VOLACOM

Prior to Tesla Motors, Straubel was the CTO and co-founder of Volacom Inc. along with Harold Rosen. Volacom worked closely with Burt Rutan at Scaled Composites to design a specialized high-altitude aircraft platform using a novel hydrogen-powered electric power plant. At Volacom, JB co-invented and patented the new long-endurance hybrid propulsion concept that was later licensed to Boeing.