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Tesla is an innovative company that has been making waves in the automotive industry since it was founded. Since that time, Tesla has continued to innovate and improve their products. Making a name in the motor industry is never easy, but Tesla is never far from the headlines.
Here are ten fun facts about Tesla!
1. Who are the Tesla founders? 
Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning founded Tesla in 2003. Ian Wright joined a short time later.
In February 2004, Elon Musk led the Series A funding round by joining the board as chairman and later as CEO.
Tesla appointed JB Straubel as Chief Technical Officer in 2004.
A legal agreement was agreed between Eberhard, Tarpenning, Musk, Wright and Straubel to call themselves Tesla founders.
CEO Elon Musk is a famous businessman, engineer, and investor who founded SpaceX and PayPal. Eberhard was Tesla's first CEO but was replaced in 2007 by Musk. Eberhard remains on Tesla's board of directors and is an integral part of the Tesla community today.
2. Tesla was originally named after Nikola Tesla, the inventor of alternating current.
Nikola Tesla was born July 10 1856, over 160 years ago. He registered more than 300 patents and envisioned many more inventions. He is known as the Father of the alternating current (AC) foundation of much of contemporary technology.
Nikola Tesla also considered himself an inventor of wireless communication and the radio. He is first credited with proposing the idea of solar power, which would later become more popularised.
Tesla appeared on the front of Time magazine to celebrate his 75th birthday.
Elon Musk wanted to name Tesla Motors 'Tesla' after Nikola Tesla, which forced him to change his company's original name from "SRA" (Silicon-Valley motors (he was not fond of the name he chose.
Tesla Motors' original name was "SRA", and it stood for "Silicon Valley Automotive." The founders wanted to focus on Silicon Valley because Tesla's technology is based on advanced computer systems, which were mostly built with silicon (hence the name Tesla).
3. Telsa's first car was called the Roadster.
The Tesla Roadster was Tesla's first effort and debuted in 2008. The Roadster was designed to show how an electric car could outperform a gas-guzzler by being much faster, for much less money. It wasn't the worlds most economical car, but it made a strong statement.
Tesla's Roadster was the first production electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells. Lithium batteries are now used in most Tesla cars, as well as smartphones and laptops.
4. The Model S is Tesla's highest rated car ever.
The Tesla Model S is often considered one of the best cars ever made. It won a slew of awards, including Car of the Year from Motor Trend magazine. The original model was introduced in 2012 and received over 16,000 reservations for vehicles before they even debuted on the market. A new Model S has been released since then, with several technological advances that make it even better.
The Model S should be relatively cheap and easy to service. Only six parts in the Tesla Model S can be replaced regularly. Only four wheels and one blade can be regularly maintained, and the brake pads last a surprisingly long time.
The Tesla Model S's massive 17" touch screen displays functions as your single power button controlling all aspects of driving, navigation, musical devices and anything else in between. In addition, the popular four-door sedans have a large touchscreen that displays up to 320 colours of colour. The Model S comes with its own SIM card, wireless charging and more features of connectivity.
5. Tesla has collaborated with some famous names.
Tesla cars are not only known for how technologically advanced they are but also for their style. Tesla's goal is to make the car stylish and functional to help future generations of electric vehicles grow in popularity. To do this, Musk has overseen several collaborations with well-known fashion brands such as Dior and Louis Vuitton. These collaborations have helped raise the Tesla brand's profile and put them in a class above other electric cars on the market today.
Tesla has also been known to team up with Disney Pixar, which allowed Tesla car owners to watch a special video from inside cars. The company also worked with Warner Bros to create a Tesla version of the Batmobile from Batman Forever, although a Chevy 350 was used in the end.
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6. Elon Musk is reported to sleep at the Telsa factory.
Tesla currently enjoys incredible success with its electric-car production expected to hit 500,000 annually by 2020. But Tesla was also hit this year by critics with concerns about its safety recall. Elon said that his seat is on the production line's end and even has a sleeping bag in a nearby conference room to ensure everyone is up to his standard.
Tesla is currently sending nearly half a million orders in the Model S and three and is still selling well the pressure is on. And in a conference call, he announced that he had a desk nearby.
7. Tesla models will have fully autonomous driving capabilities.
Tesla is working on creating fully autonomous driving capabilities in its models. Musk said that he is committed to making Tesla the safest car company in the world.
Tesla has designed their technology to make their cars auto-driving capability more sophisticated than any other manufacturer on the market. Musk plans to make Tesla's software suite for their vehicles "the single best software ever written."
Tesla cars are designed with a self-drive assistant called 'autopilot'. For an extra $10,000, the cars can be fitted with 'Full Self Driving' capability, which, in time, will provide fully autonomous driving ability, according to Musk. The system is still being developed, but Telsa's self-driving feature is very much on the cards in the future.
8. Tesla built its Gigafactory 3 in China to produce the Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y for the Chinese market.
Tesla made history when it became the first US automaker to build an assembly plant in China. Dubbed the Gigafactory 3, it was constructed in just over a year and is situated outside Shanghai.
The move to manufacture in China allows more accessible access to the Chinese EV market, with Tesla models only slightly more expensive than Chinese manufacturers like Nio.
The Gigafactory 3 aims to produce around 150,000 vehicles a year eventually.
9. The Tesla Model X is the safest car tested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The Tesla Model X vehicle is the safest car tested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). It earned a 5-star safety rating award in every category and subcategory. The Model X outscored any other SUV in existence, not just those offered by Tesla motors. The crash testing was performed by applying a full-width frontal crash test and a side crash. The front of Tesla's SUV received five stars in each category, while the rollover rating got four out of five stars.
The Model X became the first electric car to receive NHTSA's highest safety designation, "superior", awarded to vehicles that get a combined score of at least five stars in the agency's crash tests.
10. Tesla has some pretty cool patents.
One of Tesla's most important patents is the one they got on October 13, 2014, for their electric car charging station called Superchargers. This patent is essential because it can help prevent other companies from using their technology. But Tesla only uses this to protect themselves, not stop others from getting involved with electric cars and making them better than they already are.
Tesla has also patented a system for their self-driving technology to choose the best route for your car. Patents like this one can be very beneficial and keep companies from copying them because they know how much a patent will cost in the first place.
So there you go, ten facts you may (or hopefully may not) have known about Tesla, brought to you by Total Loss GAP.