Tesla Motors is cool, hip, trendy, and, according to its fans, will make electric cars mainstream, but who is it named after, and why?
Tesla Motors is named after famed scientist, engineer and inventor, Nikola Tesla.
Born to a Serb family in modern Croatia, then part of the Austrian Empire, Tesla moved to New York City at the age of 28 to work Thomas Edison. The two fell out over Edison’s reported offer of a US$50,000 reward if Tesla was able to successfully redesign the company’s direct current generators.
Going out on his own, Tesla pioneered the use of alternating current and was instrumental to development of high voltage transmission over long distances. Tesla also experimented with X-rays, wireless communications, generators, oscillators, and discharge tubes.
Although Tesla Motors has nothing to do with his family or estate, it isn’t the only thing after the man. In 1960, the unit of magnetic field strength was named Tesla (T) in his honour.
