Tesla Motors

Tesla Motors, Inc. is an American automotive and energy storage company that designs, manufactures, and sells electric cars, electric vehicle power train components, and battery products.  Tesla Motors is a public company that trades on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the symbol  TSLA During the first quarter of  2013, Tesla posted profits for the first time in its history.

Tesla first gained widespread attention following their production of the Tesla Roadster, the first fully electric sports car. The company's second vehicle is the Model S, a fully electric luxury sedan, which was followed by the Model X, a crossover. Its next vehicle is the Model 3. Global Model S sales passed the 100,000 unit milestone in December 2015, three and a half years after its introduction. The Model S was the world's best selling plug-in electric vehicle in 2015. As of December 2015, the Model S ranks as the world's second best selling plug-in car in history after the Nissan Leaf. As of  31 March 2016, Tesla Motors has sold almost 125,000 electric cars worldwide since delivery of its first Tesla Roadster in 2008.

Tesla manufactures equipment for home and office battery charging, and has installed a network of high-powered Superchargers across North America, Europe and Asia. The company also operates a Destination Charging program, under which shops, restaurants and other venues are offered fast chargers for their customers. CEO Elon Musk has said that he envisions Tesla Motors as an independent automaker, aimed at eventually offering electric cars at prices affordable to the average consumer. Pricing for the Tesla Model 3, slated to begin retail deliveries by the end of  2017, will start at US$35,000 before any government incentives.

Tesla Motors is named after electrical engineer and physicist Nikola Tesla. The Tesla Roadster uses an AC motor descended directly from Tesla's original 1882 design. The Tesla Roadster, the company's first vehicle, was the first production automobile to use lithium-ion battery cells and the first production EV with a range greater than 200 miles (320 km) per charge. Between 2008 and March 2012, Tesla sold more than 2,250 Roadsters in 31 countries. Tesla stopped taking orders for the Roadster in the U.S. market in August 2011. In December 2012, Tesla employed almost 3,000 full-time employees. By December 31, 2015, this number had grown to 13,058 employees.

Tesla's strategy has been to emulate typical technological-product life cycles and initially enter the automotive market with an expensive, high-end product targeted at affluent buyers. As the company, its products, and consumer acceptance matured, it is moving into larger, more competitive markets at lower price points. The battery and electric drivetrain technology for each model would be developed and paid for through sales of the former models. The Roadster was low-volume, priced at US $109,000. Model S and X are mid-price and mid-volume; Model S had a base price of  US $57,400. Model 3 is aimed at high-volume with a base price of  US $35,000. This business strategy is very popular in the technology industry such as for cellular phones, laptop computers, and flat-screen televisions. According to a blog post by Musk, "New technology in any field takes a few versions to optimize before reaching the mass market, and in this case it is competing with 150 years and trillions of dollars spent on gasoline cars."