Timeline 349
- December. Interim CEO Michael Marks
was replaced by interim CEO Ze’ev Drori
2008- January. 260 employees. The VPs sur-
vived the new tests, so the Roadster was
finished - except for the transmission - March. Tesla began production of the
Roadster - April. More money - a bridge financing
led by Elon Musk and Valor Equity Part-
ners - May. Opened a retail store in Los Ange-
les, and they also finished a new trans-
mission - June. Opened a second retail store in
Menlo Park, California, and they also
delivered the first Roadster to the cus-
tomers. Marc Tarpenning decided to leave
Tesla. The Model S was announced in a
press release - August. Franz von Holzhausen joined
Tesla Motors as Chief Designer - October. Elon Musk became the CEO
after interviewing more than 20 prospec-
tive CEOs - November. Tesla revealed it had requested
about $400 million in loans for the Model
S and powertrain manufacturing, under
the Department of Energy’s Advanced