What’s in a name? EV naming trends evolve to match the market

What’s in a name?

Oh, just everything a brand hopes to convey to consumers about its functional and emotional appeal—succinctly. No pressure or anything!

That’s been true of EVs as they’ve gone from novelty to the mainstream—and naming conventions have evolved along the way, from the early days of the sustainability-minded Nissan Leaf to a dizzying array of alphanumeric names (looking at you, Toyota bZ4X) to recent conceptual entrants like the Ford Fathom.

“Naming is not for the faint-hearted,” Johan Hesslefors, strategy director at brand agency Kurppa Hosk, told us. “A name is the beginning of a conversation you have with a product, or an experience, or a company. So it has a lot to carry.”

Going green

Two of the earliest mass-market electrified vehicles in the US were the all-electric Nissan Leaf and the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt, whose name evoked electricity itself.

“Since mass-produced EVs came out around 2010 or so, they were and still remain…something new to consumers,” Ed Kim, president and chief analyst at automotive marketing research firm AutoPacific, told Morning Brew. “And because of that, a lot of EVs’ naming is trying to reflect what the product is about, whether that’s something green or whether that’s something high tech or new and mysterious.”

The Nissan Leaf, the first mass-produced EV globally, reportedly got its name from the fact that leaves purify the air, just as battery-powered cars promote cleaner air by eliminating tailpipe emissions. “Leaf” is also an acronym (sort of) for “leading environmentally friendly affordable family car.”

And before these pioneering models, there was the Toyota Prius, which became one of the world’s first mass-produced hybrids after launching in 1997. The name comes from Latin and means “prior” or “previous,” a reference to there being no previous vehicles like it.

XYZ

Then there’s the trend of alphanumeric systems: Nameplates like the Volkswagen ID.4, the Tesla Model Y, the Kia EV6, and the Mercedes-Benz G 580 (with EQ technology, naturally).

Tesla’s naming system famously was intended to spell out “sexy,” hence the Model S, the Model 3 (Ford already had the trademark on Model E), the Model X, and the Model Y.

“It’s long been a truism among the product planning community that…a really good name is generally considered better than an alphanumeric [one],” Kim, a former product planner, said.

But these naming systems can have advantages: The numbers might convey key information to consumers about, say, the size of a vehicle.

Conversely, this type of internal logic can be difficult to translate into a narrative, according to Hesslefors. “The advantage of alphanumeric naming is that you can create a system, you can scale it,” he said. “But it’s harder to open a conversation with those kinds of names.”

Can you fathom?

In announcing the name of its forthcoming midsize electric pickup, Ford provided some insight into the naming process that resulted in the Fathom. It avoids the alphanumeric system Ford uses for some vehicles, like the F-150, but maintains the alliteration the automaker has used for models like the Focus, Fusion, and Fiesta.

The definition of “fathom,” as Kay Hart, general manager of Ford’s EV business, noted in a blog post, is multifaceted: It can mean a unit to measure the depth of water, the span of outstretched arms, or to come to an understanding of something.

The latter meaning, according to Ford, inspired the name for a new vehicle derived from “a deep understanding of the person who would drive it,” developed based on years of consumer research. The naming team also wanted to capture “a spirit of adaptability” to match the product.

Giving the truck its moniker took nine months, according to Ford. Before landing on Fathom, the naming team dove into the company archives and looked at historic names like the Galaxie, Taurus, and Ranchero.

“The team asked themselves: What communicates depth below the surface? How do we communicate an emotional feeling of a vehicle that’s more than it appears to be? Two Ford copywriters separately conceived ‘Fathom,’” Hart wrote. “As the list dwindled, Fathom survived every single cut until it was on a short list, easily separating itself as the top choice among focus groups.”

Kim described a similar process from his previous career in product planning, in which a naming committee of employees across various functions like marketing and product planning worked from a pool of trademarked names and whittled it down to one that fit the product under development.

Today, the marketing strategy behind naming EVs comes down to the specific vehicle and what the brand is trying to accomplish with it, according to Kim. Some automakers may opt for quirkier names to communicate that the product is new and exciting. GM’s Chevy brand, on the other hand, has attached “EV” to existing nameplates like the Equinox, Blazer, and Silverado.

“Chevrolet’s mission with EVs is to truly bring them to the mainstream,” Kim said, “just make them normal cars for normal people and take away some of what might be intimidating to some mainstream consumers about going electric.”

Soheil Samadianpour, senior business development manager at consultancy GlobalData, wrote in a LinkedIn post that he expects to see more of this as automakers aim to normalize EVs by associating them with familiar nameplates.

“By adopting names that resonate more with traditional vehicles, manufacturers can signal that these cars are not just niche products but part of the mainstream automotive market,” he wrote.

Brands are handling naming in all kinds of ways: Volkswagen, for example, signaled a change in direction with plans to rebrand its electric ID.4 to the ID. Tiguan, a name it would share with a well-known internal combustion engine model. Toyota has shortened the bZ4X to bZ (for “beyond zero”). Hyundai’s EVs share a name, the Ioniq, with numbers indicating different models.

Polestar numbers its EVs based on the order of their release. Rivian uses an alphanumeric system to designate new generations of its vehicles, and whether they’re an SUV or a truck. Volvo designates EVs with an “EX.” GM’s premium Cadillac brand, breaking with the alphanumeric titles of many of its legacy nameplates, has opted for similarly stylized names like the Optiq, Lyriq, and Celestiq.

And as Chinese EV makers expand globally, some are using English names. BYD, for example, has models named Seagull, Shark, and Seal.

Ford’s name reveal for the Fathom, in Hesslefors’ view, hearkened back to the golden days of US automakers, when they released vehicles with iconic names like the Superbird, Charger, and Barracuda.

“I think,” he said, “we’re going to see some more playful naming.”