Erik Nordeus - The Engineer

2004

• February. Ian Wright, who had met Martin Eberhard while on a plane, joined the company. They finished business plan 1.0

• March. Starting a car company is expensive, so they began to look for outside investors

• April. Series A funding where Elon Musk was the main investor. Other investors included SDL Ventures and Compass Technology Partners. JB Straubel joined the company as employee number 5

• May. An early styling study began

• June. A technology implementation study began

• July. Tesla had 9 employees and moved to an office in San Carlos, California. They also made a “mule” which is a car that doesn’t reproduce but you can see if the concept works. To design Mule 1 they bought an old Lotus Elise

• October. The 15 employees began to design the drive-train component

• November. They installed the drive-train in the Mule 1

• December. Tesla couldn’t use the same design as the Lotus Elise, so they had a contest where Barney Hatt made the best design

2005

• January. They made a 1/4 scale model in clay of the design Barney Hatt had made. Tesla had now 18 employees and they also took out Mule 1 for a test drive

• February. The now 23 employee strong company needed more money, so they made a series B funding. Not only Elon Musk invested more money, but also Valor Equity Partners. Tesla also opened an office in UK close to the Lotus office

• April-June. Tesla made a full-scale model in clay of the Tesla Roadster

• July. With 38 employees, they now tested a plastic model of the Roadster in a wind tunnel

• August. Some of the 41 employees began developing a motor

• December. 63 employees and they began to build the Mule 2 in fiberglass

2006

• January. A drivable Mule 2 was finished

• April. The engineers thought the Roadster was finished so they made 10 engineering prototypes (EP), which compared to a Mule can (in theory) be produced

• May. 92 employees and they finished the first EP, called EP 1. Tesla raised a series C round led by Vantage Point Partners and Elon Musk

• July. Almost no-one knew that Tesla existed, until now when Tesla showed EP 1 and EP 2 in Santa Monica, California

• August. 100 employees. Why did they make 10 EPs? So they could test-crash a few of them. Tesla had earlier crashed a few virtual cars, but they needed to know if the computers models were accurate. They also began to show the Roadster at events to market it

• September. 120 employees. They made more tests, including radiated emissions and susceptibility testing

• October. They made a durability test, which consists of driving the Roadster on a cobblestone racetrack. The idea is to simulate 100,000 miles in 6 months. It would have taken much longer time to drive the same distance on a smooth road. Tesla realized that their computer models were inaccurate – the Roadster’s transmission didn’t survive the durability test

• November. 144 employees, and more tests, including driving through a saltwater bath

• December. They showed the EP 2 at the Los Angeles Auto Show

2007

• January. Tesla brought the Roadster to Arvidsjaur, Sweden, to see if it could survive winter conditions

• February. 205 employees. Tesla began to build a validation prototype (VP), where they took everything they learned from the engineering prototype. Tesla says it will build a $35 million plant in Albuquerque, to produce the Model S

• March. 230 employees and they finished the VP 1

• April. Raised more money – a series D round led by Elon Musk, Technology Partners, and Vantage Point

• June. Tesla’s motor factory in Taiwan was finished and it began producing parts

• July. A new transmission was finished

• August. Tesla finished the VP 10. CEO Martin Eberhard was replaced by Tesla investor Michael Marks, who would work as an interim-CEO until Tesla found a long-term CEO

• September. Tesla delayed the launch of the Roadster because they needed more time to test its durability

• October. It turned out that also the new transmission failed in the durability test. Tesla needed yet another transmission

• November. Martin Eberhard had to leave the company

• December. Interim CEO Michael Marks was replaced by interim CEO Ze’ev Drori

2008

• January. 260 employees. The VPs survived the new tests, so the Roadster was finished – except for the transmission

• March. Tesla began production of the Roadster

• April. More money – a bridge financing led by Elon Musk and Valor Equity Partners

• May. Opened a retail store in Los Angeles, and they also finished a new transmission

• June. Opened a second retail store in Menlo Park, California, and they also delivered the first Roadster to the customers. Marc Tarpenning decided to leave Tesla. The Model S was announced in a press release

• August. Franz von Holzhausen joined Tesla Motors as Chief Designer

• October. Elon Musk became the CEO after interviewing more than 20 prospective CEOs

• November. Tesla revealed it had requested about $400 million in loans for the Model S and powertrain manufacturing, under the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) program

2009

• March. Tesla unveiled two Model S prototypes at the Los Angeles headquarters of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s other startup, SpaceX. Tesla had decided to build a design studio at the factory. Tesla began taking reservations for the Model S. More than 500 people reserved the car in the first week

• June. Tesla got approval for $465 million in low-interest loans from the Department of Energy

2010

• January. Tesla registered for an initial public offering of stock

• May. Tesla bought NUMMI – a former Toyota and General Motors factory in Fremont, California, for $42 million. Toyota Motors and Tesla announced they will cooperate on electric vehicle development. Toyota purchased Tesla shares June. 800 employees. Tesla shares began trading on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange and gained 40.5 percent

2012

• January. Tesla ended production of the Roadster to focus on the Model S

• February. Tesla revealed the Model X – a small SUV and says it will go on sale in early 2014

• June. 2000 employees. The Model S was officially launched at the Fremont factory. Retail deliveries of the Model S started in the United States

• September. Unveiled the Supercharger network

1957. Soviet’s Sputnik 1 became the first satellite to go into orbit

1961. The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space

1969. Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon

1981. First flight of the Space Shuttle

2000. First long-duration stay on the International Space Station (ISS)

2001

• July. Elon came up with the idea to do space

2002

• June. Elon Musk founded the company

• December. 14 employees

2006

• March. First failed flight of the Falcon 1

• December. 224 employees

2007

• March. Second failed flight of the Falcon 1

2008

• August. Third failed flight of the Falcon 1

• September. First successful flight of the Falcon 1 and becomes the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to reach Earth orbit

• December. 618 employees. NASA awards SpaceX a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract

2009

• July. Last flight of the Falcon 1 and becomes the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to deliver a commercial satellite to Earth orbit

2010

• June. First flight of the Falcon 9

• December. 1200 employees. First flight of the Dragon capsule and becomes the first privately developed spacecraft in history to re-enter from low-Earth orbit