Elon Musk confirms hidden meaning of iconic Tesla, SpaceX logos

The billionaire has made his love of the letter ‘X’ clear, but he has revealed the hidden meaning behind some of his iconic brand logos.

On the surface, it seems Elon Musk is a big fan of the alphabet as a brand’s logo.

Two of his most iconic brands, Tesla and SpaceX, feature stylised letters in or as their logos, and he recently announced plans to ditch the iconic blue Twitter bird for an ‘X’ – likely in line with dissolving Twitter Inc into X Corp.

Elon Musk has revealed the hidden meanings behind some of his brands’ logos. Picture: Jim Watson / AFP.

And while it appears to be little more than an ongoing love affair with the tail-end of the alphabet, the billionaire has revealed there is more to his brands’ iconic emblems than meets the eye.

In the wake of the latest branding move, a tweet from 2017 has emerged in which Musk explains the hidden meanings behind Tesla and Space X’s logos.

A curious Twitter user asked Musk to explain the futuristic, curved Tesla ‘T’ logo, which Musk said intended to represent a “cross section of an electric motor”.

Similar to SpaceX, the T is like a cross section of an electric motor, just as the X is like a rocket trajectory

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 19, 2017

To clarify, for those unfamiliar with electric motors: it appears the main part of the logo, the big ‘T’, represents one of the poles that stick out of the motor’s rotor, while the second line on top represents a section of the stator, according to Business Insider.

The Tesla ‘T’ logo is also an approximate wedge of the cross-section of an electric motor.

To demonstrate, the Tesla ‘T’ represent a wedge in an approximate cross-section of an electric motor. Picture: AutoPi.io

Musk noted in that 2017 tweet his rocket building company SpaceX was similarly symbolic.

The sleek ‘X’ purportedly represents “a rocket trajectory”.

Musk said the stylised ‘X’ of the SpaceX logo represents a “rocket trajectory”. Picture: Robyn Beck / AFP.

It seems Musk’s preference for alphabetical branding extends beyond those two companies.

The love affair with the letter ‘X’ started in 1999 when he founded X.com, the precursor to PayPal.

He then went on to found the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation – SpaceX – in 2002. And it is no surprise that one of the most popular Tesla vehicles is the Model X.

The Tesla ‘T’ logo apparently represents an electric motor. Picture: Saul Loeb / AFP.

Even the names of some of Musk’s children feature the letter – one of his sons is called X Æ A-Xii to the world, and his daughter was named Exa Dark Sideræl (she was later renamed Y).

Musk also recently launched xAI, his latest start-up in his ‘X’ empire, which is focused on artificial intelligence.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Twitter Inc. merged into a company named X Corp. Court documents stated Twitter “no longer exists”.

Musk appeared to give a nod to the change, tweeting “X’” after news broke.

Overnight, Musk tweeted his first X.com site now points to the Twitter website, and the “interim X logo goes live later today”.

https://t.co/bOUOek5Cvy now points to https://t.co/AYBszklpkE.

Interim X logo goes live later today.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023

Twitter was named as a play on the sound of birds chattering and as used its iconic blue bird branding since its founding in 2006.

But Musk seems determined to send the bird theme flying.

It remains to be seen what that means users will be referred to – X users? X-ers? – or what their posts (tweets) will be called under the rebranding.

A Musk parody account asked what “tweeting” should be called under the new brand, prompting some to suggest “xpressing” or “xweeting”, instead.

What should we call tweeting?

— Elon Musk (Parody) (@ElonMuskAOC) July 23, 2023

And who knows, maybe Musk’s love for the letter ‘X’ runs so deep he will decide to change his name to something X-themed – Elon Mux? Anyone?