Tesla (stylized as TESLA) is a Czech brand of electronic appliances. The name was originally used by a state-owned conglomerate that was the monopoly producer of electronic appliances and components in the former Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia. The conglomerate was founded in 1946 and ran until 1991, when it was privatised. The Tesla name is used by its successor company and former subsidiaries in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Company
The company was established as Elektra on 18 January 1921 and renamed Tesla on 7 March 1946. A founding ceremony took place on 10 August 1946 at the Mikrofon Factory in Strašnice attended by government ministers from Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Macedonia. It was named after the pioneer scientist Nikola Tesla, but when the association with a Serbian American became politically inconvenient it was explained as abbreviation from TEchnika SLAboproudá, which means "low-current technology".Tesla had several production locations, including...