121 Facts About Tesla Motors

Tesla Motors, Inc is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Tesla Motors Energy is one of the largest global suppliers of battery energy storage systems, with 3.

Tesla Motors's name is a tribute to inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla.

Tesla Motors began production of its first car model, the Roadster sports car, in 2009.

Tesla Motors has been the subject of many lawsuits, increasing government scrutiny, and public controversies arising from statements and acts of CEO Elon Musk and from allegations of creative accounting, whistleblower retaliation, worker rights violations, and unresolved and dangerous technical problems with their products.

Related searches

Tesla Motors's strategy was to start with a premium sports car aimed at early adopters and then move into more mainstream vehicles, including sedans and affordable compacts.

In June 2009, Tesla Motors was approved to receive $465 million in interest-bearing loans from the United States Department of Energy.

Tesla Motors repaid the loan in May 2013, with $12 million interest.

In May 2010, Tesla purchased what would later become the Tesla Factory in Fremont, California, from Toyota for $42 million, and opened the facility in October 2010 to start production of the Model S On June 29, 2010, the company became a public company via an initial public offering on NASDAQ, the first American car company to do so since the Ford Motor Company had its IPO in 1956.

In January 2012, Tesla Motors ceased production of the Roadster, and in June the company launched its second car, the Model S luxury sedan.

Tesla Motors announced the Tesla Motors Autopilot, a driver-assistance system, in 2014.

Tesla Motors received orders valued at $800 million within a week of the unveiling.

Tesla Motors began shipping its third vehicle, the luxury SUV Tesla Motors Model X, in September 2015, at which time it had 25, 000 pre-orders.

The solar installation business was merged with Tesla Motors's existing battery energy storage products division to form the Tesla Motors Energy subsidiary.

In February 2017, Tesla Motors changed its name to Tesla, Inc, to better reflect the scope of its expanded business, which now included electric vehicles, battery energy storage systems, and solar power generation.

Tesla Motors made multiple contributions of solar power to areas recovering from disasters in 2017, in particular installing a solar plus storage system to restore electricity at a hospital in Puerto Rico, following the destruction from Hurricane Maria.

Tesla Motors began selling its fourth vehicle model, the Model 3 sedan, in July 2017.

Tesla Motors opened its first "Gigafactory" outside the United States in Shanghai, China, in 2019.

The following year Tesla Motors started construction on a new Gigafactory near Berlin, Germany, and another in Texas, United States.

In March 2020, Tesla Motors began deliveries of its fifth vehicle model, the Model Y crossover.

In July 2021, Musk acknowledged that Tesla Motors had sold Maxwell to the former VP of sales for Maxwell.

In October 2020, Tesla Motors told Electrek that it had dissolved its public relations department (with the exception of a few PR managers representing Tesla Motors's European and Asian markets), becoming the first automaker to do so.

At the time, Musk tweeted that "Bitcoin paid to Tesla Motors will be retained as Bitcoin, not converted to fiat currency.

However, Musk stated that Tesla Motors would continue to operate its Fremont factory in the San Francisco Bay Area, and will continue to expand in California.

In September 2021, Tesla Motors broke ground on a new battery factory in Lathrop, California, and signed a lease in October 2021 for additional office space in Palo Alto.

Related searches

On March 22, 2022, Tesla Motors launched its new car factory outside Berlin, with Chief Executive Elon Musk handing over the first deliveries to customers.

Tesla Motors has plans for a second-generation Roadster, a semi-truck, and a pickup called the Cybertruck.

In June 2020, Tesla Motors announced that the Model S Long Range Plus had an EPA range of 402 miles, the highest of any battery electric vehicle at the time.

Tesla Motors Semi is an all-electric Class 8 semi-trailer truck announced in November 2017.

Musk dashed hopes for a Tesla Motors motorcycle, saying in 2018 "we're not going to do motorcycles".

In 2020, Musk said Tesla Motors expects to have a $25, 000 electric car within 3 years, which "will basically be on-par or slightly better than a comparable gasoline car".

