Tesla considers patent giveaway

Tesla's founder Elon Musk has confirmed the company is considering giving away some of its patents in a bid to speed up adoption of electric vehicles.

The company has recently revealed the Model S sports car and the first of the models is due to the delivered to UK customers in the next few days, reports BBC News.

Speaking to the news provider, Mr Musk said: "We don't want to cut a path through the jungle and then lay a bunch of landmines behind us."

Mr Musk, who is one of the world's top entrepreneurs, stated that Tesla could consider giving its technology ideas away to other companies, as this would increase the market for electric cars. Currently, these models have sold modestly, but this is partly due to a lack of infrastructure for the vehicles, such as there not being enough public charging points.

The co-founder of the company recently told Tesla's shareholders that the firm was "playing with doing something fairly significant on this front which would be kind of controversial with respect to Tesla's patents".

Sales data

Tesla says it is on track to sell 35,000 vehicles this year, which would be a significant increase compared to the 22,500 units shifted by the company over the course of 2013.

Other companies have already experimented with electric cars, with Nissan among the first to bring one of the models to market with the release of its Leaf. Volvo has also recently been parading its latest electric innovation, while Google has unveiled its own attempt to revolutionise driving with a self-driving car that it says could eventually replace taxis.

Shares in Tesla rose on Friday (June 6th) on the back of the company's latest note to shareholders, with stocks in the business up by 0.61 per cent on the Nasdaq, although the value of the firm slipped back by 0.14 per cent in after-hours trading in the US before the weekend.

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