Marcelo Emanuel Salgado Maldonado

By marcelo salgado

Tesla, a company full of success, experience and happiness.

“Tesla is founded by Martin Eberhard (pictured above) and Marc Tarpenning. The engineers become CEO and CFO, respectively. Eberhard and Tarpenning were inspired to create the company after General Motors ended its EV1 program and destroyed the electric cars. They named their company after famed inventor Nikola Tesla, a pioneer in electricity” (Sherman, CNN).

According to Business Insider, Tesla is already gigantic and adored.Market capitalization of theirs has around $28 billion. Also, Morgan Stanley calls it “the world’s most important car company,” and a 2014 nationwide survey found that Tesla’s Model S was the “Most Loved Vehicle in America” (Business Insider).

“As they are relatively new (founded in 2003), they have little control over market direction. Customers are likely to be less familiar with the brand as they would with competitors such as Audi, Toyota or Mercedes. Also, the product itself is foreign; as Paul J. Darcy (n.d.) states ‘they must sell an entirely new model of buying and owning a car’. The technology and application of that technology are unknown to the general population” (Holland, 1).

”Tesla’s shop locations are also an example of the companies positioning strategy. Positioning is identifying and attempting to occupy a brand niche, product or service using marketing placement strategies. Tesla started ‘high’; their ﬁrst few car models were luxury, in order to let ‘early adopters fund technology development’, however, now Tesla are appealing to the masses” (Holland, 2).

According to Hunt, In May 1888 George Westinghouse, head of the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh, bought the patent rights to Tesla’s polyphase system of alternating-current dynamos, transformers, and motors. The transaction precipitated a titanic power struggle between Edison’s direct-current systems and the Tesla-Westinghouse alternating-current approach, which eventually won out (Britannica).

“Tesla released the Model X, a “crossover” vehicle (i.e., a vehicle with features of a sport-utility vehicle but built on a car chassis), in 2015. The Model X had a maximum battery range of 295 miles (475 km) and seating for up to seven. Because of demand for a more inexpensive vehicle, the Model 3, a four-door sedan with a range of 220 miles (354 km) and a price of $35,000, began production in 2017. The company also branched out into solar energy products. A line of batteries to store electric power from solar energy for use in homes and businesses was unveiled in 2015. Tesla bought the solar panel company SolarCity in 2016. In 2017 the company changed its name to Tesla, Inc., to reflect that it no longer sold just cars” (Schreiber and Gregersen, Britannica).

Elon Musk celebrates Tesla’s initial public offering on June 29, 2010. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

“The following year Musk made a series of tweets about taking Tesla private, claiming that he had secured funding. In September 2018 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged him with securities fraud, alleging that his tweets were “false and misleading.” Later that month Tesla’s board rejected a proposed settlement from the SEC, reportedly after Musk threatened to resign. However, news of the rejected deal sent Tesla’s stock plummeting, and the board quickly accepted a less generous settlement, the terms of which includes Musk stepping down as chairman for at least three years. However, he was allowed to remain as CEO. In addition, both Tesla and Musk were fined $20 million” (Scheiber and Gregersen, Britannica).