Subsidiary was created by the merger of Tesla Motors's existing battery energy storage products division with SolarCity, a solar energy company that Tesla Motors acquired in 2016.

Tesla Motors Energy develops software to allow customers to monitor and control their systems.

Tesla Motors receives service revenue from its vehicle customers after their initial purchase; these revenues reached $1.

In July 2021, Tesla Motors made Full Self-Driving available as a monthly subscription.

In 2012, Tesla Motors began building a network of 480-volt fast-charging Supercharger stations.

In 2014, Tesla Motors launched the "Destination Charging location" network by providing chargers to hotels, restaurants, shopping centers and resorts to provide on-site vehicle charging at twice the power of a typical home charging station.

Destination chargers are installed free of charge by Tesla Motors-certified contractors; the locations originally were required to provide the electricity at no cost to their customers.

Tesla Motors offers the option to unlock features in the car through over-the-air software upgrades after purchase.

All Tesla Motors cars come with "Standard Connectivity" which provides navigation using a cellular connection, and the following only over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth: internet browsing, music streaming, and, when parked, video streaming and "caraoke".

Tesla Motors has said that it does not want to make a profit on vehicle servicing, which has traditionally been a large profit center for most auto dealerships.

In 2016, Tesla Motors recommended having any Tesla Motors car inspected every 12, 500 miles or once a year, whichever comes first.

On June 4, 2017, the American Automobile Association raised insurance rates for Tesla Motors owners following a report from the Highway Loss Data Institute.

Tesla Motors said that the analysis is "severely flawed and not reflective of reality", however, Tesla Motors failed to provide any contradictory numbers.

At the time of Tesla Motors's founding in 2003, electric vehicles were very expensive.

Related searches

In 2006, Elon Musk stated that Tesla Motors's strategy was to first produce high-price, low-volume vehicles, such as sports cars, for which customers are less sensitive to price.

Tesla Motors is the first automaker in the United States to sell cars directly to consumers.

Tesla Motors produces vehicle components as well as building proprietary stations where customers can charge their vehicles.

Tesla Motors used low-cost strategy as a business approach, with which they can expand their business into a broader market by offering standard technology items.

Tesla Motors generally allows its competitors to license its technology, stating that it wants to help its competitors accelerate the world's use of sustainable energy.

Tesla Motors retains control of its other intellectual property, such as trademarks and trade secrets to prevent direct copying of its technology.

Tesla Motors was the first automaker to use batteries containing thousands of small, cylindrical, lithium-ion commodity cells like those used in consumer electronics.

Tesla Motors uses a version of these cells that is designed to be cheaper to manufacture and lighter than standard cells by removing some safety features; according to Tesla Motors, these features are redundant because of the advanced thermal management system and an intumescent chemical in the battery to prevent fires.

Tesla Motors preferred recycling over re-use for grid once they reach the end of their useful life for vehicles.

Tesla Motors launched its battery recycling operation at Giga Nevada in 2019.

Tesla Motors acquired two battery companies: Maxwell Technologies, acquired for over $200 million – but sold in 2021 and Hibar Systems.

Two weeks before Battery Day, Tesla Motors paid a total of $3 to buy several battery manufacturing patent applications from Springpower International, a small Canadian battery company.

Tesla Motors said this would be achieved by a more efficient production process, new battery design, cheaper resources for the anode and cathode, and better integration into the vehicle.

Since September 2014, all Tesla Motors cars are shipped with sensors and software to support Autopilot.

Tesla Motors upgraded its sensors and software in October 2016 to support full self-driving in the future.

In 2020, Tesla Motors released software updates where its cars recognize and automatically stop at stop signs and traffic lights.

In May 2021, Tesla Motors removed the radar sensor and radar features from its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, opting instead to rely on camera vision alone.

Whereas Waymo, Cruise, and other companies are relying on highly detailed three-dimensional maps, lidar, and cameras, as well as radar and ultrasonic sensors in their autonomous vehicles, Tesla Motors's approach is to use coarse-grained two-dimensional maps and cameras (no lidar) as well as radar and ultrasonic sensors.

