Technology History | Tesla — The Workshop at 1050 Bing Street

People treat Tesla as a company Elon Musk founded in a showroom.

The first paid rooms that could hold a car were here, in a two-storey industrial building at 1050 Bing Street (also listed as 1050 Commercial Street) in San Carlos.

Tesla Motors was incorporated on 1 July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. The name was settled weeks earlier at the Blue Bayou inside Disneyland. The first desks were three of them in a small Menlo Park suite at 845 Oak Grove Avenue. Ian Wright took the third desk. Elon Musk led the Series A in February 2004 and became chairman. J.B. Straubel joined in May.

They moved into this San Carlos loft in July 2004. Ten thousand square feet. Two roll-up doors. A conference room whose previous tenant, a plumbing supplier, had fitted with a swan-neck tap. The Roadster was assembled here in bays Wright marked out for motors, batteries, power electronics and final fit. A single Craftsman toolbox stood in for a machine shop.

A 2009 settlement lets all five men call themselves co-founders. The incorporation date and the first workshop are not in dispute. The company later left for Palo Alto, Fremont and Austin. The San Carlos address is still an industrial block near the airport.