Ford Motor Co.’s use of Mannequin e because the identify of its new electric-vehicle unit comes eight years after dashing Elon Musk’s hopes for a provocatively named lineup of automobiles from Tesla Inc.
“A pal requested me at a celebration, ‘What are you going to call the third-generation automobile?’ Nicely, we’ve got the S and the X, so we would as properly make it the E,” the Tesla CEO informed CNNMoney in 2014.
However when Tesla tried to register the E trademark for a mannequin, Ford stepped in to dam it, in keeping with Automotive Information. Ford hauled out a 2010 settlement between the businesses that prevented Tesla from utilizing the letter for a automobile identify.
Despite the fact that Ford hadn’t used it for a manufacturing automobile, the corporate contended that Mannequin E sounded too just like the unique mass-market hit car: the Mannequin T.
“We’re like, ‘Ford’s killing SEX,’” Musk stated in 2014. “So, OK, fantastic we received’t use Mannequin E.”
True to kind, Musk discovered a workaround. The third automobile in Tesla’s lineup was dubbed the Mannequin 3 — a intelligent substitute for a backward uppercase letter E. The carmaker subsequently added a sport utility automobile, the Mannequin Y.