Tesla Motors's self-driving software has been trained on over 20 billion miles driven by Tesla Motors vehicles as of January 2021.

Tesla Motors designed a self-driving computer chip that has been installed in its cars since March 2019.

Related searches

In March 2021, according to a letter that Tesla Motors sent to the California Department of Motor Vehicles about FSD's capability – acquired by PlainSite via a public records request – Tesla Motors stated that FSD is not capable of autonomous driving and is only at Society of Automotive Engineers Level 2 automation.

In September 2022, Tesla Motors revealed prototypes of its proposed humanoid robot Optimus, which Musk has stated uses the same core software as FSD.

In 2010, Tesla Motors moved its corporate headquarters and opened a powertrain development facility in Palo Alto.

Between 2017 and 2020 Tesla Motors partnered with Panasonic to assemble photovoltaic modules at the plant.

In May 2020, after Alameda County had refused to let the Tesla Motors factory reopen after a COVID-19 lockdown, Elon Musk threatened that he would move the company's headquarters from California to Texas or Nevada.

On December 1, 2021, Tesla Motors officially relocated its headquarters to the Gigafactory site in Austin, Texas.

Tesla Motors acquired a former JC Penney distribution center near Lathrop, California in 2021 to build a Megafactory to manufacture Megapacks.

Tesla Motors opened its first European store in June 2009 in London.

In late 2016, Tesla Motors acquired German engineering firm Grohmann Engineering as a new division dedicated to helping Tesla Motors increase the automation and effectiveness of its manufacturing process.

Tesla Motors announced its plans to build a car and battery factory in Europe in 2016.

Tesla Motors opened its first Japanese showroom in Tokyo, Japan, in October 2010.

In July 2018, Tesla Motors signed an agreement with Chinese authorities to build a factory in Shanghai, China, which was Tesla Motors's first Gigafactory outside of the United States.

Tesla Motors opened the first Australian showroom in Sydney in 2010, followed by a showroom and service center in Melbourne in 2015.

One of the first Tesla Motors customers was Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority which ordered 200 Tesla Motors Model S and Model X vehicles that were added to Dubai Taxi Corporation's fleet.

In July 2014, Panasonic reached a basic agreement with Tesla Motors to participate in battery production at Giga Nevada.

In September 2020, Tesla Motors signed a sales agreement with Piedmont Lithium to buy high-purity lithium ore for up to ten years, specifically to supply "spodumene concentrate from Piedmont's North Carolina mineral deposit".

Tesla Motors has a range of minor partnerships, for instance working with Airbnb and hotel chains to install destination chargers at selected locations.

Tesla Motors supplied battery packs for Freightliner Trucks' Custom Chassis electric van in 2010.

Tesla Motors built electric-powertrain components for the Mercedes-Benz A-Class E-Cell, with 500 cars planned to be built for trial in Europe beginning in September 2011.

Tesla Motors produced and co-developed the Mercedes-Benz B250e's powertrain, which ended production in 2017.

Related searches

Tesla Motors supplied the lithium metal-oxide battery and other powertrain components based on components from the Roadster.

Toyota engineers rejected designs that Tesla Motors had proposed for an enclosure to protect the RAV4 EV's battery pack.

In 2014, Tesla Motors ended up adding a titanium plate to protect the Model S sedan's battery after some debris-related crashes lead to cars catching fire.

Tesla Motors has used NDAs on multiple occasions with both employees and customers to allegedly prevent possible negative coverage.

An investigation by the Reveal podcast alleged that Tesla Motors "failed to report some of its serious injuries on legally mandated reports" in order to downplay the extent of injuries.

In September 2019, a California judge ruled that 12 actions in 2017 and 2018 by Musk and other Tesla Motors executives violated labor laws because they sabotaged employee attempts to unionize.

In 2013, Bloomberg News questioned whether Tesla Motors's financial reporting violated Generally Accepted Accounting Principles reporting standards.

