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Who owns Tesla Motors?

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Although the answer to this question may seem obvious at first, I have been unable to discover exactly who all of the "Founders" are, and just what percentage of the company they own.

Most of us are aware that Elon owns the lions share, but how much is that? 10%? 30%? 50%? More?

We have heard other names such as Jeff Skoll, Sergey Brin, Larry Paige, etc., but does anybody have access to a complete list? We know most of these people to be ethical and upstanding individuals, so how do they view Elon's behaviour? I seem to recollect hearing the phrase "Don't be evil" somewhere, but it escapes me at the moment... :rolleyes::smile:

Perhaps someone could help me compile a list of the owners of Tesla Motors and their relative stakes in the company. I think that this information could be useful "down the road", so to speak...

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
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We have heard other names such as Jeff Skoll, Sergey Brin, Larry Paige, etc., but does anybody have access to a complete list? We know most of these people to be ethical and upstanding individuals, so how do they view Elon's behaviour? I seem to recollect hearing the phrase "Don't be evil" somewhere, but it escapes me at the moment...
That would be Sergey and Larry. From Google's Corporate Philosophy page at Corporate Information - Our Philosophy
6. You can make money without doing evil.
 
Thanks Mark,

I was saying that tongue-in-cheek, but I suppose it wasn't really obvious, so I added a couple of emoticons to help convey the idea.

I do appreciate your response though.

Do you know if a comprehensive list exists (that I could access) of the owners of TM and their relative stakes in the company?
 
Who Killed the Electric Car?

-Chris

I am interested as well in the list of benefactors. However, one does not seem to be in existence, at least not complete.
I have yet another question. Why is this first, successfully released, electric car a sports car? It's price is quite steep for something that will 'change the world'. in order for such drastic change to take place, wouldn't it be more cost effective to release something that could finally kill both auto industry and big oil at once? Especially before the auto bail-out that is expected to come very soon. It may seem as though such a large R & D effort could only be rewarded by an expensive vehicle. This is not true. A mass release would make the current knowledge of internal combustion engines entirely obsolete. If someone were to capitalize on such an enormous vacuum it would make them infamous. Or absolutely powerful. :wink:
I would hardly be surprised to discover that many of the large, and (as you and Mark discussed it so gently) 'evil', CEO's in this world may be behind this.
Have you ever seen the documentary 'Who Killed the Electric Car?'?
 
It's a private company. There is pretty much no chance of getting this info until (if/when) they file for an IPO. Even then you won't get a comprehensive list since it will only contain the folks over a certain bar. You'll just have to make due with what is listed on their site and what you can infer from other statements.

I'm sure that there are many of the employees are "owners" as well due to stock options...

Of course, the percentage ownership of various folks changes every time they raise money as well...

-Jon
 
I have yet another question. Why is this first, successfully released, electric car a sports car? It's price is quite steep for something that will 'change the world'....

They talked about this extensively before. They had a plan to have successive models get more and more affordable. The purported idea was to launch with a "dream car" to get attention and use initial profits to fund developments of future models. Given recent news that the Roadster costs a lot more to make than planned, the stars don't seem so well aligned yet. Perhaps the new plan is to have 'Model S' be the new profit engine in the future?

Electric Car Insider: The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan
 
All indications are that Elon Musk is the single largest shareholder, but not the majority shareholder. I don't believe there even is a majority shareholder.

Although it's not owned by a single person or entity, with Elon's share percentage, Chairman of the Board status and CEO title, he's indisputably in control of the company.

-Ryan
 
I read somewhere, recently, that Martin owns about 3% of the company. Wait a sec... here it is:

Daniel Lyons: Tesla's Electric Car Loses Its Juice | Newsweek Daniel Lyons | Techtonic Shifts | Newsweek.com

So, I'm guessing that Marc Tarpenning still owns about the same as Martin. Elon owns somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-40%, but that could have changed with the recent round of fund raising. So, that gives us estimates only.

Elon 30-40%
Martin 3%
Marc 3%
Jeff Skoll ??%
Larry Page ??%
Sergey Brin ??%
VantagePoint Venture Partners
VantagePoint CleanTech Partners
Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Bay Area Equity Fund, Managed by JP Morgan
Valor Equity Partners
Compass Venture Partners
Technology Partners
Nick Pritzker
Jeffrey B Straubel
Chris Byrne
Laurie Yoler
 
I have yet another question. Why is this first, successfully released, electric car a sports car? It's price is quite steep for something that will 'change the world'. in order for such drastic change to take place, wouldn't it be more cost effective to release something that could finally kill both auto industry and big oil at once?
It's really quite obvious. What has been wrong with every previous EV? Compromise. What does it take to make an EV without compromise? Money. So you make a ground breaking EV that performs like no other, and out performs most ICE's, and charge a premium for it. Use the technology and profits, (hopefully), as well as positive press from it to make a more affordable vehicle in the future. It's a good plan, and it might actually work.
 
It's really quite obvious. What has been wrong with every previous EV? Compromise. What does it take to make an EV without compromise? Money. So you make a ground breaking EV that performs like no other, and out performs most ICE's, and charge a premium for it. Use the technology and profits, (hopefully), as well as positive press from it to make a more affordable vehicle in the future. It's a good plan, and it might actually work.

This is a very good point. Also, I have to disagree with you Jacob. One of the most expensive aspects of a business is the R&D that has to go into new products. Given the fact that electric cars in the past (while they may have been decent) did not get the best range and were not able to go extremely fast (not sure what EV1's top speed was, but doubt it was 125ish like the Roadster).

As much as I would love to own a Roadster, I agree with Tesla making a car where they can charge a hefty price (for a majority of people) but at the same time have more "freedom" in trying to get the best out of the technology (mostly batteries in this case) as well as the best technology, so that they can make a really good electric car. You mentioned "a mass release..." but what you might be failing to realize is the fact that Tesla would have to sell a hell of a lot those lower priced cars in order to make money.

Now, also add to the fact that unlike the big 3, Tesla does not have the mass-production capabilities yet. This is something they are working on though. Proof of this is the fact that they only produced a couple cars per week initially and I think they are now up to around 12 per week. As you can see, they are slowly ramping up production but it is taking time. My points might not have all been the best (or even clear for that matter, I hate trying to say certain things online), but I do not agree that a lower priced car would have yielded the same results.

-Shark2k
 
Feels too good to be true, too soon.

Still... the patents for an electric car of any kind are exorbitant, to say the least. The list of companies involved is eye opening and answers many of my original questions. However, we shall have to wait and see what the media comes up with when all this truly hits the fan.