Tesla celebrates its 10th year as a public company today. Here are the most important moments in its history. (TSLA)

Tesla

• On June 29, 2020, Tesla celebrates its 10th year anniversary of going public.
• In 2010, Tesla offered 13.3 million shares at $17 per share.
• The company has permanently changed how the public perceives electric cars.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tesla celebrates its 10th anniversary of going public on June 29.

It's been a long 10 years, full of ups and downs. But it's fair to say that in 2020, Tesla has succeeded in putting electric cars on the radar for many buyers who once would have never considered them.

Tesla's journey has not always been easy. While the company has celebrated plenty of achievements, it has also experienced its fair share of setbacks. 

Here's a breakdown of the company's most defining moments since its founding. 

While Tesla CEO Elon Musk has led Tesla for the majority of its existence, he wasn't always at the helm of the company. 

Tesla, which is named after the famous physicist Nikola Tesla, was incorporated in 2003 by two engineers, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Other co-founders included JB Straubel, Ian Wright, and Elon Musk.

Musk led the company's Series A funding round in 2004, but at the time he served as the company's chairman. 

Eberhard served as CEO until August 2007, at which time he was reportedly asked to leave the company. 

On November 28, 2007 Ze'ev Drori, an Israeli engineer and businessman, was named CEO of the company. 

Musk has never been shy about his intentions for Tesla. 

In 2006, Musk published a blog post entitled "The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (just between you and me)" in which he made it crystal clear that Tesla's mission is to speed up the adoption of a "solar electric economy."

"As you know, the initial product of Tesla Motors is a high-performance electric sports car called the Tesla Roadster," Musk said. 

"However, some readers may not be aware of the fact that our long term plan is to build a wide range of models, including affordably priced family cars. This is because the overarching purpose of Tesla Motors (and the reason I am funding the company) is to help expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy, which I believe to be the primary, but not exclusive, sustainable solution." 

Tesla announced Drori would take the helm at Tesla at the end of November. Drori officially took the reigns of the company on December 3, 2007. 

Drori, an Israeli engineer and tech veteran, was tasked with bringing Tesla's first car, the Roadster to market by the first quarter of 2008. 

Drori managed to bring the Roadster into production on time and the first vehicle was delivered to Musk, who was serving as the company's chairman at the time. 

To celebrate the occasion, Musk jumped in the Roadster (P1) and led four other prototype Roadsters packed with engineers down Highway 101 and University Avenue in Palo Alto, Calif. 

By mid-March, the company had met its goal of getting regular production of the Roadster up and running. 

At the time, Drori referred to the event as a "milestone for the company and a watershed for the new era of electric vehicles."

Tesla produced the Roadster, which priced at $109,000, until January 2012 and in total sold 2,450 Roadsters, according to a 2012 SEC filing. 

See Also:

• Elon Musk trolls Jeff Bezos, calling him a copycat after Amazon acquires self-driving-car startup Zoox
• The rise and fall of the Jump bike, the electric machine that wooed Uber into a $200 million sale and is now being discarded by the thousands
• Lordstown Motors has unveiled its $52,500 Endurance truck that's set to be the first electric pickup to market

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