Elon Musk’s car company was founded in 2003 in San Carlos, California, and  was named for Serbian-American inventor, futurist and engineer Nikola Tesla, who created the induction motor that ran on alternating-current (AC) power in 1887. 

Tesla, Inc.  is an American automotive and energy company based in Palo Alto, California. The company specializes in electric car manufacturing.  Tesla was founded in July 2003, by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, under the name Tesla Motors. The company's name was derived from physicist Nikola Tesla.

 

Headquarters Palo Alto, California, United States

 

set of tesla roadsters    Tesla Roadster Set

roadster  2008-2012

The Tesla Roadster is a battery electric vehicle (BEV) sports car, based on the Lotus Elise chassis, that was produced  from 2008 to 2012.

The Roadster was the first highway legal serial production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells and the first production all-electric car to travel more than 320 kilometres per charge. It is also the first production car to be launched into deep space, carried by a Falcon Heavy rocket in 2018.

Tesla sold about 2450 Roadsters in over 30 countries and most of the last Roadsters were sold in Europe and Asia during the fourth quarter of 2012.

The Roadster is powered by a 3-phase, 4-pole, induction electric motor with a maximum output power of 248 hp. The car can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h 3.9 seconds and has a top speed of 201 km/h.

The Sport model introduced during the Jan 2009 Detroit Auto Show includes a motor with a higher density, hand-wound stator that produces a maximum of 288 hp.

The first Tesla Roadster was delivered in February 2008 to Tesla co-founder, chairman and product architect Elon Musk. The company produced 500 similar vehicles through June 2009. In July 2009, Tesla began production of its 2010 model-year Roadster—the first major product upgrade. Simultaneously, Tesla began producing the Roadster Sport, the first derivative of Tesla's proprietary, patented powertrain. The car accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.8 seconds, compared to 3.9 seconds for the standard Roadster.

Tesla produced the Roadster until January 2012, when its supply of gliders ran out, as its contract with Lotus Cars for 2500 gliders expired at the end of 2011.

model s  2012-present

The Tesla Model S is an all-electric five-door liftback sedan. Tesla manufactures the Model S at the 500,000 m2  Tesla Factory in Fremont, California.

The Model S was styled by a team led by Franz von Holzhausen, who previously worked for Mazda and was based on the Mercedes Benz CLS 4-Door Coupe for the overall design.

 The Tesla Model S was the top-selling plug-in electric car worldwide in 2015 and 2016.

Tesla Model S (youtube.com)

model 3  2017-present

The Tesla Model 3 is an electric four-door fastback sedan. According to Tesla, the Model 3 carries full self-driving hardware, with periodic software updates adding functionality.

The base Model 3 delivers an EPA-rated all-electric range of 438 km and the Long Range version delivers 576 km.

In 2020, Tesla produced over 450,000 of the Model 3/Y chassis automobiles. The Model 3 was marketed as being more affordable to more people than previous models by Tesla.

Tesla Model 3 (youtube.com)

2003-now