You may already know that Tesla has been changing the way we think about electric cars, but there’s more to the company than meets the eye.
In this article, we’ll look at 10 things you probably didn’t know about Tesla and its visionary CEO, Elon Musk, as well as a few things that you might be surprised to learn about the company. From its upcoming Gigafactory to the cars it produces, these facts will make you reconsider your perceptions of Tesla in general—and they might even change your attitude toward Musk himself!
1) Tesla Doesn’t Have an Oil Change
Tesla’s Model S is built with a unique motor that doesn’t need oil changes. Traditional internal combustion engines require regular oil changes and PMCs to clean out carbon, sludge, and other impurities that build up over time. Tesla’s technology has been designed to eliminate much of these wear-and-tear issues for good—the company believes its electric vehicles will last longer than any other car on Earth. As long as there’s electricity, in fact, your Tesla may never need maintenance (or maintenance) again. If you are looking for a new ride, you might want to consider one of these next 10 things you didn’t know about Tesla’s Model S…!
Since Tesla designed its engine to be far more efficient than traditional gas-powered vehicles, it doesn’t need oil changes. The Model S is built with fewer moving parts and isn’t exposed to as much carbon buildup. According to Business Insider, Tesla cars only need scheduled maintenance once every 100,000 miles or once every 2 years. The company estimates that its battery should last 8-12 years before it needs replacing. And while you do have to replace them eventually (and they aren’t cheap), your car may never need an oil change again!
2)Tesla car company’s real inventor
The electric car company Tesla is known for making good-looking, fast cars, but most people don’t know that it wasn’t actually founded by Elon Musk. As a matter of fact, Tesla was not invented by just one person. The three real inventors of Tesla were Nikola Tesla himself and his two partners: Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Both had helped develop early versions of batteries for hybrid electric vehicles and knew about Tesla’s work on electric vehicles with wireless charging capabilities. Stanford proposed to Marc a business plan to commercialize some aspects of Nikola’s technology.
3) Only 6% of Cars Are Electric in Norway
With only six per cent of cars being electric in Norway, there are many unknown factors surrounding Tesla’s popularity. While it is known that Norway has a high tax on gas, one way to combat those who try to say they don’t like Tesla simply because they don’t want to pay more for a car is to point out that their bill will be less overall than someone with a combustion engine vehicle. How much more popular will Tesla be once ICE vehicles are taxed even higher? Until we find out, there are other things we can speculate about Tesla’s future here in Norway and around the world.
It’s possible that Norway’s thriving market is a result of its already high energy costs. Since many have already opted to invest in solar panels and wind turbines, it would make sense for them to look into more efficient means of transportation. With lower levels of pollution, overall health could improve as well. Once Norway’s Tesla sales peak, there are other factors we don’t know about yet that could affect its popularity—things like overall cost or benefits from tax credits will undoubtedly influence how popular it becomes globally. The next question is: what can we learn from Norway and how can we apply these ideas to our own markets? How will Tesla benefit from tax cuts or low-interest loans when gas prices rise again?
4) Elon Musk Owns SolarCity
Since Musk is simultaneously CEO of Tesla Motors and chairman of SolarCity, it’s hard to imagine that he doesn’t have an opinion on what’s happening with his companies right now. So why didn’t he come forward in support of his sister company? Musk is known for being a pretty secretive guy, but we can only assume that he owns SolarCity shares and wants to protect them from plummeting along with Tesla stock—or something like that. Either way, if you own Tesla stock, keep your eyes open for updates from Elon. If any show-up, make sure you get out before everyone else does—this thing is about to explode!
Tesla has no plans to sell its own power, as SolarCity is doing. Instead, it plans to offer battery packs that can be installed in homes or businesses and hooked up to solar panels. The batteries will store extra solar energy during times of low usage so that they can be used later when demand rises. There are a lot of things we don’t know about Tesla—what new innovative thing will Musk come up with next?—but he sure does have an impressive track record! Tesla Stock Price – Third Paragraph: Tesla stock hit $291 back in June, but you can still pick up shares for less than $200.
5) Not Everyone Loves Tesla
Tesla is a pretty polarizing brand.
That’s to be expected; it’s new, it’s trendy, and frankly, when something changes our lives as significantly as Tesla has, some resentment or criticism is bound to occur. Still, I don’t think most people realize just how much vitriol exists for Tesla. We wanted to point out 10 things we didn’t know about Tesla—both positive and negative—to take a quick look at both sides of what makes Tesla so unique.
There are also some things that people just don’t know about Tesla. That’s not surprising; Tesla is still a young company and—due to some of its unique business decisions—it’s hard to fully grasp how it works, why it does what it does, and how its battery technology works, for example. There are dozens of fascinating tidbits about Tesla out there (some we didn’t even touch on here) that can help us see Tesla from a new perspective.
6) The Service Centers are Free To Go To
Tesla has Supercharger stations that you can use to charge your Tesla, but if you’re travelling and don’t have a place to charge your car, Tesla will let you use one of their service centres as a charging station. This is great news for drivers who plan on going long distances but forget to charge their cars before they start driving or people who simply want to see what it’s like behind the scenes at Tesla. The catch? No work can be done on your car while it is being charged, so make sure to call ahead!
