Elon Musk is technically a “founder” of Tesla, as per a court settlement. He deserves credit for Tesla’s succes, but it is true that he isn’t behind Tesla’s main innovation.

While I’m no fan of Elon Musk, I care more about the truth than smearing him, which is not the case for a lot of his haters. One of their go-to lies they like to repeat is that he is not a “founder” of Tesla.

It’s something they use to try to discredit his achievements: “He isn’t a founder or inventor. He just buys ideas from others.”

While there’s some truth to it, it’s not the whole truth. I felt like it would be essential to set the record straight.

The early story of Tesla

Tesla was officially incorporated on July 1, 2003, by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning with the goal of building an electric vehicle manufacturer that is also a technology company – an idea that is still core to Tesla today.

In investment materials, Eberhard and Tarpenning’s early Tesla stated a goal to develop core technologies related to “the battery, the computer software, and the proprietary motor.” These are still Tesla’s core technologies today.

But Tesla’s most important innovation was the use and packaging of cylindrical li-ion battery cells, previously mainly used in consumer electronic products, like laptops, in large battery packs for electric vehicles.

That was really a game changer and it’s an idea that precede Elon Musk’s involvement with Tesla.

While incorporated in 2003, Eberhard and Tarpenning had been working on the idea for a while. They had previously founded NuvoMedia where the two founders built of an early handheld device, the Rocketbook, an ebook reader, back in 1996.

They sold the company in 2000, but before that, they were working on the next-generation of their ebook and in sourcing the batteries, they noted some impressive improvements in the capacity and cost of li-ion battery cells.

The two engineers had serious concerns about climate change and oil import. They did the math and concluded that powering transportation with batteries using renewable energy would have a significant impact on reducing emissions and climate change.

Tesla didn’t invent electric cars. They had been around for 100 years by the time the company was founded, but they required making compromises compared to fossil fuel-powered vehicles, which prevented them for gaining in popularity.

That was Tesla’s difference-maker: making cars with the latest li-ion battery cells developed for consumer electronics, resulting in electric vehicles without compromises.

This core idea were reflected in Eberhard’s guiding principles for Tesla:

1) An electric car should not be a compromise. With the right technology choices, it is possible to build electric cars that are actually better cars than their competition.

2) Battery technology is key to a successful electric car. Lithium ion batteries are not only suitable of automotive use; they are game-changing, making decent driving range a reality.

3) If designed right, electric cars can appeal to even the most serious car enthusiast, as electric drive is capable of seriously outperforming internal combustion engines.

That has been the basis of Tesla’s success. The idea of leveraging the incredible progress with li-ion batteries in the 1990s to deliver electric vehicles with no compromise.

This was Tesla’s core innovation. It sounds simple, but it took incredible work. No battery manufacturer wanted to build li-ion cells for EVs, so Tesla had to buy off-the-shelves cells meant for laptops and package thousands of these cylindrical cells into battery modules and packs that could be viable in a car. It’s an idea that had never been done before.

And an idea is worth nothing without execution.

Tesla couldn’t have happened without Elon Musk

Musk claims that his interest in electric vehicles predates Tesla. There’s no reason not to believe him, but there’s no evidence that he had anything to do with the abovementioned concept.

In fact, before his foray into Silicon Valley’s internet startup boom, Musk went to Stanford University to study supercapacitors, which he claims he did with the hope of using them in electric vehicles. This would suggest that he thought supercapacitors would be the future of EVs rather than Li-ion batteries.

Musk and Tesla got together through a company called AC Propulsion.

AC Propulsion pioneered the resurgence of electric vehicles and built the tZero electric sports car in the 1990s.

First, it used lead-acid batteries like its predecessors, but the company converted it to lithium-ion battery cells in the early 2000s. It’s not clear who had the idea first or if it was parallel thinking, but we do know that AC Propulsion and Eberhard were in contact during the conversion.

Eberhard tried to convince AC Propulsion to commercialize the new tZero, but the company refused because it focused on another product. That’s when Eberhard and Tarpenning decided to launch Tesla.

How did Musk come into the picture?

Musk, who was working on SpaceX at the time, was contacted by JB Straubel, a young electrical engineer with a longstanding interest in electric vehicles, including building his own Porsche EV in his garage.

Fresh out of school, Straubel was working on high-altitude hydrogen-powered electric aircraft at the time—something that was of interest to Musk, so they got together. The conversion eventually pivoted to electric vehicles, and Straubel, being deeply connected in this small world, made Musk aware of AC Propulsion.

