Elon Musk, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal who has enough money to just fling stuff into space whenever he feels like it, is also a bit of a jokester. His car company, Tesla, currently has three different vehicles, the Model S, the Model X, and the Model 3. The Model 3 was originally supposed to be the Model E, but Ford blocked that over trademark issues.
Okay, now I need you to put on your anagram hat for a second. What word do the letters S, X, and E spell if you mix them up? Haha, that’s right: It spells sex (gross). So, in a sense, Tesla — an electric-car manufacturer meant to revolutionize transportation and help save the planet — is one big sex joke. Now, it’s “S3X,” which kinda works.
The problem is that, in trying to get close to the sex anagram, Musk used a number, and that’s screwing up how potential buyers understand his product line. According to The Wall Street Journal, some people think that the Model 3 is an upgraded version of the Model S.
“We have seen a belief among some that Model 3 is the newest and more advanced generation of Model S,” Mr. Musk wrote in a letter Wednesday to shareholders. “This is not correct. Model S will always have more range, more acceleration, more power, more passenger cargo room, more displays (two), and more customization choices, and Model S, X and 3 will all have equivalent Autopilot functionality.”
Whoops! Maybe just ditch the anagram entirely and rename the Model 3 to the Model 58008.