From 2012 to 2014, Tesla Motors earned more than $295 million in Zero Emission Vehicle credits for a battery-swapping technology that was never made available to customers.

Staff at California Air Resources Board were concerned that Tesla Motors was "gaming" the battery swap subsidies and in 2013 recommended eliminating the credits.

In September 2018, Tesla disclosed that it was under investigation by the U S Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding its Model 3 production figures.

In some areas, Tesla Motors operates locations called "galleries" which "educate and inform customers about our products, but such locations do not actually transact in the sale of vehicles.

Tesla Motors has lobbied state governments for the right to directly sell cars.

Tesla Motors has argued that directly operating stores improves consumer education about electric vehicles, because dealerships would sell both Tesla and gas-powered vehicles.

In January 2021, Tesla Motors filed a lawsuit against Alex Khatilov alleging that the former employee stole company information by downloading files related to its Warp Drive software to his personal Dropbox account.

In 2018, a class action was filed against Musk and the members of Tesla Motors's board alleging they breached their fiduciary duties by approving Musk's stock-based compensation plan.

In June 2019, Tesla Motors began negotiating penalties for 19 environmental violations from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District; the violations took place around Tesla Motors Fremont's paint shop, where there had been at least four fires between 2014 and 2019.

Tesla Motors sued Alameda County, questioning the legality of the orders, but backed down after the Fremont Factory was given approval to reopen.

Tesla Motors published a detailed plan for bringing employees back to work and keeping them safe, however some employees continued to express concern for their health.

On March 29, 2018, Tesla Motors issued a worldwide recall of 123, 000 Model S cars built before April 2016 due to corrosion-susceptible power steering bolts, which could fail and require the driver to use "increased force" to control the vehicle.

In October 2020, Tesla Motors initiated a recall of nearly 50, 000 Model X and Y vehicles throughout China for suspension issues.

Related searches

In February 2021, Tesla Motors was required by the NHTSA to recall 135, 000 Model S and Model X vehicles built from 2012 to 2018 due to using a flash memory device that was rated to last only 5 to 6 years.

Also in February 2021, the German Federal Motor Transport Authority ordered Tesla Motors to recall 12, 300 Model X cars because of "body mouldings problems".

In June 2021, Tesla Motors recalled 5, 974 electric vehicles due to worries that brake caliper bolts might become loose, which could lead to loss of tire pressure, potentially increasing the chance of a crash.

On December 30, 2021, Tesla Motors announced that they are recalling more than 475, 000 US model vehicles.

Tesla Motors confirmed the fire began in the battery pack and was caused by the impact of an object.

In March 2014, the NHTSA announced that it had closed the investigation into whether the Model S was prone to catch fire, after Tesla Motors said it would provide more protection to its battery packs.

In early September 2021, the NHTSA updated the list with an additional fatality incident and ordered Tesla Motors to hand over all extensive data pertaining to US cars with Autopilot in order to determine if there is a safety defect that leads Tesla Motors cars to collide with first-responder vehicles.

In late September 2021, Tesla Motors released an over-the-air software update to detect emergency lights at night.

Several Tesla Motors fans responded by conducting their own, independent tests using children; NHTSA released a statement warning against the practice.

Tesla Motors issued a security update for the Model S the day after the exploit was announced.

Tesla Motors responded by securing the compromised system, rewarding the security researchers financially via their bug bounty program, and stating that the compromise did not violate customer privacy, nor vehicle safety or security.

Later in 2019, Tesla Motors awarded a car and $375, 000 to ethical hackers during a Pwn2Own Model 3 hacking event.

Tesla Motors drivers have reported a surge in 'phantom braking' events when using Tesla Motors Autopilot which coincides with the automaker's removal of radar as a supplemental sensor.

Tesla Motors deliveries vary significantly by month due to regional issues such as availability of car carriers and registration.

Tesla Motors made more profit from the 2021 investment than the profit from selling cars in 2020, due to the Bitcoin price increase after the investment was announced.

Quarter ending June 2021 was the first time Tesla Motors made a profit independent of Bitcoin and regulatory credits.