They test-drove the tZero with lithium-ion batteries, and Musk was sold. Like Eberhard, he tried to convince AC Propulsion to commercialize the product. Tom Gage, AC Propulsion’s CEO, again refused, but since they were thinking the same way, he connected Musk to Eberhard, who had just launched Tesla with Tarpenning, along with Ian Wright, who had joined the two engineers.

A few months later, in February 2004, Musk led Tesla’s series A investment round, with $6.5 million of the $7.5 million coming from his pockets.

Eberhard became CEO, and JB Straubel, who, despite his young age, had the most experience building electric cars, joined as Chief Technology Officer.

Musk was busy with SpaceX, but he was more active within Tesla than simply being an investor and board member.

As Tesla was working on the Roadster, Musk led several other rounds of financing, providing a large part of the funding himself.

Things turned for the worse in 2007. Tesla was having issues bringing the Roadster to production within its budget. The move to use the Lotus Elise chassis proved to be a mistake, and by the end, the Tesla Roadster had only shared 6% of its parts with the Elise, as most of it had to be reworked.

In the summer of 2007, the board, led by Musk, asked Eberhard to step down. Several interim CEOs followed before Musk took over himself in 2008.

Eberhard fully left the company, and in 2009, he sued both Tesla and Musk for ousting him. Both sides accused each other of being behind Tesla’s problems, and Eberhard claimed Musk was “rewriting history” as if he had founded Tesla himself.

Ultimately, a judge dismissed part of Ebarhard’s lawsuit, and then both parties settled and agreed that five people could call themselves co-founders at Tesla: Eberhard, Tarpenning, Wright, Musk, and Straubel.

Electrek’s Take

Now, in a civil case like this, the outcome is not necessarily the most just. Generally, those with the most money and the best lawyers win.

So, I’m not going to claim that there’s no value in questioning whether or not Elon is truly a Tesla founder. I get that there’s nuance here, but all parties involved have settled the matter. My main point is that it doesn’t really matter.

Tesla’s core idea was to create an electric vehicle without compromise by leveraging improvements in lithium-ion battery cell technology. However, all evidence points toward Musk’s not being involved with this core idea.

With that said, we need to give credit where credit is due. He recognized it as a good idea and put more money into making it happen than any was willing to do at the time.

Therefore, you could make the argument that Tesla wouldn’t have happened with Musk – making the founder argument moot.

After that, you also have to give some credit to Musk for Tesla’s success. He has been the CEO since 2008 and the company accomplished incredible things under his leadership. They succeeded in making EVs mainstream and pushed the industry to transition to battery-electric vehicles.

To this day, it is Musk’s original ‘Tesla Secret Master Plan’ in 2006 that convinced me Tesla would be the company to bring EVs into the mainstream. The plan made sense, and it was executed under his leadership. He took the original idea, fleshed it out, financed it, and then led the team that made it happen.

The last point is important because that’s where I start to agree with Musk’s naysayers again. Musk’s fans like to claim that he is some sort of engineering genius. Jamie Dimon just called him “our Einstein”. While I can admit that Elon is smart and has an above-average understanding of many physics and engineering principles, comparing him to one of the most impactful theoretical physicists of all time is pure madness.

While Musk has made technical contributions to Tesla, I think they are often overblown by his fanbase and Tesla’s team doesn’t get enough credit. JB Straubel, Tesla’s longtime Chief Technology Officer until 2019, and his teams should get the vast majority of the credit for the technical contributions and advancements to battery technology and power electronics that made Tesla successful.

There are too many to name them all, but I have been reporting on Tesla for more than a decade. Through my reporting, sources have praised people like Straubel, Drew Baglino, Kurt Kelty, Colin Campbell, Peter Rawlinson, Charles Kuehmann, Alan Clarke, Dan Priestley, Lars Moravy, David Zhang, Evan Small, and Franz von Holzhausen for their contributions to Tesla.

In short, yes, it’s OK to say Elon Musk co-founded Tesla. Yes, he had a critical role in the company’s survival and success, but I also think it’s fair to say that he wasn’t behind Tesla’s main innovation, and the company’s top talents don’t get nearly enough credit for delivering on the mission.

The mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy is a beautiful one and it is what attracted much of the top talent at Tesla.

Unfortunately, Musk’s leadership over the last few years has steered Tesla away from that mission, which is my main worry about the company.

Regardless, I wanted to set the record straight on his contribution before he completely destroys his own reputation and credibility.