01 July 2003
Tesla founded in California by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning after General Motors recalled its EV1 electric offering. Eberhard said he wanted to build “a car manufacturer that is also a technology company” – a statement that has run true throughout Tesla’s 20 years. The third employee was called Ian Wright. Not the footballer.
2004
ELON ARRIVES as chairman, bringing investment money he earned from inventing PayPal, the online money transfer and payment system. He dropped $6.5 million as venture capital on the project (of a $7.5 million investment round), and oversaw the product design of the Tesla Roadster.
2006
GONG GREEN. Musk receives a Global Green product design award from Mikhail Gorbachev – the final leader of the Soviet Union. Weird.
2007
MARTIN LEAVES. Eberhard is sacked.
2008
MUSK TAKES OVER. And Daimler takes a 10 per cent stake for $50 million – offloaded quite a bit fairly quickly, but still bowed out in 2014 by selling its remaining shares for $780 million. That’s a smart bit of business.
The first Tesla, but not the first bespoke Tesla. The original Roadster was a Lotus Elise gutted and refitted with
