Tesla's Musk to stay CEO through Model S launch

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Tesla Motors Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday that he will remain in the company's top job at least through the 2011 launch of its second model, an electric sedan known as the Model S.

Musk, an entrepreneur whose ventures, in addition to Tesla, include space exploration company SpaceX and solar power company Solar City, said staying on as Tesla's CEO was a requirement for securing the company's recent 10 percent investment from Germany's Daimler AG.

"I didn't really have a choice. This was a requirement of Daimler that I remain CEO of Tesla through the Model S launch and then continue to be part of Tesla in a chairman role beyond that," Musk said in an interview.

"It's flattering, but at the same time it's golden handcuffs," he added.

Musk made hundreds of millions of dollars as the co-founder of online payment service PayPal, which was sold to eBay Inc in 2002. He is among the original founders of Tesla, which has had three CEOs in the last two years.

One of those former CEOs, Martin Eberhard, sued Tesla in May, accusing Musk of trying to take credit for the idea behind Tesla and defaming Eberhard in media interviews after orchestrating Eberhard's ouster.

Tesla filed a legal motion in California's San Mateo County Superior Court late on Monday seeking to get Eberhard's suit dismissed.

According to the court papers, Eberhard was fired after the company learned that the cost of the company's Roadster electric sports car would be far above what Eberhard had promised, and that the car would not be in production by the time frame he had laid out.