In this world, there is always some great enterprises, they have grand ideals, committed to changing human life, promoting the process and development of the era of science and technology, Tesla is one of them. It completely subverts the traditional automotive industry, truly brings electric vehicles from the concept state to the assembly line mass production, and makes an important contribution to human energy conservation and emission reduction. 14 years of attack, what are the legends behind Tesla? Touch the quality, discover the future, please watch the "Tesla Revolution" of 100,000 brand stories today.
In 2017, Tesla experienced several major events. First, it removed the word "car" from the company's registered name and changed it to Tesla lnc, which means that Tesla will accelerate its own expansion path; second, in the first half of the year, Tesla's stock continued to rise for several months, with a total market value of up to $51 billion, once surpassing General Motors and becoming the largest car company in the United States; third, Tesla's latest model Model 3 was delivered half a year ahead of schedule, and it was regarded by the outside world as the most likely product to make electric vehicles go mainstream in the market. Tesla, a car company that uses IT concepts to build cars, has made a subversive change in the automobile industry with a history of more than 100 years, which not only stirs up the entire traditional automotive industry, but also is more likely to affect the future of the entire human way of travel.
As part of Elon Musk's super-industrial empire, Tesla is full of legends, but its founder is not Musk, but Martin Eberhard. He has loved sports cars since he was a child, but out of recognition of the concept of environmental protection, Eberhard hopes to combine sports cars with new energy. In July 2003, Eberhard founded Tesla Motors in Silicon Valley to develop high-performance pure electric vehicles, and the customer base is high-income people who are environmentally conscious.
In the process of corporate financing, Eberhard met Musk, a very successful Internet entrepreneur and investor at that time. The following year, Musk invested $6.3 million in Tesla, becoming Tesla's largest shareholder and chairman. In fact, before that, Musk was very concerned about lithium battery technology, he had discussed with Stanford scholars the possibility of using lithium batteries to drive cars, "The battery used for laptops is 18650 lithium batteries, if you put ten thousand such batteries in series, you can make the car travel 1000 miles." The idea made the outside world feel crazy and even a little stupid, but it was this idea that made Tesla what it is today.
Musk
Tesla's first product was the Luxury Electric Roadster, which was developed on the basis of the Lotus Elise sports car, using its ready-made chassis and body structure to put the core battery and electric motor into the car. Roadster's battery pack consists of nearly 7,000 18650 lithium batteries, and how to solve its heat dissipation and prevent battery explosion has become the biggest problem in Roadster's research and development process.
To this end, Tesla set up a six-person test team to deal with the battery problem, after a series of test explosions, they consumed thousands of batteries, but these efforts were worthwhile, and the engineers finally solved the problem. After being developed, Roadster became the world's first electric vehicle to use lithium battery technology and be able to travel more than 320 kilometers per charge.
In July 2006, as soon as it was unveiled in Santa Monica, California, it caused a sensation, and various media outlets flocked to the launch event, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. On the day of the event, 30 Roadsters were booked, including Two Founders of Google, Brin and Page, and some Silicon Valley billionaires. Although many people were not optimistic about electric vehicles before, after the release of Roadster, more and more people saw the huge potential of the electric vehicle market.
However, after the release of the infinite scenery, Roadster almost died on the way to mass production. Tesla spent $140 million on car development, far more than the $25 million it had previously estimated. In 2007, Musk's Space X rocket launch failed, and Musk, who is fighting on two fronts, faced a severe shortage of funds.
What's more frightening is that in 2008, the United States broke out of the subprime mortgage crisis, almost all companies are short of money, even GM and Ford such car big guys are no exception, Tesla is difficult to raise funds, as a silicon valley reality version of Iron Man, Musk under incredible pressure, in order to raise funds, he even sold his private property. The first Roadster users were scheduled to deliver at the end of 2006, but the final delivery was delayed to February 2008, more than a year later than expected, and only 7 vehicles were delivered. Despite the difficulties, Musk is gradually making good on his promises.
In 2009, Tesla released the Model S model, if the Roadster is still "backdoor listing", the Model S is a newly developed and designed pure electric sports car, 17-inch large LCD screen, all-aluminum body, high-end version 0-100km/h only need 4.4s, 90km/h uniform speed, the maximum mileage can reach 480km.
