Do you feel Tesla would have the same effect as Faraday, if it were thus called? No, right. That may have been the case if the nicest guy working at Tesla, Inc. didn’t show up at the doorstep of a man in Sacramento, US, named Brad Siewert and bought the name off the owner, more than 10 years ago in 2004. For a rate of $75,000 the electric carmaker made history, changing the way people looked towards energy-efficient vehicles. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, Inc., renamed from Tesla Motors in February 2017, revealed this fact in a tweet this weekend. The secret was let out after a short clip from CBS’s 60 Minutes interview with Lesley Stahl.
What's in a name? For Tesla, $75,000. Elon Musk says he had to buy his company's name—and tells Lesley Stahl how he pronounces "Tesla." https://t.co/HBa3Oztgag pic.twitter.com/RYjQeEjud6
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) December 7, 2018
Elon explains that there were first plans to name the company on Faraday, named after scientist Michael Faraday known for his laws of induction. But the company, which was started in 2003, instead decided to choose the name Tesla, named after Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla, known for AC induction motors. One reason to choose the shorter, catchier name was because of “trademark roadblocks” in the US, China and Europe as they preferred an easier name for registration. Also, Tesla, pronounced as Te-ss-la as the namesake was called, is not how Elon pronounces it. He gives it a sassy twist, calling it TeZla… because he gets a “Z-ish sound. Ok, then.
[Via:Fortune]
