Self-Driving & Robots
Optimus production line
In October, production-quality Optimus robots start coming off a Fremont line built for up to a million a year. Musk says the first robots for outside companies could ship in about a year.
Read more →Top of the cell to the bottom · Today → 2003
The Tesla Timeline
Every car and truck Tesla has built, when it reached customers, and the one feature that made it matter. Read it like the battery cell on the left: the top is today, and scrolling down goes back to 2003, when Tesla was two engineers and an idea. The charge fills in as you go.
Tap a category to show only cars, energy, self-driving and robots, or factories. Want everything Musk has built in one place? See the main timeline.
2026
Cars & Trucks
Cybercab gives rides, and Semi ramps up
October 2026
The steering-wheel-free Cybercab joins the driverless fleet in Austin, with Dallas next. The Semi enters volume production.
Key featureCybercab is the first Tesla built without a steering wheel or pedals: it only works as a robotaxi.
Read more →Cars & TrucksComing 2028
The Roadster returns, and it jumps
Unveiled: October 15, 2026 · production planned for 2028
After nearly nine years of waiting, Tesla unveils the next-generation Roadster in Waco, Texas, built with help from SpaceX.
Key featureCold-gas thrusters, borrowed from rocket technology, let it hop over a row of parked Teslas on stage.
Read more →Factories & Milestones
Terafab announced
Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI announce a joint chip factory in Texas planned to be the largest building in the world.
Read more →2025
Cars & Trucks
Model 3 and Model Y Standard
Launched: October 2025
Lower-priced versions of Tesla’s two best sellers.
Key featureSimpler trim and fewer extras to bring the starting price down: under $40,000 for Model Y and under $37,000 for Model 3.
Read more →Self-Driving & Robots
Robotaxi in Austin
In June, Tesla starts giving paid rides in Model Ys with nobody in the driver’s seat in Austin, Texas.
Read more →Cars & Trucks
The new Model Y
U.S. deliveries: March 2025
The first big redesign of the world’s best-selling car.
Key featureA full-width light bar front and back, a screen for rear passengers, ventilated front seats, and a quieter, smoother ride.
Read more →2024
Self-Driving & Robots
Cybercab is unveiled
At the “We, Robot” event in October, Tesla shows a two-seat robotaxi with no steering wheel and no pedals, plus a larger Robovan.
Read more →2023
Self-Driving & Robots
Optimus Gen 2
In December, Tesla shows a lighter, faster second-generation Optimus that can walk more smoothly and handle an egg without breaking it.
Read more →Cars & Trucks
Cybertruck
First deliveries: November 30, 2023
Four years after the cracked-window unveiling, the first Cybertrucks reach customers.
Key featureA body made of thick stainless steel panels that are also the structure, with no paint. Steer-by-wire (no mechanical link to the wheels) and a 48-volt electrical system.
Read more →Energy & Charging
Tesla’s plug becomes the standard
Starting with Ford in May, nearly every carmaker in North America agrees to use Tesla’s charging plug and connect to Superchargers. It becomes an official industry standard, called J3400.
2022
Cars & Trucks
Semi
First deliveries: December 1, 2022
The first electric big rigs go to PepsiCo.
Key featureUp to 500 miles of range while pulling a fully loaded 82,000-pound truck, with Megacharger stations to refill it.
Read more →Self-Driving & Robots
Optimus walks
At AI Day in September, an early Optimus prototype walks onto the stage on its own and waves.
Read more →Factories & Milestones
Giga Berlin and Giga Texas open
Two new car factories start delivering in March and April, one near Berlin, Germany, and one in Austin, Texas, which becomes Tesla’s headquarters.
2021
Factories & Milestones
A trillion-dollar company
In October, Tesla’s stock market value passes $1 trillion for the first time.
Self-Driving & Robots
Tesla Bot is announced
At AI Day in August, Musk announces a humanoid robot. The “robot” on stage is a person in a costume dancing, but the plan is real.
Read more →Cars & Trucks
Model S Plaid
First deliveries: June 10, 2021
A three-motor version of the Model S with 1,020 horsepower.
Key feature0–60 mph in about 2 seconds, quicker than almost any car you can buy, in a five-seat family sedan.
Read more →2020
Factories & Milestones
Tesla joins the S&P 500
In December, Tesla joins the index of America’s 500 biggest companies. That means millions of retirement accounts that track the index now own a piece of it.
Self-Driving & Robots
Full Self-Driving beta
In October, a small group of owners gets software that drives on city streets: turns, stop lights, roundabouts. A driver must still be ready to take over.
Energy & Charging
Battery Day: the 4680 cell
In September, Tesla shows a bigger, fatter battery cell it designed itself, the 4680, meant to cut battery costs and add range. That cell is the picture on the left of this page.
Cars & Trucks
Model Y
First deliveries: March 13, 2020
A crossover built on the Model 3. In 2023 it became the best-selling car in the world, the first electric car ever to do it.
