A car’s name might also matter less to consumers than its price tag, range, features and aesthetic. But as an exercise in marketing, the raft of clunky EV names represents a missed opportunity.
Just look at Tesla: The company might have failed to spell out “SEXY” with its four models as planned — “Model E” was trademarked by Ford six years before Elon Musk launched his sedan — but the attempt was as memorable, noteworthy and as distinct as it was juvenile.
In some cases, today’s EV names also highlight a disconnect between R&D and product planning. Nearly every automaker has set an ambitious timeline to completely switch to EVs, but that memo might have been lost on the people naming the Kia EV6, for example, or the GMC Hummer EV. Those labels will not age well.
“They are just dating themselves,” Placek says. “Within five years almost everyone driving a new car will be in an EV or a hybrid.”
There are also the names that metastasize, tacking on letters or becoming less clear as the variants proliferate.
Audi launched its seminal electric vehicle as the “E-tron” — sensible enough — but now it has a slew of E-trons, including the original and a (very different) E-tron GT.
Mercedes made a similar hash of it. The company’s EV models include the EQS, EQA, EQB and EQE, as well as the EQS SUV, EQB crossover and EQE crossover. At the very top end, Mercedes also throws an AMG into the mix. No one wants to drive an alphabet salad.
Volvo spinoff Polestar, meanwhile, took the iPhone approach: Its first car (no longer in production) was the 1. Now there is the 2, and 3 is coming soon. The Polestar 12 is going to be bananas.
The best EV names arguably are not acronyms or jumbles of letters; they are fresh and nouny and fun to say.
General Motors took this route with its Chevrolet Bolt and Cadillac Lyric. Hyundai’s Ioniq clicks nicely. Lucid has its Air, Fisker its Ocean, and Subaru its Solterra.
Then there is Nissan’s Ariya, allegedly a tarting up of the Sanskrit word for noble or admirable. Porsche’s Taycan is a unique choice, but also conjures to mind an elusive jungle beast.
There will be more opportunities to improve upon EV names in the years to come.
Until then, appreciate the Toyota team that pitched “Prius,” which still has a nice ring to it 25 years later. Too bad that team wasn’t around to save us from the bZ4X.