TESLA

OVERVIEW
Tesla, Inc. (previously known as Tesla Motors) is a company whose main specialisation lies
in electronic automobiles, and solar panel manufacturing. The company is based in Palo Alto
in the state of California, United States and was founded in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and
Marc Tarpenning - Electrical Engineers and entrepreneurs by profession.
The company, Tesla Inc., also sells solar panels, solar roof tiles, and batteries.
Tesla Inc. is named after Serbian-American Physicist and Engineer, Nikola Tesla.

Established in the year 2003, the entity became profitable in 2013, focuses primarily in the
production of electric powered vehicles.
Under the leadership of its Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, an American entrepreneur,
investor, and an engineer, the company has reached great heights and is a market leader in the
said industry of electric powered vehicles.
This company works at par with the latest technology, and innovative ideas of the CEO who
is also the Product Architect.
Along with designing and manufacturing of electric powered vehicles, the company also
focuses on development of sustainable and renewable energy resources. The company also
manufactures battery which are renewable in composition, as it helps towards its major goal
of sustainable energy.

In 2016, the company was a topper in Consumer Reports' Annual Owner Satisfaction Survey
at 91%
In February 2017, Consumer Reports named Tesla Inc. as the top American car brand and
ranked it as 8th in the list of global car makers.

MISSION STATEMENT
Tesla's mission statement was initially "to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable
transport". But, it was later changed under Elon Musk's leadership in mid 2016 to "to
accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy"

This statement shows slight yet significant shift in the company's business, which addresses
market's new options towards renewable energy.
In a certain way, the new corporate mission identifies the relevance of the company's battery
and renewable energy storage product in market, along with electric powered vehicles.

The mission statement has three notable components - to accelerate; the world's transition; to
sustainable energy.

To Accelerate - this component talks about the company's role in pushing the industry to
advancement in technologies for products that rely on sustainable and renewable energy.
The World's Transition - indicates the expectations of dominance in the markets worldwide.
It relates to the statement's emphasis on the global market.
To Sustainable Energy - this element was changed from "to sustainable transport" which
shows that it has changed it's statement to adapt to the strategic objectives of the entity.

VISION STATEMENT
Tesla Incorporated's vision statement clearly states "to create the most compelling car
company of the 21st century by driving the world's transition to electric vehicles"

This vision puts focus on renewable energy. Specially, the company addresses the electric
powered vehicle market as a major route for facilitating expansion of the renewable energy
market worldwide.

It has four notable components- Most compelling; car company; 21st century; world's
transition to electric vehicle.

Most Compelling - Tesla has set out it's goals to be the most compelling company in the
industry, it shows leadership values and excellence in business. The company approaches to
this goal by using new and advanced technology in it's electric powered vehicles and other
products.
Car Company and 21st Century- this component talks about the company's extensive efforts
on manufacturing vehicles which complies with 21st century designs.
The fourth component tells us about the company's efforts towards worldwide growtu goals
by expansion and setting up manufacturing plants in developing countries' of Aisa. This
expansion would challenge companies such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and General Motors.

GOALS
Tesla motors Inc. wants tesla not only to be a leader in car making industry but more widely a
sustainable lifestyle provider. Elon musk’s goal is to produce a large range of sustainable car
models, counting more affordable cars although keep producing luxury ones. The main
emphasis of Tesla motors Inc. is to move towards ecological solutions using solar energy,
which is currently the most reachable sustainable solution. Testla will continue to produce
electric and sustainable cars as it had done in the past and also plans to be able to produce a
sustainable package including cars, smart batteries and various other solar technologies.

STRATEGY
Tesla motors is a very high-profile company in a high-profile industry. Tesla motors Inc. is
not only a leading manufacturer of electric cars but it also provides energy management
services. The company aims to market its products in the leading car market. As tesla motors
Inc. is a young company which was established in 2003, the growth of the company is in
fragile condition due to many variables like legal decisions, technological issues etc. In spite
of the challenges, Tesla as a company has successfully employed various business level
strategies. The generic strategy used by Tesla is that of differentiation. Product differentiation
is a strategy where the firms attempt to gain competitive advantage by increasing the
willingness of the customers to pay for the product or service which they provide. Tesla
Motors Inc. has focused on narrow group consisting of delighting wealthy customers in order
to avoid competition with large car manufacturers and targeted a demographic where they
can compete on performance and social sciences. By having a differentiation strategy Tesla
has succeeded in avoiding direct competition with Gm, VW, and Ford. If they would have
competed with the other large car manufacturers, it would have been almost impossible for
them to make profit margins. There are very few car brands which provide a range of electric
vehicles, Tesla being one of them have differentiated its product by adding luxury to its cars.
Tesla motors have a very limited range of products and the major cause for that is hidden in
its mission statement. They don’t want to be the market leaders as of now due to lack of
advance production technology. The cars launched by Tesla are outstanding in terms of utility
and luxury. Tesla’s Model S in an electric sedan having a unique combination of
functionality, convenience and styling whereas the other one is pure luxury. Tesla is also
trying to build a third generation of electric cars pricing a bit low compared to others to
capture larger segments of buyers. Apart from differentiating its product through combination
of utility and luxury, Tesla has also played differentiation game by focusing on providing
unique consumer experience by eliminating the middle men chain. Unlike other brands Tesla
lets the consumer customize the car before purchasing online. Tesla is of a view that
transferring the ownership to the dealers would restrain it from maintaining the control of the
service level, hence Tesla has 50 stores worldwide ensuring full operations and maintaining
optimum consumer service at these locations. Recently Tesla has planned to launch a
GIGAFACTORY by the end of 2017 to reduce the cost of manufacturing the products which
will enable them to make the products more mass market.

Tesla motors CEO is a brilliant entrepreneur involved in many tech companies. He devised
new strategy where he transformed competitors into collaborators. Tesla motors opened its
patent to all and revoked suits against anybody who used the technology in good faith. The
decision by Tesla motors was taken up to promote standardization as it would imply that
Tesla would be setting up the standards and other electric vehicles would be adopting the
same which would further lead to cementing Tesla’s position as the market leader. Moreover,
Tesla was of view that if the technology would be known to every competitor it would lead to
economies of scale as putting the car parts and setting up the ecosystem would be simpler and
more profitable

Testla has also successfully employed intensive strategies as well which include the
development of the market by introducing the product into new market and geographical
regions. Tesla was initially in North America but now it has expanded to Asia and Europe.
Another key used by Tesla to grow its range of products was development of the product.
Tesla motors who were initially into luxury electric vehicles have now planned to launch new
range of products which are less expensive. this introduction of new range of products have
helped Tesla to differentiate its brand as well as reduce the competitive threat

In addition, Tesla motors have, over the years entered into various strategic partnerships. In
order to accelerate its development of the EV cells and battery pack performance, Tesla
entered into an agreement with Panasonic in 2010. Tesla uses Panasonic’s technology for
light weight and durable battery packs which reduce the cost of production. Moreover, in the
same year Tesla partnered with Toyota also. This deal was aimed at increasing Tesla’s
engineering, manufacturing and production expertise. In addition, joint venture of Toyota and
Tesla allows Tesla to share branding space with highly respected market leader in car
industry.