Key featureSUV space and a raised seat with most of its parts shared with Model 3, so it could be built fast and in huge numbers.
Read more →2019
Factories & Milestones
Giga Shanghai: factory in under a year
Tesla breaks ground on a factory in China in January, and the first cars made there are delivered to customers on December 30.
Cars & Trucks
Cybertruck is unveiled
In November, Tesla shows a stainless-steel pickup that looks like nothing else on the road. During the demo, a metal ball meant to show off its “armor glass” cracks two windows. Orders pour in anyway.
Energy & Charging
Megapack
In July, Tesla introduces a shipping-container-sized battery for power companies. Lined up by the hundreds, Megapacks become power plants that store energy instead of burning fuel.
2017
Energy & Charging
The giant battery in Australia
Musk bets that Tesla can build a grid battery in South Australia within 100 days or it’s free. The Hornsdale battery switches on in December, the largest lithium-ion battery in the world at the time.
Cars & Trucks
Semi and a surprise Roadster
In November, Tesla unveils an electric big-rig truck. Then the Semi’s trailer opens and a new Roadster drives out, promised as the quickest production car ever.
Cars & Trucks
Model 3
First deliveries: July 28, 2017
Getting production up to speed is so hard that Musk sleeps at the factory, calling it “production hell.” It goes on to become one of the best-selling electric cars ever.
Key featureThe first Tesla aimed at a $35,000 price. No gauges behind the wheel, just one center screen, and a glass roof.
Read more →2016
Energy & Charging
Solar Roof + SolarCity
In October, Tesla shows roof tiles that are solar panels. In November it buys SolarCity, the solar installer run by Musk’s cousins.
Cars & Trucks
Model 3 is unveiled
On March 31, Tesla shows the car meant for everyone. About 325,000 people put down $1,000 deposits within a week, before almost anyone had driven one.
2015
Self-Driving & Robots
Autopilot arrives by software update
In October, cars already parked in owners’ garages download Autopilot overnight: they can steer within a lane, change lanes, and match speed with traffic. The driver still has to pay attention.
Cars & Trucks
Model X
First deliveries: September 29, 2015
A family SUV built on Model S technology.
Key featureFalcon-wing rear doors that open upward, so you can get into the third row in a tight parking spot. Seats up to seven and can tow 5,000 pounds.
Read more →Energy & Charging
Powerwall
In April, Tesla introduces a wall-mounted home battery that stores solar power or cheap night-time power, plus the bigger Powerpack for businesses and utilities.
2014
Factories & Milestones
Tesla gives away its patents
In June, Musk announces Tesla won’t sue anyone who uses its electric-car patents “in good faith,” to get more electric cars on the road. Construction also starts on the Nevada Gigafactory for batteries.
2012
Energy & Charging
The Supercharger network starts
In September, Tesla opens its first six fast-charging stations in California, free for Model S owners. Road trips in an electric car become possible.
Cars & Trucks
Model S
First deliveries: June 22, 2012
Tesla’s first car designed from a blank sheet. It wins Motor Trend’s Car of the Year and gets top marks in crash testing.
Key featureThe battery is a flat pack under the floor, so the car is roomy and hard to roll over. A 17-inch touchscreen runs nearly everything, and the car keeps improving through over-the-air software updates.
Read more →2010
Factories & Milestones
Fremont factory + going public
Tesla buys the former GM–Toyota NUMMI plant in Fremont, California, at a fraction of its value. In June it goes public, the first American carmaker to do so since Ford in 1956.
Read more →2008
Factories & Milestones
Musk becomes CEO, and Tesla nearly dies
In October, in the middle of the financial crisis, Musk takes over as CEO. A funding round closes on Christmas Eve, hours before Tesla would have run out of money.
Read more →Cars & Trucks
Roadster
First deliveries: February 2008
Tesla’s first car reaches customers. About 2,450 are built before production ends in early 2012.
Key featureThe first highway-legal production car powered by lithium-ion battery cells, the same kind used in laptops. About 245 miles per charge and 0–60 mph in under 4 seconds.
Read more →2006
Cars & Trucks
The Roadster is unveiled
In July 2006, Tesla shows a two-seat electric sports car in Santa Monica. The body comes from the Lotus Elise; nearly everything that makes it go is Tesla’s.
2004
Factories & Milestones
Musk joins as chairman
Musk puts in most of Tesla’s first funding round and becomes chairman of the board, pushing hard on the design of the first car.
Read more →2003
Factories & Milestones
Tesla Motors is founded
Engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning start the company in July 2003 and name it after the inventor Nikola Tesla. The plan: prove electric cars don’t have to be slow, ugly golf carts.
Read more →That’s the bottom of the cell: July 2003. For what’s announced but not built yet, see What’s Next. For the whole story across every company, see the main timeline, or read more on the Tesla page.