Corporate Comunication

Tesla Inc.
Hepes Maximilian L

1 Products and services:

Tesla, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures and sells electric vehicles and designs,
manufactures, installs and sells solar energy generation and energy storage products. The
Company's segments include automotive, and energy generation and storage. The
automotive segment includes the design, development, manufacturing, sales and leasing of
electric vehicles as well as sales of automotive regulatory credits. The energy generation and
storage segment include the design, manufacture, installation, sales and leasing of solar
energy generation and energy storage products, services related to its products, and sales of
solar energy system incentives. Its automotive products include Model 3, Model Y, Model S
and Model X. Model 3 is a four-door sedan. Model Y is a sport utility vehicle (SUV) built on
the Model 3 platform. Model S is a four-door sedan. Model X is a luxury four-door sedan. Its
energy storage products include Powerwall and Powerpack.

2. Workplace Environment:
As revealed by data from Handshake, a student career-services app, though, it is exactly
this type of intensity that makes Tesla attractive to young, driven applicants. Handshake
noted that Telsa received more job and internship applications than any other company
listed on the app in the 2016-2017 academic year. Last year alone, Tesla collected almost
500,000 applications, which is about double the volume it received in 2016. In a statement
to The Wall Street Journal, Cindy Nicola, vice president of global recruiting at Tesla, noted
that the company had already received more applications to date this year than it did in all
of 2017. Tesla’s attractiveness among applicants extends well into its internship program.
For interns, the company’s flat organizational structure provides them with an opportunity
to exercise their ideas and be heard. Anusha Atluri, a student from Carnegie Mellon
University’s Tepper School of Business who worked as an intern at Tesla this past summer,
experienced this first-hand. She worked at Tesla at a time when the company was ramping
Model 3 production, and partway through her internship, she came up with an idea that
could speed up the electric sedan’s lines.
The intern presented her idea in a PowerPoint presentation to her team, and it was well-
received. She initially planned to discuss her suggestions with management the following
week, but Tesla opted to implement her suggestions the next day. By the following week,
the line was running more smoothly. “They were like, why not just try it tomorrow?” she
said in a statement to the WSJ.

Elon Musk has noted that Tesla probably has the most exciting product roadmap in the
market today. With exciting new electric cars and energy products in the pipeline, the
company is bound to grow and expand its workforce even more. The company would most
likely demand long hours and ambitious targets for its employees for years to come. Despite
this, the company would likely continue to attract the most driven individuals that the talent
pool has to offer — individuals that, just like Elon Musk, thrive in the face of pressure.

3.Vision & Leadership:

Tesla Master Plan, Part 1

From 0 to Mainstream: Hot off the heels of his PayPal victory and determined to change the status
quo, Musk launched Tesla in 2003, at the same time he was building SpaceX. His Master Plan for the
nascent company was essentially as follows:

 Build sports car that runs on zero-emission electric power generation

 Use the revenue to build an affordable electric car
 Use that revenue to build an even more affordable electric car

“The strategy of Tesla is to enter at the high end of the market, where customers are
prepared to pay a premium, and then drive down market as fast as possible to higher unit
volume and lower prices with each successive model,” he writes on Tesla’s blog.
1. Create a low volume car, which would necessarily be expensive

Tesla debuted the Roadster, a luxury electric sports car, in 2008. The vehicle was the first mass-
produced electric car to use lithium-ion batteries, and the first to travel more than 200 miles on a
single charge.Tesla sold 2,450 of these high-end sports cars at a base price point of $109,000, and
funneled the revenue into development of the Model S.The company stopped producing the
Roadster in 2012, and plans to replace it with a second-generation version in 2019. Even so, the
original Roadster served its purpose by raising eyebrows, funding the Model S, and setting Tesla’s
Master Plan into motion.

2. Use that money to develop a medium volume car at a lower price

Telsa released the Model S, a second-generation luxury vehicle at a lower price point, in 2012. The
new model became one of the top-selling all-electric vehicles in the world and won numerous
awards, including Time Magazine’s Best 25 Inventions of the Year Award in 2012 and Motor Trend
Car of the Year in 2013.Tesla rolled out the Model X, a luxury SUV sporting falcon-wing doors, in
September 2012. While the model was absent from the company’s original master plan, Musk
couldn’t ignore the fact that SUVs comprised 50% of the vehicle market.

The car was difficult to manufacture, and the pace of deliveries suffered. Soon after its release, a
litany of glitches appeared. While many were related to the falcon-wing doors (such as the
possibility of injury while closing), customers also reported issues with stubborn front doors, frozen
touch-screens, and underperforming heaters. Elon now refers to the Model X as “step 2.5” of his
Master Plan, and claims that Tesla’s “hubris” in adding so many new features was the source of its
flaws.

3. Use that money to create an affordable, high volume car

With the Model S and Roadster under its belt and the Model X behind it, Tesla is now working on the
key piece of its strategy—a high-volume car with a low price point. Meant for the masses, the Model
3 will start at a mere $35,000 before government incentives. More than 100,000 pre-orders for the
Model 3 flooded in sight-unseen in the 24 hours before Musk even displayed the prototype in March
2016. There were roughly 400,000 total pre-orders as of May 2017.

Production of the Model 3 is slated to begin in mid-2017 and ramp up to 500,000 cars per year in
2018. The first deliveries are scheduled for late 2017.