Tesla offers a truly revolutionary product, but they’re just as innovative when it comes to customer service. The Supercharger stations are free to use, and if you’re travelling but don’t have access to one of these stations, Tesla will let you charge at one of their service centres! This is great news for road-trippers who don’t plan ahead or anyone who would just like to visit and learn more about how Tesla works. It is important to note that no work can be done on your car while it is being charged at a service centre, so call ahead first!
7) There Is A Tear Down Video For Every Model
Two weeks ago, Tesla Motors unveiled its latest electric car, a vehicle it calls the first premium electric sedan made by Tesla. Some of us snickered—are Tesla’s cars really that premium? Why is all its marketing material plastered with quotes from celebrities? Are luxury cars more about money than driving? But one thing we don’t know about Tesla is just how quiet these new vehicles are. How exactly does Tesla stack up against an established market leader like Toyota? Well, we have 10 questions to answer in order to find out. . . .
Is Tesla’s cars really that premium? We can tell you one thing for sure—these cars are powerful. The Tesla Stakes a paltry 4.4 seconds to reach 60 miles per hour from a standing start, more than two-tenths of a second faster than Toyota’s popular Prius hybrid. That might not sound like much, but in reality, it’s enough to give you some bragging rights if you ask your friends what they think about electric vehicles (EV). And on paper, it certainly seems impressive compared to other EVs on the market—we did some research and found that Tesla’s electric motor is almost twice as powerful as any currently available electric vehicle out there.
8) They Don’t Need Advertising
Tesla’s not your average car company—and not just because they make all-electric vehicles. The company is also doing something very different in terms of marketing and advertising. Tesla doesn’t spend much money on traditional advertising channels like radio, print, and television. Instead, it relies on word-of-mouth and social media to market its products. So while Tesla has yet to turn a profit or pay any dividends to shareholders (it did give some employees stock awards recently), there are a few things we do know about how well it markets itself…and why that might be enough for them for now.
Tesla doesn’t need to spend money on advertising because they have other ways of getting their product in front of potential buyers. For example, Tesla has an active social media presence, with over 1.5 million followers on Facebook and more than 350,000 followers on Twitter. The company also takes advantage of its unique retail locations—Tesla stores aren’t meant for walk-in sales like other dealerships—to interact with customers about their vehicles. Customers can schedule appointments for test drives and even order custom options at these locations!
9) It Takes a Long Time to Get One if You Order Now
Tesla is working to get production upon its cars—the Model S and Model X—which have been in development for a few years.
That means Tesla isn’t able to meet demand, which has led many reservation holders to question when they will receive their car. Tesla CEO Elon Musk indicated that it could take four or five months from ordering your vehicle until you can take delivery, assuming there are no delays along the way. This means if you put down a $1,000 deposit today for a Tesla Model 3, you might not actually receive your car until some time next year. If that doesn’t make you worry about how committed Tesla is to meeting production goals and delivering on orders as quickly as possible, we don’t know what will.
Of course, we don’t know how quickly Tesla will be able to deliver on orders in 2018. It could be a while before Tesla gets up to speed on Model 3 production and begins to fulfil current orders at a fast pace. We do know that if you order your car today, it’s going to take a long time before you get it. And Tesla is currently working through some quality control issues with its older models, which could become an issue if deliveries slow down or stop. If that happens—and even if it doesn’t—Tesla may have trouble scaling up production as it wants to over the next year or two.
10) Tesla Roadster is Quieter Than a Prius
The Tesla Roadster may be fast and sleek, but it’s also a lot quieter than most cars. In fact, according to Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk (via Wired), it’s even quieter than a Toyota Prius — meaning that electric vehicles could actually be more popular than most people think. That said, if you know anything about current EV sales figures, you know that Musk is saying something here — he’s claiming that electric vehicles are already becoming mainstream, despite limited sales numbers. We don’t doubt him (in fact, we agree wholeheartedly), but there might be one big thing holding back mass adoption of EVs: range anxiety. At least for now.
Of course, there are already plenty of things about Tesla cars that most people don’t know, including how some of their batteries and solar panels are sourced — not to mention how Tesla’s autopilot actually works. And it turns out that Musk is pretty tight-lipped about EVs in general: He knows a thing or two about long-range electric vehicles, but he hasn’t yet said much in terms of where EV adoption will stand in 2030 (and beyond). We can only hope that we see a lot more Teslas on road by then (maybe even Mars rovers), but we still think Musk could use his industry know-how to make sure they’re heard when they get there.
Conclusion
Tesla is on its way to becoming one of America’s most valued automakers, but that hasn’t stopped people from thinking Tesla is an underdog story. While few people think of Tesla as an under-the-radar business anymore, it turns out there are still quite a few things you don’t know about Tesla and Elon Musk. In fact, Musk himself once said, If all we accomplish is making electric cars…then I will consider us to have failed. But I think we have a decent chance of doing something more than that—of actually helping to transform the world to be solar-powered and sustainable. So what does he mean by transforming? What do you know about Tesla? Take a look at our list below.
Of course, we can’t possibly discuss everything you don’t know about Tesla and Elon Musk. After all, they make cars (cool ones), they make rockets (awesome ones), and Musk is even planning to colonize Mars! However, there are ten things that everyone should know about Tesla, things that are both shocking and truly awesome.
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