BMBM6015: Tesla is an American electric vehicle (EV) and clean energy company, with Headquarters in California: Strategic Management And Sustainability Assignment, UOW, UK

Tesla is an American electric vehicle (EV) and clean energy company, with Headquarters in California. Their product range includes a range of electric cars and sports utility vehicles as well domestic energy storage technology (and related products such as solar roof panels). Established in 2003 by two American Entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, the company was named after the famous inventor and proponent of alternating current, Nikolai Tesla.

The company’s initial mission was to develop an electric sports car, a highly ambitious and expensive undertaking from which much of the funding was obtained from the PayPal co-founder serial entrepreneur and billionaire, Elon Musk – who invested more than $30 million into this innovative and fledgling organization. This cash injection and consequent research and development lead to the production of its first car in 2008 – the 100% electric “Roadster”.

The efficiency compared to diesel and petrol engines were notable, as the Roadster could achieve the equivalent of 135 miles per gallon – more than double the efficiency of most fossil fuel sports cars and with comparable performance and ever-increasing mileage range. However, despite many tax incentives put in place to encourage the use of more environmentally friendly, the $109,000 price tag meant that this was clearly pitched as a luxury brand car

In 2008 following the stepping down of the company’s founders, Elon Musk became the new Chief Executive. Two short years later a decision had been taken to take the company public on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Following a much-publicized and successful Initial Public Offering the company raised over $226 million.

Since 2012 the Roadster is no longer in production and Tesla has looked to broaden their offering by producing new vehicles such as the Model X – which is considered a “crossover” vehicle that offers many of the features of an SUV but is built on the chassis of a car. The increasing demand for electric vehicles across a wide variety of vehicle types has driven Tesla to produce more modestly priced vehicles such as the $35,000

Tesla has grown to be the largest player in the global EV market with a market share of 16% of the plug-in market and a 23% share of the battery-electric segment in 2020

• Module Learning Outcomes

1. Critically evaluate the competitive and development strategies of an organization in the context of contemporary strategic management issues.