Culture

Elon Musk Plans to ‘Fight Big Tequila’ to Get His Teslaquila on Shelves

The CRT is not pleased.

Elon Musk is not giving up on his Tesla-branded tequila product. The CEO is facing opposition from the Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT), which claims his planned “Teslaquila” has a name that sounds a bit too much like the protected name “tequila.” Musk struck a defiant tone against the body on his Twitter page Wednesday, as he declared he would “fight big tequila!”

Musk filed a trademark claim for his Tesla-branded liquor back in October, with applications filed in the United States, Mexico, Jamaica, and the European Union. In a statement, the CRT stated that “if it wants to make Teslaquila viable as a tequila it would have to associate itself with an authorized tequila producer, comply with certain standards and request authorization from Mexico’s Industrial Property Institute. Otherwise it would be making unauthorized use of the denomination of origin for tequila.” The CRT states that tequila must be made in the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Guanjuato, Jalisco, Nayarit or Michoacan.

See more: “Teslaquila” Tesla-Branded Tequila Might Come to a Liquor Store Near You

The move has drawn drew comparisons to Silicon Valley, where Russ Hanneman introduces his own liquor dubbed “Tres Comas.” Musk shared an image of a mockup label for the bottle, which features two lightning bolts alongside the Tesla logo. The trademark filing described it as “Distilled agave liquor; Distilled blue agave liquor,” with blue agave the traditional choice for Mexican tequila.

Musk first joked about a Tesla-branded tequila on April Fool’s Day, where he posted an image of himself slumped against a car holding a cardboard sign that read “bankwupt.” This came during a tough time for the company, as analysts like Goldman Sachs poured doubt over the company’s ability to reach its ambitious Model 3 production targets. Musk reassured followers that the company would meet its targets and would not need to raise funding.

Musk faced previous opposition to his plans to sell a flamethrower. Tongue-in-cheek, he renamed The Boring Company’s product to “Not-a-Flamethrower.” It’s unclear if he’ll follow a similar course of action here.

Related Tags