Did Elon Musk “Steal” Tesla? The Truth about the Early Years

Who really started Tesla? Elon Musk or a man named Martin Eberhard. This video clears up the early history of Tesla.

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Thumbnail source:

Sources:
0:45
Mark Tarpenning image: LinkedIn
Ian Wright image: LinkedIn
3:53 Tesla Motors Inc., Copyrighted free use, via Wikimedia Commons
4:03 Timothy Watkins image sourced from Valor Equity Partners
4:12 Credits: Klima- und Energiefonds, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) via Flickr
4:45 Michael Marks image sourced from Celesta Capital
4:48 Image of Ze’ev Drori sourced from Alamy (Newsthink is a registered client)
6:34 Elon Musk image: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Articles and interviews referenced:

[Newsthink]

*Do you think Elon is justified in calling himself one of Tesla's co-founders?*

[johnwilson]

I was fortunate to personally invest heavily in "Tesla" back in 2019, before the huge increase in share value. As part of my due diligence ( I worked in the Investment Industry) my friends and I did a very "in depth" investigation of the history of Tesla. (We follow a Top Down approach.) We pieced together a timeline of what happened from when Tesla Motors was launched in 2003, right through how the main company personnel were brought on board. How it was funded and by whom. It paints a clear picture of what happened and Musk is totally correct.
Tarpenning and Eberhard registered the company but had NO MONEY. Nothing except some ideas. They were looking to buy/bring in AC Propulsion, an EV company that had already made EV prototypes. But, no dosh. They didn't really have the right connections either, to get money. So they brought in Ian Wright (a Kiwi working in Silicon Valley) Essentially, he arranged a couple of small investors, plus Elon Musk. Musk liked the basic concept of an EV but was concentrating on SpaceX. He was still flush with his Pay Pal money and "invested" $3 to 6 million to allow Tesla Motors to actually do some things with AC P. ACP wasn't interested and Eberhard and Tarpenning started heading off on a tangent and Musk realised they didn't really have a clue re external design and 6 MONTHS later, almost a year after first being registered, brought in JB Straubel. Now this was the 5 that effectively started Tesla Motors. Without all 5, Tesla would never have got off the ground.
In a Court case, Musk established that all 5 would be credited with being Tesla Motors Co-founders.
Eberhard shortly after "did the dirty" on Ian Wright and effectively, forced him out. He had other interests so moved on. Strange how we don't hear much about that part!
The situation with bringing in Lotus for their body was all Eberhard and later Musk berated himself for going along with it. It was a nightmare and eventually Musk realised he needed to get more involved if he wanted it to be a success.
Eberhard and Tarpenning wanted the next car to be a bigger, more powerful sports car but Musk said "Noooo". A family sedan should be next if they wanted to making EV's a viable option for everyday transport for humanity. (The model S)
He removed Eberhard and so the Tesla legend began.
They bought in Fisker as a design consultant for Model S who then proceeded to effectively "steal" the designs for S and instead, designed his own car called Fisker. Musk fired him when they thought his car designs were not good enough. Luckily he was never given the technical specs of the internal car. He was a car designer, not an engineer and completely cocked up internal cooling systems and other important aspects, meaning his Fisker cars always had problems and bombed out. Musk bought in Franz von Holzhausen who is responsible for all the rest of the Tesla vehicles. So it began...

[JohnCanfield]

Small correction at 05:50. No IP, means no Intellectual Property, not IP Address. Typically Patents.

[lanzer]

"IP address" (5:47) is the Internet Transport Protocol address and "IP" just means Intellectual Property by the way. :) Great video as usual. I like the fact that you didn't choose sides and just point out your research. People get way too caught up in the whole "founder" thing. It's never the name tag, but accomplishments that is important.

[AnemosFPV]

What is it with musk and being CEO of every company. It’s hard to run one company, we are supposed to believe he runs 4?

