What you need to know when investing in Tesla Inc.
By NATHAN REIFFUpdated November 23, 2022
Tesla Inc. (TSLA), the world's largest automaker by market value, designs, builds, and markets fully electric vehicles (EV) and energy generation and storage systems. The company also provides services through vehicle service centers, body shops, and charging stations. Tesla makes and sells mid-size sedans, full-size sedans, and compact and mid-size sports utility vehicles.
Trade Tesla Stock In 2003, Tesla Motors was founded by two American entrepreneurs, Marc Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard. The company, which later became known as Tesla inc, was named after legendary inventor Nikola Tesla. The pair planned to design and build electric sports cars, like or Bugatti, producing the ground-breaking Roadster sedan in 2008. The initial funding for Tesla came from a range of sources, with the most notable being from PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, who put over $30 million into the venture and served as the company’s chairman from 2004 onwards. Towards the end of 2007, Eberhard stepped down from his post as CEO and President of Technology to join the company’s advisory board. In 2008, it was officially announced that he had left Tesla, but remained a shareholder. In the next year, Tarpenning, who served as the Vice President of Electrical Engineering, and who played a major role in the development of the Roadster’s software and electronic systems, also left the company. Following their departures, Musk took over the reins as CEO.
As mentioned, Tesla Motors unveiled its first car in 2008, the fully electric-powered Roadster. The car was a one-of-a-kind, as it was the first completely electric vehicle to offer comparable power and range to petrol-powered cars. In 2012, Tesla halted production of the Roadster so that it could concentrate on building the new Model S, a sedan that received acclaim for its design and performance characteristics. Tesla Autopilot, a type of semi-autonomous driving, was introduced on the Model S in 2014. In 2015, the company released its Model X, which is a crossover vehicle that has SUV characteristics but is built on the chassis of a car.
Also starting in 2012, the company set up free-of-charge, fast-charging facilities for Tesla owners in the U.S. and Europe and named them Superchargers. Later versions also had the capability to replace the Model S’ battery array and are called Tesla Stations. In 2018, the company also made forays into the production of solar energy products and batteries. In 2016, it cemented its commitment to this space by acquiring SolarCity, a firm that manufactures solar panels. To reflect that it no longer sold only cars, Tesla Motors was renamed Tesla Inc. in 2017.
Tesla Stock History On January 29, 2010, the company filed a preliminary prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, indicating that it intended to hold an initial public offering, which would be underwritten by Deutsche Bank Securities, , and Morgan Stanley. In May of that same year, Tesla announced a “strategic partnership” with Toyota, which would purchase Tesla common stock worth $50 million in a private placement, immediately following the IPO. The Tesla IPO was launched on June 29, 2010, listing on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker TSLA. The company issued 13,300,000 shares to the public at $17 per share, raising $226 million. Tesla was the first American car manufacturer to go public since Ford Motor Company’s 1956 IPO. By 2014, Tesla’s market value was half that of Ford.
While Tesla has rapidly taken off as a stock and has gained such an impressive market cap, its inconsistent car sales numbers have often negatively influenced the company’s share price. Tesla investor’s confidence constantly fluctuates on the back of each quarterly earnings report, product announcement, product delay, news event and, of course, every tweet or TV interview by Musk. Most of the car manufacturing industry stocks generally move slowly and predictably in alignment to . On the other hand, Tesla stock is , with its Silicon Valley tech-like behaviour constantly baffling investors and producing opportunities for speculative .
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