Tesla Motors (often shortened to Tesla) is an American automaker and energy storage company co-founded by Elon Musk, Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, JB Straubel and Ian Wright, and is based in Palo Alto, California. The company specializes in electric cars and their powertrain components and also produces battery charging equipment.
Tesla first gained widespread attention following its production of the Tesla Roadster, the first electric sports car, in 2008. The company's second vehicle, the Model S, an electric luxury sedan, debuted in 2012 and is built at the Tesla Factory in California. In Q1 2013, Tesla released its stock profits for the first time from its NASDAQ ticker symbol. The Model S was the world's best-selling plug-in vehicle in 2015 and its global sales achieved the 150,000 unit milestone in November 2016, four years and a five months after its introduction. As of November 2016, the Model S ranks as the world's all-time second-best-selling