Elon Musk planned to have Tesla’s model portfolio spell ‘SEXY CARS’ in an epic marketing and storytelling stunt. Then, he took over Twitter, a move that garnered all the wrong sort of press, and seriously dinged up his once stellar reputation.
Roll the clock back by about a year and you’ll find that Elon Musk was by and large still a very much likeable guy. One of the biggest reasons is that Musk was the resident troll on Twitter, but in a genuinely banal manner, without being malicious
Very rarely would we see someone as high profile as Musk, openly call people out and legitimately troll them. What made Musk even more likeable was the fact that he would often troll himself and have a laugh.
Take the infamous flamethrower and perfume that he sold. When Musk started publicising his ownership of The Boring Co., he launched a flamethrower, which cost $500. Despite being a novelty piece, it managed to break the internet with people going all gaga over it.
Then as he was going about arranging the finances for acquiring Twitter, he launched and sold a limited edition perfume by the name “Burnt Hair,” because the perfume, according to Musk, smelled of burnt hair.
Musk has been a marketing and storytelling genius, and the arena where his genius at its best is the naming scheme for his cars.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the model names of the cars that Musk sells under Tesla when acronymised, spell the word “S3XY.” He would have had the word SEXY spelt out using the models of his cars, had it not been for Ford.
Elon Musk originally wanted the Model 3 to be called the Model E. However, the Ford motor company had the right to the name Model E for what was supposed to be their first electric car. So, Musk decided to go for the next best alternative.
Yes, there has been some workaround in the sequence that the cars were launched. For example, after launching the Model S, Tesla launched the Model X instead of the Model 3. However, that is because the Model 3 was delayed by the naming issue that Tesla had with Ford and some other production issues.
He has already nailed the “SEXY” but then, take a look at the other projects or EVs that he launched after Model Y. We have the Cybertruck, a futuristic-looking EV pickup truck that is set for a launch soon, and then, we have the all-terrain or AT-EV that was showcased alongside the Cyberstruck. Add to that Tesla’s upcoming hypercar the Roadster and the Semi.
What we end up with, is a portfolio, when acronymised spell the word CARS.Elon Musk, wants the world to believe that Tesla means SEXY CARS.
It is these little trivial jokes and innuendos that made Elon Musk a favourite among his fans, despite being a tech bro.
A slide from an internal presentation at Tesla, shows that their current portfolio and upcoming models spell ‘SEXY CARS’. Image Credit: Tesla
There is no point in denying the fact that he has been crucial to the adoption of EV and had it not been for Tesla, the world wouldn’t have had the impetus to switch over to EVs and to think of other alternatives to the internal combustion engine.
Also, had it not been for Musk and SpaceX, space travel would have been prohibitively expensive, especially for bootstrapped startups.
This is why it is imperative that Musk gets away from managing the menace that Twitter has become. More than anything else, it has been Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and the press that it has garnered that has made a sizeable up in his reputation.
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