Tesla: A Rising Company, One of Many Owned By Elon Musk

How the revolutionary car company is influencing gas-powered competitors in the same industry, while taking its powerful place in the market.

Elon Musk, South-African-born entrepreneur, started Tesla with one thing in mind--the future. This theme is common in many other companies owned by Musk. Space-X, for example, is Musk's space-exploration company. Barely profitable, Musk funds it along with NASA in order to capitalize on the important need for more space exploration. Musk started Space-X due to the fact that, while NASA funding used to be 4% of the US budget, it is now only 0.4%. He is different from other billionaire investors due to his vision for technological advancements in society, rather than a quick profit. He looks at his dedication to our society's advancement into the future as an investment, both a symbolic one and a long-term profitable one.

Tesla started off as a pet project, as most of Musk's diverse investments do. He started off with a Tesla Roadster, a non-popular nor profitable electric sports car. Years after killing the Roadster, Musk really took a hold of Tesla's potential for a profitable company. He stated at the beginning that he would first start off with a popular, luxury sports-electric car, and work his way down to an affordable electric car for the working class after the company makes enough profit from the more expensive models. He first started off with the Model S, added a few features and performance improvements to it each year, then he widened the market by adding the SUV Model X to the company lineup. This expanded the company's reach to suburban markets, for households with children and more need for space. Eventually, Musk hopes within the next year, he will reach his goal of producing and selling an electric car model that is only $35,000. This will widen his target market and Tesla will no longer be seen as just an electric-luxury car company, but as a company as affordable as Ford, Toyota, and Chevy. This will surely implement Tesla's stance in the market, and will cause Tesla be seen by its competitors as a likely threat to their business, making them move towards electric models to be able to compete with Tesla.

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