After the release of this model, it caused a lot of repercussions. Many media said that they are looking forward to this real Tesla electric car, but they doubt whether it can be truly mass-produced, after all, in the context of the global financial crisis, Tesla's financial problems have not been solved.
Perhaps, Heaven will always take care of those who are diligent. In May, Daimler bought a 10% stake in Tesla for $50 million, which eased Musk's urgent needs. In early 2010, Tesla received another $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, allowing its financial position to really stabilize. After this, the road to mass production of model S gradually became smooth.
On June 22, 2012, the first Model Ss were finally delivered to customers. In 2013, Tesla won the "Car of the Year Award" from the authoritative American magazine Motor Trend with the Model S, which was the first time in the award's 64-year history that the annual model was awarded to a car with a non-internal combustion engine engine.
In 2015, Tesla launched the Model S P90D, its 2.9 seconds to break the strength of the hundred, completely brought Tesla into the 3-second supercar club, can match only lamborghini Huracan, McLaren 650S and Porsche 918 this kind of opponents, but the price of the Model S P90D is far lower than the other types of supercars, the official standard price is only more than one million yuan.
In addition, before the delivery of the Model S, Tesla also released a full-size 7-seat pure electric SUV - Model X, which is equipped with the same powertrain as the Model S, and the biggest highlight is that the rear door adopts an exaggerated eagle wing door design, which is also eye-catching.
In early May 2013, after Tesla announced its first profit in the first quarter, its stock price rose about 80% in a month, and its market value suddenly exceeded $10 billion. Musk wrote in his personal blog, "Just want to say thank you to customers and investors, you gave Tesla a chance to travel through the long night, without you we would not be where we are today." ”
In March 2016, Tesla released its fourth product - Model 3, it is a product that does not forget the original intention, Tesla's ideal at the beginning of its creation is to produce an electric car that ordinary families can afford, 13 years later, Tesla finally realized its original intention. The Model 3 sells for only $35,000 in the United States and about 350,000 yuan in China, which may be cheaper under policies such as new energy subsidies.
Before the official website opened the Model 3 reservation, only by the store queue booking, the number of Model 3 orders reached 115,000 units, some holders of money do not even know its configuration, do not know what it looks like, but this does not seem to affect their enthusiasm for model 3, in more than a hundred years of automotive history has never been a car to create such a miracle as model 3.
Tesla is undoubtedly successful, it not only brings fire to the concept of new energy vehicles, but also brings a series of cutting-edge technologies into our lives. Compared with traditional fuel vehicles, Tesla's automatic update system is very eye-catching, almost all the buttons are gathered in a 17-inch central control touch screen, which is actually Tesla's unique "air upgrade" service, which can automatically download the newly developed intelligent driving technology to each Tesla car sold earlier, completely subverting the traditional way of human update. In addition, Tesla's autopilot function also provides intelligent services for car owners, and even successfully saves many small white drivers who reverse into the total pressure line of the warehouse.
However, as Tesla has caused more traffic accidents due to automatic driving, its safety performance has become more and more the focus of public attention. The first murder of Tesla's autopilot occurred in May 2016, when a Model S did not detect a semi-trailer crossing the highway while driving, and the two cars collided, resulting in the owner's death. This incident immediately pushed Tesla to the cusp of the storm.
According to the Wall Street Journal, some engineers within Tesla believe that Tesla's sales department is interested in introducing the Autopilot system to fully automatic, which has the potential to put drivers in serious danger. Indeed, misinformation or overemphasis will give consumers the illusion that Autopilot is already a "mature self-driving system", and it is hoped that the management of Tess will attach great importance to it and must not gamble on the lives of others.
Although Autopilot is now under a lot of controversy, no one seems to doubt Tesla's huge contribution to the entire automotive industry. It not only made the world's best environmentally friendly pure electric vehicles, but also opened up patents, driving the entire automotive industry into the era of electric vehicles in advance, such as Porsche, Audi, BMW and other traditional car manufacturers have also launched their own new energy vehicles, trying to keep up with the trend of the development of the times.
In the future, Tesla is the company that is most likely to change the way we all travel, when its self-driving technology is really developed to a high degree or fully automated, driverless driving is ten times safer than human driving, and even when your car is idle, you can set up vehicle sharing and let it make money for you!
Today, Tesla is not just an electric car for us, but also an advanced way of life. From pure electric green mobility, to high-tech car experiences, to fully automated driving technology, people seem to see their own future, which is a great company, bringing us hope for a better life.