Tesla is a revolutionary company that specialises in electric cars, solar panels and energy storage. Based in Palo Alto, California, the company was founded in 2003 by Elon Musk, JB Strabel, Marc Tarpenning, Martin Eberhard and Ian Wight, under the name Tesla Motors.
The Tesla Inc share price has historically been affected by CEO Elon Musk’s publicity, but who is Elon Musk? Elon Musk is an American businessman originally from South Africa. With a strong background in physics, including a PhD in applied physics and material science from Stanford University, Musk’s business interests follow his scientific background.
His first successful business was Zip2, a software company, the sale of which earned him around $22 million. Musk’s next project, PayPal, an international electronic payment system, proved to be his next success. Its sale in 2002 brought Musk $165 million.
Following up on the successes of his previous projects, Musk founded SpaceX, focused on aerospace and space travel, in 2001, then Tesla in 2003. His other businesses include SolarCity, Hyperloop, OpenAI, Neuralink, The Boring Company and Thud.
Elon Musk was listed by Forbes in 2018 as the 53rd richest person in the world, with a net worth of $20.8 billion.
Tesla has accelerated the world's transition to sustainable green energy. The primary focus of the company is to develop reliable, sustainable alternatives to traditional power sources. Known best for its car models, Tesla also focuses heavily on energy storage and solar panel manufacturing.
The company’s first car, the Tesla Roadster, was launched in 2008 and featured Tesla’s proprietary battery technology and electric powertrain. Since then, the company has gone on to develop a number of other electric-powered vehicles and expanded its charging network worldwide.
Tesla designs and produces electric cars that successfully compete with gasoline-powered vehicles, but without harmful emissions. The company’s luxury segment includes the Tesla Model S, Model X and Roadster cars, while the Tesla Model 3 represents a more affordable, mass-market vehicle.
Additionally, the company is working on its own lorry, known as the Tesla Semi, which is said to be energy efficient and “the safest, most comfortable truck ever.”
The company’s Energy segment focuses on home and commercial sustainable energy generation and storage. This section includes solar panels, a power wall, a solar roof, commercial solar energy and utility services.
Tesla’s website features a real-time carbon dioxide (CO2) counter, illustrating the volume of harmful emissions prevented by Tesla’s vehicles. At the start of May 2018, this was estimated at around 3,344,940 tons. To put this in perspective, an average coal-fired power plant emits approximately 4.6 million tons of CO2 a year.
Tesla is heavily affected by emerging competitors in the electric car industry. According to recent estimates, by 2022 more than 100 different models of electric cars will become available. For example, Volvo has already committed to an all-hybrid or electric car range by 2019.
Company shares also suffered after a Tesla auto-piloted car crashed on an American highway in 2016, marking the first fatal accident with an autonomous vehicle.
Despite the auto-pilot component, the car requires drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. Tesla defended the vehicle suggesting driver misuse, and claiming that while the system reduces the likelihood of a crash, it is unable to fully prevent one from happening.
Despite the negative news, Tesla broke new ground in 2018. In cooperation with SpaceX, a Tesla car was launched into space inside Musk’s revolutionary rocket, the Falcon Heavy.
Since its initial listing in 2010, when 13,300,000 shares were made available at its initial public offering (IPO), the Tesla share price has seen remarkable highs and lows.
Tesla shares are traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker TSLA. Keep up to date with the latest Tesla share price with Capital.com and follow the TSLA charts to stay on top of the Tesla share price (TSLA share price).
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