from prominent entrepreneurs including google co founders sergey brin & larry page . 47 the fourth round in may 2007 added another us 45 million and brought the total investments to over us 105 million through private financing . according to musk tesla was forced to reduce the company workforce by about 10 % to lower its burn rate which was out of control in 2007 . 48 in may 2008 the truth about cars launched a tesla death watch as tesla needed another round of finance to survive . in october 2008 musk became ceo and fired 25 % of tesla employees . 49 drori became vice chairman but then left the company in december . in december a fifth round added another us 40 million avoiding bankruptcy . 50 51 by january 2009 tesla had raised us 187 million and delivered 147 cars . musk had contributed us 70 million of his own money to the company . 48 52 the prototype model s was displayed at a press conference on march 26 2009 . 53 on may 19 2009 germany s daimler ag maker of mercedes benz acquired an equity stake of less than 10 % of tesla for a reported us 50 million 54 55 in effect saving tesla . 56 toyota provided a similar amount in 2010 . 55 the tesla obelisk is used to identify the supercharger network sites in california . in june 2009 tesla was approved to receive us 465 million in low interest bearing loans from the 2007 us 8 billion advanced technology vehicles manufacturing loan program by the united states department of energy 57 whereas ford got 5.9 billion and nissan got 1.6 billion . 55 the funding came in 2010 and supported engineering and production of the model s sedan as well as the development of commercial powertrain technology . 57 tesla repaid the loan in may 2013 as the first of the automakers to repay . 58 ipo and model s edit on june 29 2010 tesla motors launched its initial public offering ipo on nasdaq . 13 300 000 shares of common stock were issued to the public at a price of us 17.00 per share . 59 the ipo raised us 226 million for the company . 60 it was the first american car maker to go public since the ford motor company had its ipo in 1956 61 and by 2014 tesla had market value half that of ford . 62 model s deliveries began in june 2012 . as of 2014 update tesla has a us corporate average fuel economy cafe of 276 mpg . 63 tesla makes its cars at the tesla factory in california . as a result of the high demand for model 3 in may 2016 tesla motors announced its decision to advance its 500 000 total unit build plan combined for model s model x and model 3 to 2018 two years earlier than previously planned in order to accelerate its target for model 3 output . 64 65 this in turn can allow more model 3 buyers to benefit from the 7 500 us tax credit before the limit of 200 000 cars per maker since 2010 reduces the credit . 66 67 68 tesla has financed operations production development administration etc. partly by sales income stock offering and bond sales . the us authorities encourage production of non polluting vehicles electric or other by legislating incentives for manufacturers usually tax credits and zev credits from other manufacturers . 69 in may 2013 tesla raised 1.02 billion 660m from bonds partially to repay the doe loans after their first profitable quarter 70 71 in february 2014 2 billion from bonds building gigafactory 71 in august 2015 738 million in stock for the model x 72 and in may 2016 1.46 billion in stock 1.26 billion for the model 3 . 73 tesla has raised over 4.5 billion since the ipo in 2010 . 74 as of january 29 2016 musk owns about 28.9 million tesla shares which equates to about 22 % of the company . 75 76 tesla states that its automotive branch has a gross margin of 23.1 % as of 2q2016 . however expenditures 77 for future operation are bigger than product profit resulting in a net loss . 78 production and sales edit quarter total production model s sales model x sales total sales in transit a source q1 2015 11 160 10 045 0 10 045 79 q2 2015 12 807 11 532 0 11 532 80 q3 2015 13 091 11 597 6 11 603 81 q4 2015 14 037 17 272 206 17 478 82 q1 2016 15 510 12 420 2 400 14 820 2 615 65 q2 2016 18 345 9 764 4 638 14 402 5 150 18 83 q3 2016 25 185 15 800 8 700 24 500 5 500 19 goods in transit are produced but not