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Tesla Inc.

Tesla Inc.111 posts

Tesla Inc. is a California-based company that builds electric cars, batteries and powertrains. It was founded in 2003 and initially financed by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Elon Musk became its chairman a year later and, in 2008, its CEO. The company produces the Model S, Model X and Model Y. It has stores in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

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30 Oct, 2008

Time: Roadster No. 2 best invention

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Time Magazine votes the Tesla Roadster No. 2 in its list of inventions of the year.

Electric cars were always environmentally friendly, quiet, clean — but definitely not sexy. The Tesla Roadster has changed all that. After years of setbacks and shake-ups, the first Tesla Roadsters were delivered to customers this year…Reviews have been ecstatic…Even if the Roadster turns out to be a one-hit wonder, it’s been a hell of an (electric) ride.

19 May, 2009

Daimler buys stake, $550 million valuation

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German automaker Daimler buys a 9% stake in Tesla Motors for $50 million.  The company’s post-money valuation is now $550 million.  Daimler also expands its partnership with the company to put electric batteries into Mercedes-Benz vehicles.  In a press release, Daimler says:

Tesla is the only production automaker selling a highway capable electric vehicle in North America and Europe.

11 Feb, 2013

Musk: NYT review is fake

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Musk takes to twitter to denounce the NYT review as fake:

Musk notes in a later tweet that logging is not turned on for normal customers, only for journalists.

12 Feb, 2013

NYT: Not fake

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John Broder responds to Musk’s accusation:

My account was not a fake. It happened just the way I described it.

Border also notes that Elon Musk called him before the article went up on the Web, to offer sympathy and regrets about the outcome of his test drive. He said that the East Coast charging stations should be 140 miles apart, not 200 miles, to take into account the traffic and temperature extremes in this part of the country. He also offered Broder a second chance at a test drive in a few months, after additional Supercharger stations come online.

28 Mar, 2014

Will install high-strength battery shields

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TeslaTesla announces plans to reinforce the undercarriage of about 16,000 cars with high-strength shields to reduce the risk of damage from a crash starting a fire. The NHTSA did not ask Tesla to issue a recall for the Model S. Tesla said the retrofits are voluntary and that federal regulators did not find a “safety-related defect trend.”

2 Apr, 2014

Norway’s best-selling vehicle

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Bjorn-Nylands-Tesla-Model-SNorwegians registered nearly 1,500 Tesla Model S electric sedans in March, beating out the entire Ford product range as well as out-pacing the runner-up Volkswagen Golf by more than double. The figures makeup more than 10 percent of all vehicle registrations in the country.

3 Jun, 2014

4 – 5 more years as CEO

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shareholder-642x500At the annual Tesla general shareholders meeting Musk announces that he plans to stay on as CEO for four or five years, or at least through volume production of Gen 3, the mass market, $35,000-a-year car.

No one is a CEO forever. Eventually they carry you out.

2014 Annual Shareholder Meeting

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The meeting commences at the Computer History Museum, 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard, Mountain View, California.  Elon Musk asks the audience if they have any questions.  The conference suddenly morphs into an awkward spectacle when a self-described “super-genius” Roy Philipose confronted Musk and asks if he could be named vice chairman.

I would like to come on board as vice chairman of Tesla

9 Jun, 2014

First deliveries in UK

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first-tesla-model-s-cars-delivered-to-uk-customers_100468965_lThe first five reservation holders claimed the keys to their new cars from Elon Musk himself, at an event at The Crystal in London. Musk tells reporters that pre-orders are already going well in the UK, adding that there’s already a four-month waiting list for customers getting hold of cars. UK specifications largely match those in the US, and pricing begins at £55,280 before the U.K.’s £5,000 ($8,400) government grant towards going electric. That price puts it at around $92,800 at current exchange rates.

30 Jun, 2014

Customer smashes windshield

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BN-DL527_2tesla_E_20140627075023Minutes after taking delivery of a white Tesla Model S in Beijing, Yu Xinquan took a wrench and smashes the front windshield of the one million yuan (about $173,600) vehicle.  The disgruntled owner expected to be one of the first in China to take delivery of the Model S when he placed his order last October and became furious with Tesla when he discovered that his car had not even been built when others in the country had already received their cars. Tesla offered the use of one of their showroom cars until the customers car was ready for delivery, but Mr. Xinquan refused.

