Elon Musk Reveals Tesla's First Company Name, Shares Funny Story How It Changed

Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared a tweet Sunday about the way Tesla Inc. came to be called Tesla Inc. According to Musk, "Tesla was almost called Faraday, as original holder of Tesla Motors trademark refused to sell it to us!"

A Twitter user named Harry Stoltz then asked, "How did you eventually get the rights to the name?"

To which Musk jokingly replied, "We sent the nicest person in the company to sit on his doorstep until he at least talked to us & then he said yes."

Musk’s humorous take on how he bought the name Tesla from the two men that originally founded the company is a sad story of intrigue. The owner Musk referred to was apparently Martin Eberhard, one of the two original founders of Tesla Motors. Musk later fired Eberhard from the company he founded.

Musk didn't establish that electric vehicle giant we now call Tesla, Inc. Musk was merely one among three other investors allowed by the company's real founders -- engineers Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning -- to label themselves co-founders of the company.

Tesla Inc. was founded as Tesla Motors by Eberhard and Tarpenning on July 1, 2003. Eberhard became CEO. But before this, Tarpenning bought the domain name Teslamotors.com on April 23, 2003.

In August, the duo moved into the company's first office in downtown Menlo Park, California. Eberhard said before they rented the office the sign in front of it read, "Bushtracks African Expeditions." They turned the sign around and wrote Tesla Motors on the back.

Musk's first job at Tesla Motors was to manage product design for the Roadster electric sports car. At the time, Musk was also Tesla Motors' controlling investor during the first financing round, funding $6.5 million in Series A capital investment round with personal funds.

As for how Tesla Motors came to be, Business Insider did an in-depth story of the company's founding in a story published Nov. 12, 2014.

The story recounted that on Jan. 25, 2003, Eberhard went on a date to Disneyland with Carolyn, who later became his wife. They wound-up at the Blue Bayou, a restaurant inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Eberhard had been running car-company names past Carolyn for months, but both couldn't agree on one. Then Eberhard said he wanted to give credit to the Serbian polymath Nikola Tesla, the genius that patented the AC induction motor, the type of motor that would run his electric car.

"What about Tesla Motors?" Eberhard asked Carolyn.

"Perfect!" she replied "Now get to work making your car!"

Faraday was the alternative name choice for Tesla Motors selected by Eberhard.

In 2007, Eberhard was fired by the Tesla board without him even being present at the proceedings. The board replaced Eberhard with Michael Marks, former CEO of the manufacturer Flextronics and early Tesla investor.

"There was no discussion," said Eberhard. "I didn't get to hear what they said. I didn't get to defend myself. I felt totally stranded."

In a formality, Eberhard resigned as CEO and took the title "president of technology." Marks became the new CEO.

Eberhard soon found he had no real power but was limited to troubleshooting and tending to peripheral issues. He'd been shut out of the company he founded. This was apparently Musk's doing. It was classic Musk, said Mike Harrigan, vice president of customer service and support who would become the VP of marketing.

Harrigan said Musk "is the kind of boss where day to day you don't know if you have a job or not."

"Once he's convinced that you can't do the job, there's no way you can convince him back again," Harrigan pointed out. "That happened many times to many people, and that's what happened with Martin (Eberhard). Once he determined that Martin couldn't be the CEO of Tesla any longer, that was it. He was fired."

The name Tesla Motors was changed to Tesla Inc. in 2017.