JB Straubel’s rejected airplane pitch led to Tesla’s early battery work

JB Straubel’s first serious pitch to Elon Musk did not produce the project he wanted, but it helped start the partnership behind Tesla’s early technology. According to Fortune, Musk showed no interest in Straubel’s unmanned hydrogen-powered aircraft idea in 2003, then backed his plan for an electric sports car using lithium-ion laptop batteries.

Straubel, then a 27-year-old Stanford engineer, told Fortune at its Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen that he had been building solar-powered vehicles in his spare time “basically as a hobby.” He said that work pulled him toward electric vehicles and eventually led him to meet Musk.

At a 2024 Stanford fireside chat, Straubel said he pitched Musk and satellite pioneer Harold Rosen over lunch on the aircraft concept. Musk had recently made money from PayPal’s sale to eBay, Fortune reported, but Straubel said Musk had “absolutely no interest” in the plane.

Straubel then shifted to his other idea: a high-performance electric car powered by small lithium-ion cells. He told Stanford students he was asking almost anyone he could for small amounts of money, and said Musk “immediately wrote a check.”

Building Tesla’s first car

Within weeks, Straubel and Musk were working on plans for an electric sports car, according to Fortune. Musk later led Tesla’s first significant financing round, and Straubel joined the company in 2004 as its fifth employee and chief technology officer.

In that role, Fortune reported, Straubel designed the battery system for Tesla’s Roadster. The pack used nearly 7,000 cells and delivered 244 miles of range, exceeding other electric vehicles of that period, according to Fortune.

Straubel became central to Tesla’s early engineering work, including battery manufacturing, planning for the Supercharger network and work tied to the company’s first Gigafactory, Fortune reported. Bloomberg once described him as the “Woz to Musk’s Jobs,” and CNBC reported that his name appeared on many of Tesla’s early patents.

After a 2009 legal settlement over Tesla’s origins, Straubel was formally recognized as a cofounder with Musk, Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning and Ian Wright, according to Fortune.

Straubel told Fortune that Tesla’s early period was both enjoyable and tense. He said the team was trying to do difficult work that members believed mattered, while also expecting that failure was a real possibility.

Musk has described the company’s odds in similar terms. At a 2016 Tesla shareholder meeting cited by Fortune, Musk said he once gave Tesla a 10% chance of success and said the team had “no idea what we are doing.”

Redwood and the next battery problem

Straubel left Tesla after 15 years as chief technologist to focus on Redwood Materials, a battery-recycling company he founded while still at Tesla. On the earnings call announcing Straubel’s departure, Musk said Tesla “wouldn’t exist” without their 2003 lunch, according to Fortune.

Piper Jaffray analyst Alexander Potter called Straubel “probably the second-most-important person” at Tesla, according to The Wall Street Journal. Straubel returned to Tesla in 2023 as a board member, Fortune reported.

Redwood has raised more than $2.3 billion from investors and strategic backers including Google, Microsoft and Nvidia’s NVentures, according to company announcements and TechCrunch cited by Fortune. The company also secured a $2 billion conditional loan from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program, according to Redwood.

At Brainstorm Tech, Straubel told Fortune that rising demand from AI data centers is adding pressure to the U.S. power grid. He said entrepreneurs should pursue work they believe matters, even when the chances of failure look high.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.