Tesla Motors Officially Changes Name To Simply Tesla

Image courtesy of (Nicholas Eckhart)

After refusing to fold to pressure from German regulators and consumer safety advocates to change the name of its semi-autonomous driving feature Autopilot, the electric carmaker is changing something — its official name, dropping the “Motors” and becoming simply “Tesla.”

The carmaker, which previously secured the Tesla.com domain name in anticipation of the change, debuted the shortened moniker in an SEC filing [PDF] Wednesday.

Officially, the company’s name — as of Feb. 1 — is Tesla, Inc. The revamp makes sense as the company now not only specializes in vehicles, like the Model S, Model X, and Model 3, but in solar energy and batteries.

In Nov. 2016, the company completed its $2.6 billion purchase of sister company Solar City. Last month, Tesla powered up its new battery-making gigafactory in Reno, NV.

The name change has been rumored for a while, now. Back in Feb. 2016, the company 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. Since then, the company has traded its teslamotors.com URL for the shorter version.

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