The Story Of Tesla Company
This tech company has been in the public eye for a while now. As a car company one of the most important aspects to growing your business is entering new markets. The American automotive and energy company currently serves two purposes one being its well-known cars and the other being a SolarCity a subsidiary that makes solar panels. The name Tesla comes from the famous physicist Nikola Tesla and his innovations in energy. It was founded in July of 2003, the brainchild of Elon Musk by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. These were also the original investors in the companies and funded the company until the Series A round of funding. After that round Musk became the controlling investor and chairman of the board of directors. At the start the goal of the company was to create affordable energy efficient vehicles. The first car they created was the Roadster a sports car made for early adopters as a luxury item. It was the first production car to use lithium-ion batteries cells that allowed the car to have at least range of 200 miles. It even had an AC motor that was derived from Nikola Tesla’s design in 1882.
The plan was to start with a high cost car that a small company could produce at low volume. Then when the company had more money they could move on to a middle-class car, the model S and the model X. SolarCity currently markets, manufactures, and installs residential and commercial solar panels at a low cost to the consumer. It also is the provider of an in-home charger for the electric tesla cars and a backup generator. The cars made by Tesla are completely electric and are of the best quality in the market. They even have an autopilot function that allows you to let the car take control. The cars are still seen as a luxury item by many. The company also allows licensing for their patents in technology developed by them, if they deem you are in good faith. The company is based in Palo Alto, California where SolarCity also functions. The company’s sale strategy is to sell online and in showrooms instead of traditional dealerships. Currently they have stores in 25 countries around the world, this list includes places like Tokyo, Hong Kong, Spain, Mexico, Canada and Germany. Through the online store they can deliver to virtually anywhere that doesn’t have regulation against them or is in an unreasonable location. However, in the U. S many states have begun banning Tesla sales in anywhere other than dealerships, stating that it does not allow for healthy competition of prices. Right now, only four states officially allow it and two have banned it.
On the other side of the world Hong Kong has offered a tax break for electric cars since Tesla began selling there. As a result, the sales of the model 3 spiked. Tesla is a company that has had many hurdles to overcome since its inception and is no stranger to competition. You don’t go into the car business if you expect anything different. It is widely known as one of the first all-electric cars, many of the competitors that tried before it failed. Such as when GM recalled and destroyed its EV1 electric cars in 2003. However, once the model 3 had a waiting list of almost 325,000 (Bloomberg) the other big-name car companies began to follow suit. In 2018 its most notable competitors are the Ford Focus Electric, starting at about $29,000 compared to the Model 3 at $35,000. The Nissan leaf is also in the ring at $30,000 and was the top selling EV(Electric Vehicle) in 2017. Next is the Kia Soul which is a more spacious EV compared to the previous sedans and starts at $32,000. So, in total Tesla must compete with Ford, Nissan, and Kia all huge players in the car industry.
Especially when trying to compete globally in places like Asia Nissan and Kia have a clear upper hand. However, going back to the original strategy by selling the Roadster as a luxury car they have established themselves as a brand and such may still have influence around the world. The subsidiary, SolarCity, has competitors that have also “copied” the sales technique created by SolarCity of no money down leasing of solar panels. These companies have been using new strategies and competitive pricing to get their own part of the market. These companies such as Sunrun, Verengo Solar, and vivint. Solar are mostly based in California as well. For Tesla its goal is to better the world through its products, to do that they must create a product that is both appealing to the consumer and is environmentally friendly. This is an extremely hard task to accomplish, but Elon Musk did not fear the challenge. It is because of this that I chose to do my Global Company Report on Tesla. I have followed Musk for a while and his past endeavors as an entrepreneur are inspiring. He created and sold a company called Zip2 which in short converted old-style yellow pages into an easily accessible website. At the age of 28 he was a multimillionaire, but he did not stop there.
Tesla cars have been greatly appealing to me for this reason they are made with the best technology and for the right reasons. The story of the company is also interestingly complex with many points where it almost went bankrupt and was only saved by Elon putting almost all the money he had left into its continued funding. As I said previously I have been following this company for a while now and being able to better understand it through what we have learned thus far has been interesting, making it the best choice for the report.