[paulfrank]

Tesla failed to be profitable until relatively recently and after huge government subsidies, selling of large amounts of stock to the public, and many rounds of fundraising. People saying Eberhard and Tarpenning’s inability to make it profitable in its early years fail to realize it takes 10-15 years for a new car company to produce vehicles at scale and to just break even. Also, teslas recent profitability is heavily dependent on carbon credits and branding which enables them to justify charging higher prices for the prestige of people being able to claim they own a Tesla. What irks me the most is Elons narcissism and unwillingness to admit he did not create Tesla and was more a financier and businessman than an engineer tinkering with car designs to make a viable electric car that was desirable to the public.

[Lwillp]

Love what you do and keep up the good work! Just a small correction, (around 5:47) in this case, IP = Intellectual Property...

[wolfvale]

The quality of this channel never disappoints. You have a knack for shining a light on dark spots of hidden knowledge, that most of us fail to notice right in front of us.

[jean-bricerougeot]

What's really funny about Elon Musk is that a majority of people think he's a real GENIUS...
Is he ? really ? for what ?
Electric car run on lithium ion, electricity is not a renewable energy.
It requires enormous amount of Lithium ion to build those cars. Not only that we know that poor children in Africa have to dig deep in to get out of the ground.
In addition to that Electric car basically run on Nuclear plant. This is not renewable!
so what is he a genius for ? The real genius was Tesla and it's a real shame his name got stolen for that dreadful company !
May be Musk offered better direction to lead the company, but still, it does not change the fact he's not the founder, he stole it and did everything he could so that we would never hear about the names of the real founders.

[joevidrine]

Amazing how this story is repeated on a set schedule. At critical moments when the oligarchs are trying to buy on the cheap immediately before TESLA revenue, news technolog and earnings are about to explode. It would be interesting if the SEC would investigate this weird media sources seem to repeat these stories at specific intervals. Would be interesting to investigate the investment strategies of those financing this repeated "news". Did they short and buy Puts immediately before repeating their stories? Are they buying after covering Puts and then buying stock and Calls?

[G.K.Walker]

They both need to let it go. One man is retired and the other runs several different companies this is beneath both of them.

[davidmacphee]

Very close to half a Million Subs now Cindy.
In a way, you are a Hero to me here in Toronto.

[iamhavalbarwari]

Happy I discovered your channel. Your videos are so well made. All the good info in a reasonable duration while leaving your sponsor ads at the end of the video. You earned my subscription. Looking forward to more content. Thanks!

[genkisudo]

You have some of the best content!!! Love watching your videos

[CARSOFTHEFUTURE]

Hey @Newsthink, great great videos, cant wait for your uploads.
I think you've made a small mistake...at 5:49 i think IP means Intellectual Property. Have a nice day, and keep up the good work.

[TheDerHeld]

"No IP Address" - pretty sure Intellectual property was meant lol

[ilaser]

The company was obviously something if boy genius was willing invest crap tons of cash to muscle himself onto the board.... Anyway....

1. Not like Elon hasn't oversold a product and raised the price
2. Not like Elon to bully his way into CEO positions
3. Doesn't Lotus make the panels? Regardless Musk was the one to demand carbon fibre panels...
4. Complaints about shipping times? Musk can talk...
5. Interesting to see Musk using the same schtick back then as he is now regarding mass layoffs "We're raising the bar on talent"
6. Musk is so damn petty he made sure he got the first roadster and then sent it into space
7. Eberhard as per contract should have received the second roadster, Musk gave him one which was a repaired wreck and bragged about it
8. Eberhard sued him for all the crap he said and his defence is his libel/defamation was 'free-speech'... Oh yeah, then he settled the suit.

Don't throw stones Elon....

[DinkyDingus]

Couldn’t make it as a CEO of multiple EV companies. Sounds like a failure to me

[accountforcommenting]

Even if agree that elon made company successful, he didn't create it, if a company is founded on vision of person even if some else did most of the stuff, person with vision and started it should be founder because without his vision and him it wouldn't exist in the first place

[HiddenAgendas]

LOL Tesla still has issues with Panel gaps.