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800k car names trademarked globally, suddenly alphanumerics seem reasonable

What's in a name? This cliched phrase probably gets tossed out at every marketing meeting that happens when a new car gets its nomenclature. We know the answer, though: everything. The name of a car has all the potential to make or break it with fickle customers that are more conscious than ever about what their purchases say about them.
That's giving headaches to marketing folks across the automotive industry. "It's tough. In 1985 there were about 75,000 names trademarked in the automotive space. Today there are 800,000," Chevrolet's head of marketing, Russ Clark, told Automotive News. Infiniti's president, Johan de Nysschen, echoed Clark's sentiment, saying, "The truth of the matter is, across the world, there is hardly a name or a letter that hasn't already been claimed by one car manufacturer or another. You can go through the alphabet - A, B, C and so forth - and you will quickly see that almost all available letters are taken."
What has that left automakers to do? Get creative. In the case of Infiniti, it made the controversial move to bring all of its cars' names into a new scheme, classifying them as Q#0 for cars and QX#0 for SUVs and crossovers. So the Infiniti G, which was available as the G25 and G37, is now the Q50. The FX37 and FX50 are now the QX70.

Chevy Bolt officially keeping name, says marketing boss

There might be just a little confusion at first, but the Bolt name is sticking around. After conducting two consumer studies into the name, Chevrolet isn't worried about the similarity of the monikers for the upcoming EV and existing Volt plug-in hybrid. In fact, the brand thinks the resemblance might be for the best. "The decision is made. The name won't be changed." Chevy head of marketing Tim Mahoney said to The Detroit Free Press. The research shows that the compatibility between the two names actually works quite well. With the Volt well established, people apparently already connect the Bolt to the Bowtie, which is just what a brand wants. Both studies indicated the ""same result, it did well," according to Mahoney. Just a few months ago, the future of the Bolt's name wasn't so clear. GM North America President Alan Batey said the company knew there might be confusion, and it was still mulling its options. The Bolt could be a breakthrough in the EV market with a 200-mile range and a possible price of around $30,000 after incentives. Production is set for the Orion Assembly plant in Michigan following a $200 million upgrade there, and the model could be in dealers as soon as 2017. That's just in time to take on the Tesla Model 3 with its claimed $35,000 price and similar driving distance as the Chevy. Related Video:

Minor updates coming to 2017 Chevy Volt

The 2016 Chevrolet Volt has just appeared at dealerships, but already the talk has turned to the mildly updated 2017 model going on sale in a few months. The new Volt has already won the 2016 Green Car of the Year award and is sparking a noticeable uptick in sales over the outgoing model. Chevy is now planning to keep interest in the second-generation Volt strong with some tweaks and increased availability. The main equipment change to the 2017 Volt will be the option of adaptive cruise control on both the base LT and uplevel Premier, according to CarsDirect. While the Volt already offers safety technology such as blind-spot monitoring and forward collision warning, adaptive cruise has been conspicuously absent. But the largest change will be that the 2017 Volt gets nationwide availability. GM decided to focus on strong markets for the original Volt when it chose where to introduce the new model. Buyers interested in the second-generation model have until now been limited to making purchases in states such as California, Maryland and the Northeast. This will all change soon. Conversely, you can have a 2016 Nissan Leaf now in all 50 states, or a 2016 Toyota Prius very shortly. But in our first drive of the Volt, we found it to be, "an efficient, no-compromise EV" and worth the wait for those who don't live in the states with the strictest emissions laws. Perhaps the reason the 2016 Volt is already being given an injection of dealer incentives is because of its relatively short lifespan. The 2017 Chevy Volt should arrive on dealer lots by spring 2016. Featured Gallery 2016 Chevrolet Volt: First Drive View 24 Photos News Source: CarsDirect via Green Car Reports Green Chevrolet Electric Hybrid ev sales