3 Jul, 2014

Norway sales drops stock

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Tesla shares fall 4%  after a sharp drop in Norwegian sales in June, selling 536 Model S vehicles in June, a fall  from the 1,493 it sold in March.

Veteran employment push

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sjmn04xxteslavets02-LTesla announces its plans to become one of America’s leading employers of military veterans. Tesla’s workforce is increasing rapidly as it expands production of its Model S, prepares its launch of the Model X crossover SUV and enters new overseas markets. The company now has more than 6,000 employees, and of those, 300 — or roughly 5 percent — are veterans, including its logistics director, former Navy officer Adam Plumpton. An additional 600 veteran candidates are in the hiring pipeline. The Company says:

We want to be known throughout the veteran community as a great place to work.Veterans are a great source of talent for Tesla, and we’re going after it.

Jul 2014

Stolen Tesla crashes, splits in half

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1404553419003-crash4A stolen Tesla Model S split in two after a fiery crash in West Hollywood, Calif., following a police chase at speeds up to 100 miles per hour. The car apparently split after striking a pole at the end of the chase early Friday, resulting in injuries to several people. The chase began after a Tesla dealership reported the car was being tampered with on its lot. Video shows the Tesla’s rear end wedged between a wall at a synagogue, several dozen feet from the front half, which came to rest next to two other wrecked cars in the middle of the street. The car had split behind the front seats.

21 Jul, 2014

Temporary plant shutdown

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Tesla Motors shuts down its California plant for two weeks to install new robots which are expected to boost production by 25%. The upgrade costs $100,000,000.

This represents the single biggest investment in the plant since we really started operations and enables us for higher volumes. It gets us ready to build X and to do it on the same line as the S.

30 Apr, 2015

Adds battery into DemandLogic system

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SolarCity incorporates the Tesla battery into its DemandLogic energy storage system to increase the utility cost savings customers can realize from using stored solar electricity. DemandLogic, which is being adopted by several of the largest retail, biotech and Internet companies in the U.S., allows businesses to reduce energy costs by using stored electricity to reduce peak demand, and can also provide backup power during grid outages. DemandLogic’s management software automates the discharge of stored energy to optimize savings on utility demand charges for customers.

6 May, 2015

Reveals timeline for Model 3

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in an earnings call Musk reveals a tentative schedule for the Model 3, which is expected to cost $35,000 before government subsidies, saying the company plans to unveil the model in March 2016, and a sale date of mid 2017, but probably later.

I mean, we are hoping to show off the Model 3 in approximately March of next year. Again, like, don’t hold me to that month, but that’s, like — that’s our aspiration.

2 Jul, 2015

Delivered 11,500 cars globally

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Tesla announces its second-quarter delivery totals. The manufacturer delivered 11,507 Model S luxury electric cars from April 1 through June 30, its highest quarterly total to date, and brings Tesla’s global deliveries for the first half of 2015 to 21,537 cars. The company does not release monthly numbers.

17 Jul, 2015

Ludicrous Speed upgrade

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Musk announces “Ludicrous Speed,” a $10,000 upgrade for the P85D Model S. The upgrade improves 0-60 time by 10 percent, to 2.8 seconds, with a quarter-mile sprint dropping to 10.9 seconds. The top speed increases to 155 miles per hour, 20 percent faster than on a standard P85D. The Model X will also have Ludicrous Speed as an option, but because that vehicle is 10 percent heavier than the S it will be slower.

29 Sep, 2015

Model X launch

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Musk launches the Model X SUV. The car can seat seven, has rear upward-opening “falcon” doors, and with the “ludicrous” option can reach 0-60mph in 3.2 seconds. The car also has a “bioweapon defense mode,” an advanced HEPA air filter that will clean any viruses out of the air. The car also has the best safety ratings of any SUV, a result of its low center of gravity and lack of a traditional engine. The Model X 90D costs $132,000, with a range of 257 miles and 0-60 of about 3.7 seconds; the P90D runs $142,000, 250 miles and 3.2-second acceleration.

If there’s ever a bioweapon attack, the safest place is your car. There’s actually a ‘bioweapon defense mode’ right there in the HVAC. We figure you shouldn’t have to think if you’re in an emergency.