It’s extremely hard to conquer a market with a new product, especially if we are talking about innovations. The same concerns electric vehicles, which are becoming a more popular and rational solution for car enthusiasts. Without any doubt, a trendsetter in this industry is Tesla Inc. Salvagebid offers you the chance to find out in detail what the secret of Tesla’s success is and how it managed to become a market leader.
How Everything Has Started
Tesla is perhaps one of the most controversial companies in the world. Someone compares it to the largest financial pyramid of the high-tech century. Others are sure that we have a brand of the future, which is the key to the successful development of responsible and green consumerism in the automotive industry.
Tesla was founded on July 1, 2003, in San Carlos, California, USA, by computer scientists Martin Eberhard and Mark Tarpenning. The company got its name in honor of Nikola Tesla, a world-famous physicist and electromechanical technician. The brand is currently headquartered in Austin, Texas, USA. The position of CEO of the corporation is occupied by billionaire Elon Musk. The main activity of the company is the production of electric vehicles under the same brand name.
It’s hard to believe, but electric cars are the same age as vehicles with an internal combustion engine. Both technologies appeared at approximately the same time — at the end of the 19th century. It so happened that the internal combustion engine won the competition, mainly due to the cheapness and simplicity of the first mass-produced automobiles. In addition, it provided a number of advantages in the form of faster refueling, more engine power, and fuel availability. Use a free VIN decoder to see a full list of VIN specs. Alternatively, you also have the opportunity to conduct a license plate check and get all the necessary vehicle details in just a few clicks.
Road to Success
Friendly relations between the Tesla company owners, Mark Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard, began long before the founding of the enterprise. So back in the mid-90s of the previous century, they launched their first common business, which, however, did not last long.
In 1997, Eberhard personally tested an innovative vehicle by the AC Propulsion company called Tzero, which was powered by a unique lead-acid battery. The car had no analogues in the world at that time, and its characteristics made an indelible impression on Martin. As a result, he decided to invest about half a million dollars in AC Propulsion in order to modernize the Tzero and produce a unique lithium-ion electric car based on it.
Unfortunately, the serial production of the updated Tzero car model never came. The main reason for this was the fact that, after the installation of the electric motor, the price of the vehicle, according to various estimates, exceeded a cosmic $200,000. However, the first failure did not affect the intention of Eberhard and Tarpenning to open their own manufacturing of electric cars, which they nevertheless brought to life in 2003.
In the spring of 2003, Mark Tarpenning became the official owner of the teslamotors.com domain, and Tesla’s birthday is July 1, 2003. By this time, the founders of the company already had a detailed design model of the future electric car. Mark Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard were well aware that, as such, they had no experience in car production. Therefore, they planned to focus exclusively on assembling innovative electric motors, assembling vehicles, and selling them, while all other parts were to be purchased from well-known global automakers.
The Contribution of Elon Musk
It took $7 million to develop the first car model in the company’s history, the Roadster electric car, which the startup received thanks to the involvement of a third investor, Ian Wright, in the project. Some time later, billionaire Elon Musk joined the trio. The founder of SpaceX and co-founder of PayPal, having become interested in the ideas of Eberhard and Tarpenning, invested about $6.5 million in the development of Tesla. This allowed him to take over the board chairman’s post in the company.
As a result, on July 19, 2006, Tesla presented a prototype of the Roadster electric car at the California Auto Show. The presentation of the novelty and its capabilities were a resounding success in the international community, which allowed the company to attract the attention of serious investors. In particular, Google decided to invest more than $100 million in the Roadster’s mass production launch. Soon, on June 29, 2010, Tesla placed its shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange, which allowed it to access serious sources of funding.
In 2012, the announcement of the second Model S production car took place. The first configuration had a range of up to 426 kilometers, or 264 miles, on a single battery charge. Three years later, the company launched the Model X, a full-size electric SUV with automatic front doors. The car was the first configuration to be assembled at the corporation’s own plant, built in California.
A few years later, Tesla designed the Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles. The first one has become the company’s most affordable vehicle, with prices starting at $35,000. The new models were suggested as brand-new projects in the automotive world after the company’s specialists worked on the electric car’s improvements.
Benefits of Tesla Vehicles
According to the consulting firm Strategic Vision, the Model S is one of the most beloved and popular cars on the American market. US buyers appreciate the stylish design and excellent performance of the electric car. Among other advantages of Tesla products, experts note:
- Convenient and simple to control. You can control almost any function or option of the automobile by using the touchpad.
- Dynamics. Car acceleration speeds (up to 60 mph in a few seconds) are enviable even for sports cars.
- The minimum number of mechanisms. Electric vehicles do not have an internal combustion engine and transmission that require regular maintenance and periodic repairs.
- Original and memorable appearance. In our opinion, Tesla is not able to get lost even in dense city traffic.
It is also worth noting the almost silent operation of machines with an electric motor. For connoisseurs of silence in the cabin during operation, a Tesla can be a real find.
Interesting Facts About Tesla
Tesla is designed for at least a million kilometers, or more than 600,000 miles, at a fantastically low maintenance cost. There is practically nothing to break there. The body is aluminum, and even the brakes need to be changed several times less often during the life cycle than in conventional cars. Without a doubt, this iconic brand has much to be proud of.
In 2020, Tesla, together with 26 other American companies, established an organization called ZETA. Its main task is to actively promote the transition to electric cars in various fields of human activity.
Not everyone knows that there were obstacles on the road to success for Tesla. The company had a conflict with the Top Gear program that is popular around the world. In one of the issues, its presenters tested the Roadster model, after which they publicly announced that instead of the 300 kilometers, or 186 miles, that were declared by the manufacturer, the car is capable of covering about 50 to 55 kilometers (30 to 35 miles) on a single charge.
A futuristic and expressive letter “T” was chosen as the company’s logo and is intended to reflect the corporation’s commitment to innovative technologies. RO Studio, which also designed a symbol for another of Elon Musk’s companies, SpaceX, developed the car’s logo. It’s interesting that after the Tesla logo was declassified, rumors quickly spread across the Internet that the symbol of the electric car manufacturer had been “written off” from a cat’s nose.
Summing Up
An electric car is incomparably simpler than a classic vehicle with an internal combustion engine. It does not have a gearbox, fuel system, muffler and exhaust pipe, oil pump, or even a cooling system in a number of configurations, and so on. Due to their simplicity, electric vehicles are much more reliable than other vehicles and require much less repair and maintenance. All the advantages mentioned are ones that Tesla models have. They are the reason for the company’s success.
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