You Probably Didn’t Know These Things About Tesla, Inc.

Tesla, Inc. is currently the most buzzed-about company in the world. Tesla, a California-based company founded in 2003, is considered as much a tech giant as it is a car manufacturer, with its innovation in clean energy and electric vehicles unmatched. Tesla’s CEO and major shareholder, Elon Musk, aims to make electric sports cars affordable to the masses. Tesla surpassed the 1 million electric car mark in 2020 with annual sales exceeding $30 million. You may not know these 4 interesting things about the innovative company.

1. Tesla almost went bankrupt numerous times

Tesla has spent plenty of money in its time and has been close to bankruptcy on multiple occasions. A consistent approach of raising capital through rounds of venture capital funding has enabled the company to stay afloat while pleasing a variety of stakeholders. Toward the end of 2013, when Tesla fell behind on the production of its Model S electric car, finances were especially tight. According to Musk, the Palo Alto company had only two weeks’ cash left in the bank and was approaching insolvency.

2. Elon Musk Is Not A Founder Of Tesla

Elon Musk is not one of the original founders of Tesla, despite being the brand’s face. He led the company’s debut venture capital round and invested $6.5 million of his own money one year after it was founded in response to the automotive industry’s reliance on oil by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. After joining Tesla (then called Tesla Motors), Musk became its chairman of the board, and, following a lawsuit in 2009, Musk – alongside Eberhard, Tarpenning, Ian Wright, and J. Co-founders are officially allowed to be referred to as B. Straubel and B. Graf.

3. Google Has Tried To Buy Tesla Many Times

Google has been making moves into the automotive industry for some time now. Co-founder Larry Page has been particularly vocal about Google’s ambition to create the world’s first fully-autonomous self-driving car. In addition to electric vehicles, Google also has a keen interest in Tesla’s battery technology. Page and Musk are close friends and Page is rumored to have offered Musk’s company large sums of money on several occasions. Tesla has so far declined the offer, but we should certainly keep an eye on it.

4. Tesla Has The Largest Battery Factory On The Planet

Tesla Giga Nevada, also known as Gigafactory 1, is the world’s largest battery plant. Batteries for all of the company’s electric vehicles are produced at the facility, located outside of Reno. For perspective, the Gigafactory alone produces more lithium-ion batteries than all of the world’s lithium-ion battery production combined.