As Twitter Is Named X, A Look At Elon Musk’s ‘S3XY’ Naming Strategy For Cars

Elon Musk speaks beside Tesla Model Y in Hawthorne, California on March 14, 2019.

Elon Musk officially rebranded Twitter as X, ending the era of the blue bird and starting a new one starting at the company. This is a move that is part of the world’s richest man’s fascination with the letter X. It is also a continuation of the steps he has taken to realise this dream. In recent years, his other company Tesla rolled out cars to complete the ‘SEXY- line-up. However, the renaming of its entry level sedan from Model E to 3 changed it to “S3XY”, as per Mr Musk.

According to several tweets going viral after Twitter’s renaming, the X identity was born when he launched an online banking services platform called X.com that later became part of PayPal. Mr Musk walked away with $165 million, and the dream to create a bigger X brand.

That obsession led him to establish Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, also known as SpaceX. As per claims made by several social media users, the X in the name symbolised a rocket’s trajectory.

He then envisioned a car line-up with model names that spelled out “SEXY”. So, Tesla, the electric car manufacturer owned by Mr Musk, started launching Model S and later on, Model X and Y.

However, Ford had already acquired the rights to Model E, which sounded Henry Ford’s iconic Model T, as per an old USA Today report.

The company also told the US outlet that in 2010 Tesla had signed a contract in which, “among other things, Tesla agreed not to register or use Model E. When Tesla later sought to register the Model E trademark, Ford insisted that Tesla abide by the parties’ earlier agreement.”

As the car launched in the US in July, 2017, Mr Musk tweeted, “Model 3 was going to be called Model E, for obvious dumb humor reasons, but Ford sued to block it, so now it is S3X. Totally different :)”

Now that all four models have been launched (the last to launch was Model Y in 2020), there is speculation that Tesla will drop the ‘Model’ plus ‘letter’ naming scheme to complete the ‘S3XY’ line-up.