Tesla Finally Acquired The Tesla.com Domain Image courtesy of Tesla.com has gone largely unused for years. This is what the site looked like only a few years ago. (via the Internet Archive)
Tesla.com has gone largely unused for years. This is what the site looked like only a few years ago. (via the Internet Archive)
If you want to find the websites for Ford, Chevy, or Dodge, you just add a “.com” to the name. But not so for Tesla, which had long been unable to acquire the user-friendly Tesla.com domain name. That’s finally changed, though no one is saying how.
Bloomberg reports that Tesla Motors acquired the Tesla.com domain from the Silicon Valley engineer who had owned it for 24 years, but had let it sit unused for much of that time.
Now the URL redirects to TeslaMotors.com, the domain that Tesla has been using since it couldn’t get the simpler name.
Acquiring the domain opens the door for Tesla to create a catch-all website for its endeavors, which not only includes electric vehicles, but batteries via the Tesla Energy brand.
Bloomberg speculates that the new domain could lead the company to change its name to simply Tesla, a move that Musk said wasn’t possible before due to domain issues.
A lawyer who previously represented the original domain owner tells Bloomberg that over the years the man was approached by many people about acquiring the name.
“[The man] is an engineer and a big fan of Nikola Tesla,” the lawyer said. “He’s had it, and now Tesla the auto company got it. I would surmise that this was a voluntary arrangement,”
A Tesla spokesperson declined to comment to Bloomberg on the domain change other than to say the company had acquired it.
Tesla’s Musk Gets Tesla.com Domain Name After Waiting a Decade [Bloomberg]
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