Happy Birthday Martin Eberhard! You are the true inspiration for those who appraise innovation than investment and leadership.
Being the creator of the first highway-capable all-electric sports car, in production, with a range greater than 200 miles (320 km) per charge, certainly makes Martin Eberhard a visionary. And then again him being ranked as the top 24 innovators of 2007 by Fortune Magazine is proof enough.
Name: Martin Eberhard
DoB: May 15, 1960, California, United States
Achievements: Co-Founded Tesla Motors in 2003, Lead Scientist at SF Motors
Sports cars were known as gas-guzzlers until Martin started Tesla in 2003 and designed the Tesla Roadster in 2004. Between 2008 and early 2012, Tesla sold more than 2,250 Roadsters in 31 countries.
The history of Martin Eberhard and Tesla is very interesting and entrepreneurial. These are a few less-known facts about Martin and his passion:
- Martin Eberhard began his career in 1983 as an electrical engineer at Wyse Technology (Acquired by Dell In 2012). There he designed the WY-30 ASCII computer terminal as his first product.
- In June 2003, Martin co-founded Tesla Motors as he did not find a suitable sports car to buy. He was the first CEO of Tesla Motors.
- Neither of the initial founders or investors of Tesla, including Martin, were automobile engineers.
- Tesla had to be about Electric Sports Cars because Martin hated the idea of being dependent on the Oil-rich countries.
- Martin and Marc Tarpenning (co-founder of Tesla) cornered Roger Becker from Lotus Cars, the maker of the finest-handling sports car on road then, at the 2004 LA Auto Show and convinced him that Tesla was worthy to partner. Later Lotus Cars became the contract car manufacturers of Tesla.
- The well-known lawsuit by Martin on Elon Musk (the investor and co-founder of PayPal who ousted Martin from the company) is known to be less of an ego battle and more of strife to be known as the founder of the brand Tesla.
- Martin wanted the first produced first series of Tesla Roadster for himself as a collectable, however, the then board of Tesla declined his wish and he settled for the second produced Roadster cars instead.
- On November 30, 2007, Tesla Motors issued a press release, stating that “Martin Eberhard, co-founder of Tesla Motors, has transitioned from the board of directors and executive management of the company to the advisory board”.
- On January 7, 2008, Martin Eberhard had confirmed that he was no longer employed in Tesla Motors and was only a shareholder in the company.
- Between 2009 and 2011, he worked as Director of Electric Vehicles Development at Volkswagen.
- In August 2018, Martin founded Tiveni, Inc, where he is currently working as Chairman and CTO of the company.
Though Martin is not a part of the Tesla team today, it’s his passion to build the Roadster and make Tesla an upmarket brand that he is known for most.
His life story hints loud and clear, that skills of the technical kind can be honed if the passion of the right kind is abundant. And it’s essential to have business acumen and street smartness if you ever took a path less trodden.
The post is a part of a B’day series where we celebrate the birthday of a renowned personality from Tech Industry, regularly. The intend is to highlight the person’s achievements and touch base the little known, but interesting, part of his life. To make it more exciting, we suggest you make use of the comment section if you are among the ones celebrating their birthday with today’s featured personality.