4. Provide solar power

While the Powerwall can work in concert with solar panels and Tesla car chargers, truly seamless
integration would require a merge between SolarCity and Tesla, Musk decided. Tesla bought
SolarCity in 2016, moving Musk one step closer to his vision of a comprehensive energy solution for
consumers, complete with rooftop solar generation, battery storage, and electric vehicle charging.
SolarCity is slated to begin producing solar panels at its own Gigafactory in Buffalo, New York in the
summer of 2017.Tesla rolled out roof tiles with invisible solar cells to widespread acclaim in October
2016. The tiles provide greater coverage with a seamless, integrated aesthetic. Homeowners can
choose from four different styles that mimic traditional shingles. Made of tempered glass, they’re
also quite tough; the tiles are designed to withstand hail impacts of up to 200 mph. Tesla’s solar roof
lasts longer than a traditional roof, and at a lower cost when factoring in the electricity it generates.

Tesla Master Plan, Part 2

With the company’s initial goals well on their way to fruition, Musk publicly expanded his Master
Plan in a 2016 blog post. He mapped out Tesla’s future endeavors as follows:

 Integrate energy generation and storage

 Expand to cover the major forms of terrestrial transport
 Implement self-driving technology
 Enable car sharing
1. Integrate Energy Generation and Storage
Storage has long been considered the “holy grail” for solar. When paired with storage, intermittent
renewables like solar and wind can be just as reliable as energy based on fossil fuels. Storage can
also sync solar production (which peaks at midday) with demands on the grid (which spike in the
morning and evening). While there are various ways to store energy, batteries are the only practical
option for homes. Still, household-sized batteries remained expensive and difficult to maintain. Musk
knew that solving storage would change the game for solar. He achieved this goal in 2015 when
Tesla released the Powerwall, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery for residential storage, and the
Powerpack, a larger version for commercial and utility-scale projects.

Musk knew that making batteries attractive and affordable wasn’t enough—rooftop solar with
storage had to meet or beat the utilities on cost per watt. That meant large-scale production. In
2013, Tesla announced plans to build a massive “Gigafactory” near Reno, Nevada. While the facility
is still under construction, it began producing battery cells for Powerwalls and Powerpacks in January
2017.

2. Expand Into All Forms of Ground-Based Transportation

With the SolarCity deal locked in and construction on Gigafactory 1 underway, Tesla could focus on
the next phase of its Master Plan—expanding its line of vehicles. A full transition from fossil fuels to
clean energy would require heavy-duty electric trucks and vehicles for shipping goods, in addition to
passenger sedans and SUVs. In December of 2017, Musk unveiled the Tesla Semi. Musk projects the
new vehicle will beat diesel trucks on cost per mile, and has an estimated range of up to 500 miles.
Tesla plans to begin production of the vehicle in 2019.

At the Tesla Sami unveil event, Elon Musk surprised the audience by revealing a refresh of
the car that originally launched Tesla, the Roadster. Boasting a record-braking 0-60 mph
acceleration of 1.9 seconds and 620 miles of range, the new Roadster aimed to provide “the
hardcore smackdown” to internal combustion engine vehicles.
3. Vehicle Autonomy
Musk plans to roll out autonomous capability as soon as possible, and not just for the
coolness factor—he’s primarily concerned with safety. Tesla will integrate self-driving
components such as cameras, radar, and sonar with all of its vehicles as the technology
evolves, he reports. Autonomous systems will be fail-operational, meaning that a vehicle
will still drive itself safely if a component system breaks. While it will be some time before
self-driving vehicles become street-legal, Tesla cars will be ready.
4. Sharing
Once your car is self-driving, you can put it to work for you when you’re not using it, Musk
says. It will essentially be an “Uber driver,” but in Tesla’s shared fleet. Your Tesla may
eventually end up paying for itself, meaning that anyone could afford to buy one.
It’s a win-win for both Tesla and the consumer, and the final phase of Tesla’s Master Plan—
as far as we know. Judging from the company’s history, it could be the path to funding
“Master Plan: Phase 3.” Musk may just be getting started.
5.Social Responsibility:

Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 by a group of engineers who wanted to prove that
electric cars could be better than gasoline-powered cars. They hoped to build cars that
wouldn’t require the trade-offs in power and comfort of electric cars in the past. The
founders pledged that each new generation of cars would be increasingly affordable,
helping the company work toward its mission: to accelerate the world’s transition to
sustainable transport.
In order to design and build luxury electric cars, Tesla invented a number of new
technologies that it patented in order to protect its competitive advantage. In June 2014 the
company announced that it was releasing access to all of its patents, making its
technological advances open to competitors and inventors. In the announcement, company
CEO Elon Musk said, “Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable
transport. If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay
intellectual-property land mines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner
contrary to that goal. Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good
faith, wants to use our technology.” Tesla has a mission with an emphasis on social
responsibility; it strives to develop products that have both a societal and economic benefit.
Industry analysts and consumers alike see this as a distinct advantage in the marketplace.
Investment analyst Seeking Alpha explains:
“Companies like Toyota Motor and Honda are already pushing for gas-less cars and more
and more efficiency from their cars. Tesla is not single-handedly pushing this, but it is part of
the overall push to improve one of the most important aspects of our country—how we
envision the car. Yet, the company extends beyond this—challenging how we vision luxury,
how we understand how to build a car, and what the future electric grid could look like.”

6.Emotional Appeal:
[APEAL measures]
Owners’ emotional attachment and level of excitement with their new vehicle across 37
attributes, ranging from the sense of comfort and luxury they feel when climbing into the
driver’s seat to the feeling they get when they step on the accelerator. These attributes are
aggregated to compute an overall APEAL index score measured on a 1,000-point scale.