82 Comments Tesla’s original co-founder, Martin Eberhard, is disappointed that Elon Musk canceled Tesla’s $25,000 electric car program and instead developed a “dumpster-looking” truck. There’s a lot of confusion around who founded Tesla. Most people simply believe that it is Elon Musk since he has been the face of the company for almost two decades. Musk is allowed to call himself a co-founder of Tesla through a court settlement along with 4 other people: Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, Ian Wright, and JB Straubel. Advertisement - scroll for more content However, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning were the two original co-founders. Earlier this year, we went through Tesla’s entire founding story to set the record clean, but in short, Eberhard and Tarpenning led Tesla for the first 5 years of the company with Musk being an investor and chairman for 4 of those years. Tesla encountered difficulties bringing the Roadster, its first vehicle, to production, and Eberhard and Musk blamed each other for these issues. Ultimately, Musk was able to remove Eberhard from the company, as he was the largest shareholder and controlled the board. They sued each other, and ultimately, a court settlement resulted in Musk being able to claim the title of co-founder of Tesla, alongside early employees Ian Wright and JB Straubel. Musk has been