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Tesla's Musk Paid $70,000 Salary In 2013

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk was paid just under $70,000 in 2013. But he could be in line for much, much more. According to a Tesla filing with regulators Thursday, Musk made a base salary of $33,280 in 2013. That was the minimum he was required to make under California law. He got an additional $36,709 in company bonuses. Tesla says Musk, the billionaire founder of PayPal and rocket-building company SpaceEx, only accepts $1 and returns the rest to the company. Musk could someday rake in much more from the company he helped found in 2003. Under a compensation package approved in 2012, Musk was awarded options to buy nearly 5.3 million shares of Tesla stock at $31.17 each. The stock closed Thursday at $207.86, making those shares worth about $900 million. The plan is supposed to compensate Musk over a 10-year period, but only if the company meets performance goals. Musk can't exercise all the shares, for example, unless Tesla's shares reach a total value of $43.2 billion. The company's shares are currently worth $25.6 billion. Musk would also have to meet milestones for production of Tesla's planned Model X electric SUV and its Generation Three vehicle, which will cost around $35,000. Right now, Tesla only makes the Model S sedan, which starts at $70,000. Tesla said in its filing that some incremental stock value goals have been achieved, but the operational milestones, while probable, have not been reached, so none of Musk's shares have vested. Related Gallery Tesla Model S Wins Coveted 'Car Of The Year' Awards

Recent Tesla Model S buyers frustrated over new features

Tesla wowed the motoring world when it recently unveiled the all-wheel drive, dual-motor D version that added power and range to the already well-regarded Model S. At the same time, the company showed off a new suite of safe-driving tech like a forward-looking camera, radar and ultrasonic sensors to come standard on all models. While the new features might attract some new buyers into the fold, for a few current owners the upgrades aren't coming as a pleasant surprise at all. Some of them are rallying for Tesla to fix things somehow.
These disgruntled owners aren't upset about what any of the new features actually do; in fact, they love them. The issue is Tesla's secrecy before the reveal. A few of these folks bought their cars just a few months ago, some even in September, according to The San Jose Mercury News. If the upgrades had been publicized earlier, then they would have waited to order versions with the latest and greatest tech.
Some of them are already on the web lodging their complaints. According to The San Jose Mercury News, the website Change.org has competing petitions asking Tesla to find a way to retrofit the features, which the company says isn't possible, and another requesting the automaker to ignore the complainers.

Tesla not bought with Bitcoin currency after all?

The story we posted about a dealership accepting Bitcoins as payment for a Tesla Model S is reportedly only partially true. Lamborghini Newport Beach instead used BitPay to exchange the electronic currency for US dollars before completing the sale, according to "Squawk on the Street" on CNBC.
"We found out that by using a little program that Bitcoin uses, which is actually BitPay, we would have received US dollars," Pietro Frigerio, general manager of the dealership, says in the interview. "It's like if you come into the dealership and you want to buy a Lamborghini using gold bars, we would not accept it. So you'd go out, exchange it, and you'd come back to us. That was how it worked [with the Tesla and the Bitcoins]."
Frigerio says that the dealership doesn't accept Bitcoin as a currency and only accepts US dollars as payment for its vehicles. That said, we wouldn't be surprised if using BitPay to turn Bitcoins into US dollars for the used Model S purchase was actually easier than going through a more traditional financial establishment. Head over to CNBC to check out the "Squawk on the Street" interview with more details.