Tesla Company is a private American automaker founded by Elon Musk in 2003
Tesla has just been awarded the title of America’s most American-made car. This is because Tesla utilizes 3,200 domestic parts and labor, while other top competitors to the title only use 1,200 domestic parts. The Federal Trade Commission has just published its ruling that Tesla Motors is the country’s most American-made (vehicle) car.
What is Tesla Company?
Tesla Company is a private American automaker founded by Elon Musk in 2003. The company specializes in electric cars, solar paneling, batteries, and high-tech stationary power turbines.
The company has continually invested in cutting-edge technology and clean energy projects, which have helped lead the way for other companies in the automotive industry to follow suit.
Tesla has been striving to change manufacturing’s future like no other company has since Henry Ford first introduced the world to mass production. In 2003, Tesla took a gamble and began producing its first all-electric sports car, which would later become famous for its sleek design. The company’s mission was simple – to produce an electric car that was environmentally friendly and emission-free and provided a powerful driving experience at an affordable price.
When it first hit the market, Tesla Motors’ Model S was priced at $71,000. However, today that exact vehicle costs more than $99,990. Since the range-topping Model S launch, Tesla has added significant features and even more range to its lineup. Furthermore, they have also begun selling all-wheel-drive versions of their cars, which add an incredible amount of traction.
The Mission of Tesla
Tesla’s mission is clear: create an electric car that can compete with gas-powered cars on all levels – both environmentally and in terms of price. Using a combination of energy technologies such as wind turbines, solar panels, microturbines, batteries, and high-tech mobile power systems, Tesla aims to develop top-quality products without total reliance on fossil fuels. Tesla has been praised for its efforts to create an electric car that is both environmentally friendly and economically viable.
But critics have pointed out that the company’s ambitions may be too lofty for them to truly achieve, yet there is no denying Tesla’s dedication to producing the best possible vehicle.
The company also makes stationary power systems: a system of wind turbines, solar panels, batteries, and mobile power systems as one unified system that is designed to use renewable energy. The idea behind Tesla’s system was to combine all these individual parts more economically than they were used individually. The result is one attractive product with increased capacity and efficiency over each of its individual components.
Many consider Tesla the first company aside from Apple to build a fully electric vehicle, with the Tesla Roadster chosen as Motor Trend Car of The Year in 2008. Tesla’s Model S was named Motor Trend 2013 Car of the Year, beating out cars such as the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf. The Model was also recognized for its high level of safety and for its performance on city streets, as opposed to long highways. The car was awarded the highest possible score of 100 out of 100 in all categories by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Tesla continues to focus on building electric cars that are not only environmentally friendly but also affordable and stylish. The company has greatly improved its hardware, software integration, and aesthetics over the years, and it remains to be seen if it can keep up with its impressive growth rate in the electric car industry. The company’s mission is equally ambitious: to create an electric car that is both environmentally friendly and economically viable. Tesla has achieved a great deal in this short time period.
The Model S is Tesla’s best-selling vehicle by a wide margin, with over 100,000 units sold worldwide since its introduction. To support sales of the vehicle, which has a starting price of $70,000, Tesla is building a worldwide network of high-speed Superchargers to allow long-distance travel. As of February 2017, the company had over 705 stations globally. It also operates a Destination Charging program, under which shops, restaurants, and other venues are offered fast chargers for their customers.
In 2016 Tesla delivered about 76,230 vehicles: 55,840 Model S cars and 20,500 Model X cars (the latter being produced only in the fourth quarter). The Model 3 is expected to sell at a lower price than the two other current models and is due to go into production in late 2017.
Tesla started production of the Model 3 in July 2017. Tesla plans to produce 500,000 vehicles per year by 2023 and 1 million vehicles per year by 2025. In October 2018, Elon Musk announced that Tesla would stop physical sales of cars from focusing on developing new self-driving software.
In September 2018, after having delivered close to 360,000 vehicles globally since 2012, Tesla said that it had made its 250,000th vehicle of the year in total, including the Model S and Model X.
Tesla Electric car models
1. Roadster
The Roadster was Tesla’s first production car. The Roadster was featured on the cover of Time in November 2006 as the recipient of the magazine’s “Best Inventions 2006 Transportation Invention” award. The first production, Roadster, was delivered in 2008. Production ended in January 2012. There were more than 2,450 Roadsters sold in 31 countries through June 2012. Production of the Roadster began in January 2008, and Tesla sold more than 2,400 Roadsters in 31 countries through October 2012.
