Amanda Chisholm
BSAD 260: Marketing Management
Spring term 4: Professor Astrid Proboll
Due 4/11/15
Background
Tesla Motors is an American company that designs, manufactures, and sells electric cars and electric vehicle powertrain components. It is a publicly traded company trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol TSLA. According to the company website (teslamotors.com), the company was founded in 2003 by a group of engineers in Silicon Valley that sought to prove the benefit of electric cars.
The company’s website highlights the vehicles performance, describing the vehicles has having “instant torque, incredible power, and zero emissions” with an objective of making the new technology more affordable with time. The company’s mission statement is “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transport”.
Key Success Factors
Tesla Motors reins a supreme leader in the industry. According to Myles Mangram (2012), Tesla remains the sole manufacturer of zero-emission sports cars in serial production (as opposed to concept vehicles or prototypes).
The level of performance of the vehicles has been another key success factor, making the vehicles widely popular. The company’s website (teslamotors.com) describes the performance of the company’s first car in 2008, the Tesla Roadster to have the ability to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in only 3.7 seconds, and boasts a range of 245 miles per charge of its lithium ion battery.
The cult following associated with electric cars, and Tesla vehicles in particular have proven to be a key factor in Tesla’s success. Elon Musk believes the representatives of the brand are the owners themselves. Musk has also attributed the brand’s significance to increasing concern for the environment (Halliday, 2009).
A central argument in favor of rapid electric vehicle adoption is the positive environmental effects. Unlike emissions from...