Elon Musk has many business ventures, one of which apparently includes tequila. Unfortunately, the name ‘Teslaquila’ didn’t make it to the final product because it was blocked by officials in Mexico .
The origin of Musk’s tequila brand first appeared as a joke on his Twitter page. But seven months later it turned out to be a very real thing. Tesla Tequila is available in a 750mL glass lightning-shaped bottle. It went on sale on November 5 and sold out instantly at $250 USD ($340 AUD) apiece.
Teslaquila – what’s in a name?
In the early stages, Musk was promoting his unreleased tequila as Teslaquila. But things didn’t quite work out when it came to registering the brand.
Teslaquila coming soon … https://t.co/AtoVGOtvVR
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 12, 2018
The name Teslaquila didn’t make it past the Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT) when Musk attempted to register it in Mexico.
The Tequila Regulatory Council is responsible for the regulation and authorisation of all processes related to the manufacturing, consumption and trade of tequila. They also have veto rights on names.
Martín Muñoz, head of the certification body of the CRT, said that the name ‘Teslaquila’ may cause confusion as to the origin of the product. The Mexican Institute of Industrial Property eventually denied the trademark months after it was first filed in May 2018. It said that the name couldn’t be registered because it was too close to the designation of origin — tequila. Basically, the name was too similar to the word tequila.
Musk’s team challenged that Teslaquila is a natural variant from Tesla, but they were unsuccessful. The final ruling landed in January 2020. Still, the company forged ahead, and now we have Tesla Tequila.
Despite losing the monopoly on tequila names, Tesla Tequila still does the impossible. The lightning bottle design was made to reflect the icon of Tesla’s charging stations on its GPS maps. “Several providers told us the glass bottles were impossible to mass-produce,” Tesla’s product design director, Javier Verdura told The Verge.
The unique bottle design is also apparently why it’s taking a bit longer to make Tesla Tequila more publicly available. The brand is only registered in the U.S. and Mexico at the moment, meaning we could be waiting a while for our lightning in a bottle here in Australia.