Tesla vs Volkswagen: Founders, CEOs and History

Tesla

Founded

2003

Headquarters

Austin, Texas, United States

Current CEO

Elon Musk

Employees

134,785

Volkswagen

Founded

1937

Headquarters

Wolfsburg, Germany

Current CEO

Oliver Blume

Employees

663,000

Tesla

• Martin Eberhard

  Martin Eberhard is an American electrical engineer who co-founded Tesla Motors and was its first CEO. He had earlier co-founded NuvoMedia, the company that made the Rocket eBook.

• Marc Tarpenning

  Marc Tarpenning co-founded Tesla Motors in 2003 and served in early finance, engineering and operating roles, including CFO and vice president of engineering.

• Elon Musk

  Elon Musk's role in Tesla's founding story is best understood as financier, chairman, product force and later crisis CEO.

• JB Straubel

  JB Straubel became Tesla's founding CTO and one of the most important technical architects in the company's history.

• Ian Wright

  Ian Wright is listed among Tesla's early founding figures because he contributed to the company's initial vehicle thinking and engineering direction.

Volkswagen

• Ferdinand Porsche

  Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951) was an Austrian-born automotive engineer who had worked for Lohner, Austro-Daimler and Daimler-Benz before opening his own design office in Stuttgart in 1931.

Tesla

1. Martin Eberhard2003–2007

   Chief Executive Officer

   Served as founding CEO from 2003 to August 2007, establishing the core technical thesis of high-performance electric vehicles and directing early engineering on the EP1 and EP2 Roadster prototypes before development delays and cost overruns prompted a board re…

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2. Ze'ev Drori2007–2008

   Chief Executive Officer

   Served as CEO from November 2007 to October 2008 during Tesla's initial manufacturing transition, bringing the Roadster from troubled prototypes into customer deliveries and establishing production discipline before handing leadership to Elon Musk.

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3. Elon Reeve Musk2008–present

   CEO

   Led Tesla's transformation from a niche electric roadster project into the world's leading EV manufacturer, scaling global Gigafactories, Supercharger infrastructure, and autonomous driving architectures.

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Volkswagen

1. Hermann Münch1946–1947

   Chief Executive Officer

   Early executive involved in the incredibly complex immediate post-war administration of the completely destroyed factory under British military control.

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2. Heinrich Nordhoff1948–1968

   Chief Executive Officer

   The absolute legendary post-war architect who took the ruins of the VW factory and transformed the Beetle into a massive, globally beloved cultural icon and economic miracle.

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3. Kurt Lotz1968–1971

   Chief Executive Officer

   Early post-war leader who began the critical process of diversifying VW's lineup beyond relying entirely on a single model (the Beetle).

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4. Rudolf Leiding1971–1975

   Chief Executive Officer

   Crucial CEO who managed the extremely difficult, highly risky transition away from the iconic but severely outdated Beetle toward modern, front-wheel-drive water-cooled cars (like the Golf).

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5. Toni Schmücker1975–1982

   Chief Executive Officer

   Guided the company through the severe financial crises of the 1970s, ensuring the successful launch and massive adoption of the original VW Golf.

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6. Carl Hahn1982–1993

   Chief Executive Officer

   As CEO in the 1980s, he executed the massive, highly strategic acquisitions of SEAT and Skoda, laying the foundation for VW's absolute dominance in Europe.

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7. Ferdinand Piëch1993–2002

   Chief Executive Officer

   As the legendary, absolutely ruthless patriarch (and grandson of Ferdinand Porsche), he transformed VW from a struggling mass-market brand into the most powerful automotive conglomerate on Earth.

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8. Bernd Pischetsrieder2002–2006

   Chief Executive Officer

   Serving as CEO from 2002 to 2006, he oversaw the incredibly complex integration of massive luxury brands like Bugatti and Bentley into the VW Group portfolio.

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9. Martin Winterkorn2007–2015

   Chief Executive Officer

   As the notoriously demanding, absolutely feared CEO, he oversaw massive global expansion but fostered a culture of absolute terror that led engineers to cheat rather than admit failure.

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10. Matthias Müller2015–2018

    Chief Executive Officer

    As CEO during the darkest period in modern VW history, he initiated the massive cultural purge of the toxic, highly secretive engineering culture that caused the cheating scandal.

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11. Herbert Diess2018–2022

    Chief Executive Officer

    Serving as CEO, he forcefully dragged the massive, highly bureaucratic legacy automaker into the Tesla era, though his abrasive style alienated the powerful Porsche-Piëch families.

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12. Oliver Blume2022–present

    Chairman of the Board of Management

    He also ran Porsche AG alongside the group role until Michael Leiters took over as Porsche CEO on January 1, 2026, leaving Blume focused on Volkswagen Group.

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Tesla

• Maxwell Technologies2019$218M
• DeepScale2019Undisclosed
• Hibar Systems2019Undisclosed
• Perbix Machine Company2017$10.5M
• SolarCity2016$2.6B
• Grohmann Engineering2016$135M

Volkswagen

• Porsche AG2012Undisclosed
• Bentley Motors1998Undisclosed
• Auto Union / Audi1965Undisclosed