Founded by Elon Musk, Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, JB Straubel, and Ian Wright in 2003, Tesla Motors is named after the Serbian-American electricity pioneer Nikola Tesla, inventor of the alternating current electric motor. Fitting, due to the company's entire line-up of vehicles being powered by electric motors. Their début in 2006 with an all-electric sports car was surprising to other manufacturers at the time, which were having trouble developing a reliable family electric vehicle.
