Elon Musk became chairman of Tesla after investing $6.5 million in 2004 and took over as chief executive when the co-founder Martin Eberhard was removed by the boardEPA

Elon Musk has become so much the public face of Tesla that many people are surprised to hear that he did not create the company. In reality, he became involved a year into Teslas founding, initially only as an investor. By that time, he was already a billionaire.

Tesla Motors was founded in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, two American engineers with an interest in global warming. The pair were inspired to create the company after General Motors recalled all its electric cars in 2003 and destroyed them, having decided that electric vehicles occupied an unprofitable market niche.

Mr Musk led a so-called series A round of investment for Tesla in February 2004 with $6.5 million of personal funds out of a

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Elon Musk's Tesla journey started as an investor - The Times