Elon Musk did not found Tesla Motors nor was he the CEO until years later title What follows is a brief history of Tesla starting at its founding not by Elon Musk but Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning page 1 Tesla was founded not by Elon Musk but rather by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in July 2003 page 2 It should be noted however that I never proposed changing it to Musk is not a cofounder Tesla Motors DocHeuh