Founded in 2003 by Elon Musk, Tesla specializes in electric vehicles. Its name is directly inspired by an inventor, fervent defender of alternating current.
Tesla can boast of having invented the fastest 100% electric car in the world (it is the Model S Plaid). More broadly, the American automaker is an undisputed leader in the electric vehicle sector. That doesn’t stop him from committing a few blunders, like his cheating on the Autopilot (FSD) touting video, or leaving his ugly windshield wiper on his Cybertruck. But, it must be recognized that its leader, Elon Musk, managed to make Tesla an internationally recognized name.
By the way, where does the name of this company come from? If you are interested in the history and major discoveries of engineering, you may already know the answer. Otherwise, read on.
Tesla’s name is a tribute to a “poet of science”
It was the scientist Nikola Tesla who gave his name to one of the most famous manufacturers of luxury electric cars. While we no longer present the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk (and his antics), the name of this 19th and 20th century scientist is probably less well known. However, Nikola Tesla was a true “poet of science”, an eternal rival of Thomas Edison, with astonishing inventiveness. Moreover, the fact that Elon Musk chose to baptize his company after the name of Nikola Tesla helped to make him better known, underlined The Seattle Times in 2017.
Born in 1856 in the Austrian Empire, and died in 1943 in the United States, Nikola Tesla was a fervent defender of alternating current – the adoption of which revolutionized the nascent electrical network of his time. Nikola Tesla dreamed of large power plants, far from production sites, to bring electricity to all homes. He thus came up against another pragmatic inventor, Thomas Edison, who advocated direct current. The two scientists even engaged in a feverish “war of currents”.
One might have expected, given the choice of his company’s name, that Elon Musk would naturally side with Nikola Tesla in the narrative of this rivalry. Nevertheless, in 2008he confessed in an interview his preference for Thomas Edison: I’m a bigger Edison fan than Tesla. […] Edison brought his products to market and made these inventions available to the world. “It is ultimately not so surprising that Elon Musk feels more inspired by Edison, who like him had the entrepreneurial spirit and business sense, than Nikola Tesla, much more candid and dreamy.
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