Martin Eberhard

Martin Forest Eberhard (/ˈɛbərhɑːrd/; born 1960) is an American engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Tesla, Inc. (then Tesla Motors) with Marc Tarpenning in July 2003, where Eberhard was its original CEO serving until late 2007. In 2015, he was inducted into the University of Illinois Engineering Hall of Fame.

Born in California, Eberhard grew up in Kensington, a community in the Berkeley Hills. He received a B.S. in computer engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1982 and an M.S. in electrical engineering from the same school in 1984.

Eberhard began his career as an electrical engineer at Wyse Technology, where he designed the WY-30 ASCII computer terminal as his first product. Eberhard co-founded Network Computing Devices in 1987, where he served as chief engineer through its IPO in 1992.

In 1996, Eberhard founded NuvoMedia with Marc Tarpenning, where they developed the Rocket eBook, the first e-book with secure internet delivery of content. Eberhard served as chairman and CEO until NuvoMedia’s acquisition by Gemstar in 2000.

Eberhard's interest in sports cars, concern about the dependence on oil imports, and global warming led him to think about EV cars as part of the solution. Their development of the second generation of NuvoMedia's ebook reader also had an impact due to their experience in sourcing lithium-ion cell technology. Eberhard found out about and attempted to purchase a prototype EV sports car called the AC Propulsion tzero. He provided some financial and technical support in the conversion of the tzero to lithium-ion batteries. Eberhard then tried to convince AC Propulsion founder Alan Cocconi to turn the tzero into a production car. When Cocconi declined, Eberhard co-founded (with Marc Tarpenning), and became the first CEO of Tesla Motors, an electric car company in Menlo Park, California in 2003.

Eberhard and Tarpenning had observed a common sight in the driveways of the wealthy suburb of Palo Alto, California: a conspicuously efficient Prius parked next to a high-end sportscar or luxury car such as a Porsche, a BMW or a Lexus. They saw that affluent buyers of high-end cars were displaying their green virtue (now called conspicuous conservation) with a Prius, but still wanting the driving experience and prestige of a high-end car. Eberhard and Tarpenning realized that these affluent, environmentally motivated buyers were a perfect market for a performance oriented electric car, and that such a car would change the market perception of what an electric car could be.

Eberhard’s guiding principles were:

1) An electric car should not be a compromise. With the right technology choices, it is possible to build electric cars that are actually better cars than their competition.