Late Wednesday night, Elon Musk set the Internet abuzz.
Taking to Twitter, Musk revealed that Tesla Motors, the hugely ambitious electric vehicle and battery storage company he leads, was about to unveil something big. Or, well, two big things.
About time to unveil the D and something else pic.twitter.com/qp23yi59i6
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 2, 2014
Logically, the stock market reacted with shares of Tesla shooting up nearly 5% at the start of trading Thursday.
Twitter and the rest of the Internet reacted by making jokes about Elon Musk's mysterious "D." (You can insert your own inappropriate jokes here.) Musk himself seemed rather amused.
I love the Internet. Comments had me literally ROFL. No, it wasn't intentional. Glad I didn't mention the other letter!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 2, 2014
But after the laughs subsided, speculation turned to a more interesting question—what is "the D and something else?"
Many observers noted that Tesla has already rolled out the Model S, its luxury car, and has plans to soon launch the Model X, its full-size sedan, and the Model 3, its mass-market sports car. A Tesla Model D would appear to be a natural fit in its line of electric cars, the thinking goes. (The Model 3 seems like an outlier in the series of cars named after letters—until you realize Musk wanted to originally name it the Model E so that the line would spell S-E-X. Musk changed the name when Ford threatened to sue over its Model E trademark. But a trend appears to be emerging—Musk likes sex jokes.)
After that, the speculation gets a bit more... well, speculative. The Wall Street Journal hypothesized that Tesla would reveal a "dual motor," an all-wheel drive system. Some mentioned the possibility of a self-driving car. Others still wondered whether Musk is going to unveil a diesel hybrid car—which would be a dramatic turn away from Musk's previous declarations that vehicle transport will go 100% electric.
Musk's Tweet, of course, is all-too-cleverly enigmatic—it gave the Internet, publishers and investors alike a reason to talk and get excited about Tesla. And it adds another layer of mystery to the much-hyped company's aura. Musk's tweet may just be good marketing, but it seems to have worked.
Utility Dive will be tuning to see what the big reveal is on Oct. 9. We will report back when we have more information on Elon Musk's "D."