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Not just motors: Tesla Motors is now called... Tesla

The electric carmaker has been branching into the energy sector for more than a year.

Andrew Krok Reviews Editor / Cars
Cars are Andrew's jam, as is strawberry. After spending years as a regular ol' car fanatic, he started working his way through the echelons of the automotive industry, starting out as social-media director of a small European-focused garage outside of Chicago. From there, he moved to the editorial side, penning several written features in Total 911 Magazine before becoming a full-time auto writer, first for a local Chicago outlet and then for CNET Cars.
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Tesla Motors is no longer the full name of Elon Musk's electric carmaking company.

Tesla Motors is now officially Tesla, Inc. The name change is rather straightforward, and it makes sense, because Tesla is more than just an automaker. Between its Powerwall standalone battery, its purchase of SolarCity and its forthcoming Gigafactory battery plant, Tesla is equal parts automaker and energy company.

Tesla's energy arm offers only a small number of products at the moment, however. The Powerwall is a battery designed to store electricity at cheap times of day for use during peak times, helping cut costs and reduce grid strain. The Powerpack is a large bank of these batteries for commercial-scale use. There's also the Solar Roof, which will replace traditional shingles with glass solar panels that look barely any different.

The name change comes just before the one-year anniversary of acquiring Tesla.com. A Silicon Valley engineer held onto the web address, unused, for about 24 years. It took Musk the better part of a decade to convince the engineer to hand it over. This may have delayed the name change -- Bloomberg points out that Musk wanted to cut the "Motors" earlier, but there were "domain issues."

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