Tesla Origins in the Industry

Tesla, Inc. was founded in 2003 by CEO Elon Musk and is based out of Palo Alto, California. The company’s main goal is to “create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles.” Tesla is invested in other products besides electric cars including lithium-ion batteries and they own a subsidiary called SolarCity that works on residential solar panels. Tesla like many companies, started with private investing from the likes of Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, and Elon Musk. The reason why Tesla was created to even begin with was when back in 2003 GM forcibly recalled and crushed their electric car the EV1.

Tesla’s marketing strategy is much different than other manufacturing companies. Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has a master plan to succeed. Step 1 is to create a low volume car, which would need to be expensive. Step 2 is to use that money to create a medium volume car at a lower price. Step 3 is to use the money from that project to create a high volume mass produced car that is affordable. Their first production car was a roadster aimed at wealthy early adopters back in 2005. Tesla took the profits earned from this and created a car that was more mainstream and attainable compared to the roadster. This was the Model S released in 2012, but Tesla noticed that there was still a gap to fill for their customers. This appeared in the form of the Model X crossover SUV in 2015. This product was aimed at conforming to market preferences which, at the time, was asking for a crossover SUV. Last, but not least is the Model 3. This is Tesla’s attempt to push out an affordable car for the masses like they have been planning for years. This was released in the summer of 2017, so it is still a work in progress and we will have to wait and see if this will be a successful part of their master plan. Judging from the amount of preorders (nearly 500,000) the Model 3 is quite a hit with the market.