Honda Reportedly Dropping Worst Name in Cars

Honda is normally very good at naming cars. See Civic, Accord, Beat, Prelude and Odyssey. These are all memorable names for cars that suit your individual product. A good track record does not guarantee good future results, and choosing a brand sell a car called “e:Ny1” in Europe and China it seemed confusing at the time. Honda apparently noticed, because the name is already in line for replacement.

e:Ny1 may seem like a clever play on “Anyone,” but it’s actually a confusing combination of letters and numbers meant only to indicate a co-produced electric car (e:N).

According to a report from Autocar, the brand is dropping the e:N prefix on all of its Chinese-market EVs going forward because customers “just can’t pronounce it.” The new system would switch to a more direct naming convention of a single letter and a single number, making e:Ny1 a simple Y1. Unfortunately for customers, this decision was made after the launch of a car called the e:NS2.

Honda refers to its GM Ultium-based American EV as the Prologue, a simple and memorable name that makes sense as the name of an electric SUV. American buyers have been mercifully spared the e:N naming convention, and the new naming rules mean the market will still be spared if cars based on this architecture reach the American market in the future.

The move is good news for Chinese and European Honda buyers, but the era of confusing electric vehicle names is far from over. Jaguar still offers a gasoline-powered E-Pace and an electric I-Pace at the same time, Mercedes still sells a sedan called the EQS and an SUV called the EQS SUV side by side, and Toyota still sells a car called the bZ4X.

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