The Roadster has an aluminum body with a permanent magnet synchronous AC induction motor and inverter, lithium-ion battery pack, geared rear axle, hydropneumatic suspension (with radial absorber/compensator disc), and battery pack located behind the rear seats to give it a short wheelbase. The Roadster’s 0–60 mph (0–97 km/h) acceleration is 2.8 seconds. The top speed is limited to 130 mph (210 km/h).
2. Model S
The Model S is an all-electric five-door liftback car that launched in June 2012. It scored a perfect 5.0 NHTSA automobile safety rating. According to Motor Trend, in February 2015, the Model S P85D achieved a record time of 0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 3.2 seconds.
In July 2013, Tesla developed an outdoor charging system for the Model S, which “gives Model S owners the ability to charge their car while camping.” The Wall Connector is available in configurations from 7.4 kW (for 16 miles per hour of charging per hour) up to 22 kW (for 50 miles per hour of charging per hour).
On February 10, 2014, Tesla introduced its safest and most powerful car ever, the P85D. Weighing about 2,800 pounds (1,270 kg) more than a base Model S, the P85D comes with a 70-kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery that enables an estimated 300 mi (480 km) of range in a package with a 0–60 mph (0–97 km/h) time of 3.2 seconds.
In April 2017, Tesla updated their models S and X to have hardware and software capable of full autonomy with the “Vehicle Software Update Version 8.0”, which must be activated through an over-the-air update. They plan to have tens of thousands of cars with fully autonomous capability by 2020. In October 2016, Tesla’s Elon Musk announced that the company would allow its technology to be used by other automakers in hopes that it would accelerate the development of safer driverless cars.
3. Model X
The Model X is a full-size crossover SUV based on the platform of the Model S. The prototype was unveiled on February 9, 2012. After several months of extensive testing at their facilities and public roads, production began in September 2015. Deliveries to retail customers began on September 29. The Model X has an official EPA-rated 249-mile (400 km) combined fuel economy. In addition to the standard full-sized SUV, a long-range version of the Model X with a larger battery was introduced in late 2016.
4. Model Y
The Tesla Model Y will be based on an entirely new platform known internally as “Tesla 2”. The vehicle is scheduled to have a range of 300 miles (480 km), and the company has stated that it will have a range of more than 600 miles (970 km) by introducing a dual-motor all-wheel-drive drivetrain. The Model Y SUV will be manufactured without the battery in the center of the vehicle but instead with its removable tray, as is done on Tesla’s Model 3.
Tesla Car Manufacturing
Tesla initially kept its manufacturing details secret. Proprietary technology is heavily guarded, and the company does not allow press visits to its factories. Following a February 2009 Time magazine article that greeted the Model S with skepticism, Musk announced that Tesla would allow journalists to tour its California factory, and on April 30, 2009, it provided a tour of its
factory to reporters. In 2015, Tesla invited journalists to tour its Tilburg, Netherlands factory, where the Model S and Model X are assembled.
In early 2016, Tesla brought closer the prospect of commercializing its autonomous driving technologies via the Tesla Network and announced that it would operate its own fleet of self-driving cars.
Tesla has also developed a technique that allows the chassis of their vehicles to be made out of aluminum instead of steel. The projected benefit is a reduction in weight by 450 pounds (200 kg). Due to this switch, Tesla is able to decrease the curb weight of their vehicles and thus increase the range that they can have on a single charge while not increasing the size and profile of the battery.
The Tesla Factory in Fremont, California, formerly operated by Nummi, formally began producing Tesla’s next vehicle, the Model S sedan, in June 2012. The current Model S runs on a version of Nvidia’s Drive PX2 AI supercomputer for driving automation.
Tesla Battery swapping program
Tesla aims to increase their recycling rate from around 80% today to more than 90%. Tesla offers customers the option of paying for their old battery to be removed from the vehicle and replaced with a new one, thus enabling Tesla owners to extend their range for free. The program was initiated through an open letter in November 2016 and is only offered at Tesla’s service centers in select regions.
In May 2017, Tesla began offering an online battery-pack swap program in North America. The pack swap program allows customers to replace a depleted pack with a fully charged replacement pack at service centers. The customer is responsible for the cost of shipping.
Also, in May 2017, Tesla announced an accelerated nationwide battery swap program eliminating the need to visit a service center. Tesla customers will be able to exchange their battery pack online and without any downtime within 24 hours of making their reservation. In the US model S and X vehicles, the swap is completed at a location near the customer’s home or workplace.