In January 1943 a man died alone in a New York hotel room with almost nothing. At that exact moment, electrical systems built partly on his inventions were powering cities across the world.

His name was Nikola Tesla. And his story explains why one of the world's most famous electric car companies carries his name.

Tesla did not invent electricity or alternating current. What he did was help solve some of the big engineering problems that made AC practical on a huge scale. His polyphase system and induction motor were central to that work. AC electricity can have its voltage stepped up or down using transformers, which means it can be transmitted over long distances with far less loss. That capability is what made large-scale electrical grids possible.

In the late 1880s, the AC system backed by George Westinghouse using Tesla's p ...