Tesla earlier today officially changed its company name from Tesla Motors to Tesla Inc. The move comes just a few short months after Tesla changed its website from teslamotors.com to tesla.com.
While ostensibly a minor move, the name-change signals that Tesla is dead serious about positioning itself as an innovative energy company as opposed to just a car company. Indeed, for those who follow Tesla closely, the writing has been on the wall for quite some time.
From the 2015 introduction of the Powerwall and Powerpack to the company’s recent acquisition of SolarCity, Elon Musk and co. clearly have grand ambitions that stretch out far beyond the car industry. Just this past October, for example, Musk introduced an incredible new solar roof design that he called a “fundamental part of achieving differentiated product strategy.”
What’s more, Musk last year explained that Tesla’s ultimate goal is to usher in a world of sustainable energy.
“The point of all this was, and remains, accelerating the advent of sustainable energy, so that we can imagine far into the future and life is still good,” Musk explained. “That’s what “sustainable” means. It’s not some silly, hippy thing — it matters for everyone.
“By definition, we must at some point achieve a sustainable energy economy or we will run out of fossil fuels to burn and civilization will collapse,” Musk added.
Notably, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a major tech company subtly adjust its name. Recall that Apple did something similar in 2007 when Steve Jobs, during the iconic iPhone unveiling event, said that the company’s name was changing from Apple Computer to Apple Inc.
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