Tesla Chief Changes Twitter Display Name to Elon Tusk
Elon Musk changed his Twitter display name to “Elon Tusk” on Wednesday, and also promised news from his electric carmaker Tesla later this week.
In a series of tweets to his 25 million followers following charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week, Musk accused the regulator of failing to read Tesla’s annual reports and said its oversight was “broken”.
On Wednesday, he changed his display name and added an elephant tag.
He also promised Tesla would have “news” at 2 p.m. California time on Thursday. The stock rose as much as 5.3 percent on Wednesday, the biggest intraday jump in more than seven weeks, as the CEO’s followers and fans speculated on what the news could be. Guesses ranged from a new-vehicle reveal to a demonstration of the company’s self-driving capabilities.
A company spokesman declined to elaborate.
Musk recently told investors Tesla had completed the engineering and design of the Model Y, the crossover that will be smaller and cheaper than the Model X. About three quarters of the Model Y’s components will be shared with the Model 3, the company’s first mass-manufactured car.
In May of last year, Musk tweeted that Tesla might unveil the Model Y anytime from late 2018 to mid 2019.
The CEO has also said lately that service operations will be a major priority for this quarter, and that Teslas are getting closer to being able to drive themselves.
The SEC on Monday asked a judge to hold Musk in contempt for violating a settlement that required him to get company approval before communicating material information to investors. He breached that deal with a Feb. 19 tweet that said Tesla would make about half a million cars in 2019, the agency claims. Musk posted a few hours later that deliveries would only reach about 400,000.