Tesla is the electric-vehicle company that trades on Nasdaq under the ticker TSLA.
Tesla was incorporated in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Elon Musk joined as an early investor and became chairman, while later leadership made him the company’s best-known executive. Tesla’s first production vehicle was the Roadster, introduced in 2008 and based on the Lotus Elise platform.
The company later developed the Model S, Model X, Model 3, and Model Y, along with energy-storage products and solar-energy systems. Its rapid growth made Tesla one of the most valuable automobile companies by market capitalization, although its ranking changes with the stock price and broader market conditions.
TSLA is a stock ticker, not the company’s full name. Rivian, Lucid, and NIO are separate electric-vehicle manufacturers with different tickers and corporate histories. Tesla’s headquarters moved from Palo Alto to Austin, Texas, in 2021.