Timeline of Tesla Motors

This is a timeline of the American company Tesla Motors, a car manufacturer.

Big picture

Time period	Key developments at Tesla
2003–2004	Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning founded Tesla. Initial prototype, and received series A funding in 2004, led by Elon Musk.
2004–2007	Eberhard was CEO leading the Tesla development. Tesla continually designs prototypes for the Tesla Roadster. Elon Musk was Chairman of the board, contributing to the car design and market strategy.
2008–2012	Elon Musk gains control of Tesla and injects millions of his fortune into the company, which narrowly escapes bankruptcy. These are the years where Tesla sells its Tesla Roadsters. Sales end when Tesla runs out of Lotus gliders by 2012. Tesla reaches 3,000 employees by the end of 2012.
2012–2015	Tesla starts selling the Model S and achieves rapidly-growing sales. Tesla expands its network of Supercharger stations to cover the entire United States, and expands to other countries. Cumulative sales passed 90,000 units by October 2015. By 2015, Tesla introduces rudimentary self-driving software into its vehicles.

Full timeline

Year	Month and date	Event type	Details
2003	July	Company	Tesla is founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.[1]
2004	April	Funding	Elon Musk leads the company's $7.5 million Series A financing round and becomes chairman of the board.[1][2]
2005	February	Funding	Elon Musk injects $13 million more into the company in a Series B round during the development of the yet-announced Tesla Roadster. [2]
2005	July	Legal	On July 11, Tesla signs production contract for Lotus to manufacture complete cars for what would later become the Tesla Roadster. [3]
2006	May	Funding	Elon Musk and Technology Partners raise $40 million in a Series C round for Tesla.[4]
2007	November	Team	Ze'ev Drori becomes CEO and President.[1]
2008	March	Product	Tesla starts producing the Roadster.[1]
2008	June	Product	Tesla announces the Model S on June 30, with a starting price of $50,000. [5]
2008	August	Team	Tesla hires Franz von Holzhausen as its chief designer. He is involved in the design of the Tesla Model S.[6]
2008	October	Team	Musk succeeds Drori as CEO.[1] By then, in what he described as the "worst year of his life", he had divorced Justine Musk and has cumulatively injected $70 million of his money into Tesla.
2008	November	Funding	Tesla raises $40 million in a debt-financing round and narrowly escapes bankruptcy. [7]
2009	May	Company	Tesla enters into a strategic partnership with Daimler AG, which acquires 10% equity stake in Tesla for $50 million.[8]
2009	June	Funding	Tesla takes a $465 million loan from the United States Department of Energy. It repays its loan by May 2013.[9]
2010	June	Funding	On June 29, Tesla goes IPO at $17 per share.[10]
2010	October	Company	Tesla officially takes possession of the Tesla Factory site in Fremont, CA and opens it.[11]
2012	February	Product	On February 9, Tesla unlocks the Model X SUV. [12]
2012	June	Product	On June 22, Tesla officially starts selling its Model S. [13]
2013	June	Product	On June 11, Tesla announces the goal to deploy a battery swapping station in each of its existing supercharging stations, now to be renamed Tesla stations. [14]
2013	October	Product	On October 2, a Tesla Model S catches on fire after hitting debris on the highway.[15]
2014	March	Legal	New Jersey bans sales of the Tesla in the state, by finding that Tesla’s sales model violated regulations requiring that auto sales happen through a middleman franchisee. [16]
2014	June	Company	Tesla open-sources its patents.[17]
2015	February	Competition	Apple announces a project, codenamed "Titan", to create an Apple-branded electric vehicle that resembles a minivan. [18]
2015	March	Legal	On March 18, Chris Christie signs a law reversing New Jersey's ban on Tesla selling its cars directly in New Jersey. [19]
2015	April	Product	Tesla announces the Tesla Powerwall - a set of high-capacity batteries that can be used for home energy storage.[20]
2015	September	Competition	Porsche unveils its new Mission E electric car concept at the International Auto Show in Frankfurt. It will be expected to reach the market by 2020. [21]
2015	September	Product	Tesla officially starts deliveries of the Model X. [22]
2015	October	Product	Tesla introduces autopilot for its Model S.[23] The software already starts auto-improving later the month. [24] Later, Tesla restricted autopilot mode to stop people from doing "crazy things".
2016	April	Product	Tesla Unveils model 3. Aimed for mass market consumers is starts with a more 'affordable' price.[25] of $35,000 (£24,423) and will have a range of at least 215 miles (346km) per charge. 276,000 Pre-orders.[26] exceeded expectations, the car is due to be delivered from the second half of 2017.[27]

References

1. "Tesla: The Origin Story - Business Insider". Businessinsider.com. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
2. "Tesla Motors". Retrieved November 8, 2015.
3. "Supply Agreement for Products and Services - Lotus Cars Ltd. and Tesla Motors Inc. - Sample Contracts and Business Forms". Contracts.onecle.com. Retrieved November 29, 2015.
4. "Tesla Motors". Retrieved November 8, 2015.
5. "Tesla's Next Electric Car to be Called "Model S", New Factory to Open in North California : TreeHugger". Treehugger.com. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
6. "Breaking: Franz von Holzhausen to Tesla Motors as design director!". Autoblog.com. Retrieved November 12, 2015.
7. "Tesla Adds $40 Million to Its Coffers". Wired.com. Retrieved November 29, 2015.
8. "Daimler buys 10% stake in Tesla, will supply parts and engineering". Autoblog.com. Retrieved November 12, 2015.
9. "Tesla Repays $465 Million Loan from Federal Program". Cnbc.com. Retrieved November 5, 2015.
10. "Tesla Prices IPO At $17 Per Share". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
11. "Tesla Motors Opens Tesla Factory - Home of the Model S (NASDAQ:TSLA)". Ir.teslamotors.com. Retrieved November 5, 2015.
12. "Tesla Unveils Model X". Retrieved November 28, 2015.
13. "2012 Tesla Model S Deliveries Start Today, EPA Figures Official". Retrieved November 28, 2015.
14. "Tesla unveils 90-second battery-pack swap - Jun. 21, 2013". CNN. Retrieved November 29, 2015.
15. "Tesla Says Car Fire Started in Battery". The New York Times. Retrieved November 5, 2015.
16. "New Jersey Bans Tesla to Ensure Buying a Car Will Always Suck". Wired.com. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
17. "All Our Patent Are Belong To You". Teslamotors.com. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
18. "Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 29, 2015.
19. "In major reversal, New Jersey allows Tesla to sell its cars directly, without dealerships". Theverge.com. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
20. "Tesla's Big Announcement Is PowerWall: A Battery For Your Home". Popsci.com. Retrieved November 12, 2015.
21. "Porsche's New Mission E Electric Car: ‘Better Than A Tesla' - Fortune". Fortune.com. Retrieved November 29, 2015.
22. "Green Car Congress: Tesla CEO Musk launches Model X electric SUV: “safest SUV ever”". Greencarcongress.com. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
23. "Your Autopilot has arrived". Teslamotors.com. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
24. "Tesla's self-driving car is already getting smarter - Quartz". Qz.com. Retrieved November 5, 2015.
25. BBC. "Tesla Model 3". BBC News. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
26. the guardian. "Model 3 pre-orders". theguardian News. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
27. Ars tecnica. "Delivery second half 2017". Ars tecnica. Retrieved April 4, 2016.