The recent reveal by Škoda of a concept reimagining the brand’s classic Favorit supermini – as a modern electric vehicle with retro styling cues – highlights one of the biggest challenges all car manufacturers face when creating a new model: what are we going to call the thing?

When the previous Favorit launched in 1987, using any word close to ‘favourite’ might have been considered laughable by many. The brand was still trying to shake off its ‘Škoda joke’ image – delights such as “Why do Škodas have heated rear windscreens? To keep your hands warm while you’re pushing it.” 

The Favorit, however, arrived just before Škoda became part of the Volkswagen empire, and helped to transform the brand’s image into the maker of quality cars it is known for today. So, while Škoda hasn’t said the new concept will reach production, you could understand it wanting to revive one of its past successes.

Model names hold many pitfalls for manufacturers, not least as words have different meanings in different parts of the world. There have been several instances of names successful in Europe having to be changed in the depths of the south Americas as they have suspect – and sometimes downright rude – meanings.

Generally the manufacturers judge it right, Mazda realised, for example, that no matter how successful in other parts of the globe, UK audiences might not be attracted to a camper van called the Bongo Friendee – it’s never officially been sold in Britain. But sometimes one does get through – between 1995 and 2004 Mitsubishi sold a car in the UK called the Carisma, and people queued up to point out that one thing this model did not have, was charisma.

The recent influx of Chinese brands to Britain has again put model names in the spotlight, especially as something perfectly acceptable in China often won’t work here – most famously the Ora Funky Cat very quickly became the GWM Ora 3 once it went on UK sale.

Meanwhile, the aggressive model development plans of some of the new brands are leading to confusion, not least with market leader BYD.

Its ‘Ocean Series’ of cars have multiplied in number, and now we have the BYD Seal, which is an all-electric super saloon, the Seal U DM-i, which is an SUV version of the Seal but with a plug-in hybrid rather than full-electric drivetrain, and most recently the Sealion 7, which is a performance SUV, again all-electric – confused yet?

The electric age has produced a new challenge for manufacturers keen to emphasise the electric attributes of cars in their model names but struggling to match the early adopters such as Audi with e-tron and Hyundai with Ionic.

Many have settled on combinations of letters that struggle to fill the brief. The Honda e, an attractive little retro-styled electric car let down by a small battery and limited range, was replaced in 2023 by an electric SUV with the very clunky title of the e:NY1.

Toyota’s big electric SUV is even worse in terms of naming – it’s called the bZ4X, a combination of upper and lower-case letters seemingly created just to trip up those who have to write them on a regular basis, such as this correspondent. Manufacturers do seem to have a vain belief that if they choose to write their model names in ways that every English teacher would rail at, the buying public will follow suit.

Smart is a case in point. The name is supposed to be written with a lower-case S, because at the start of its life the brand was a joint effort between Mercedes-Benz and fashion watch maker swatch. No one writes it that way of course, and so the brand, newly revived as an EV manufacturer, has added an extra challenge by calling its models the # 1, # 3… Yes you are absolutely supposed to say that you drive a ‘smart hashtag one’…

Other manufacturers, such as new Chinese brand Omoda Jaecoo and Swedish/Chinese operation Polestar, have simply abandoned the search for names and given their models numbers. If you want to know the difference between the Polestar 3 and the Polestar 4, look at the spec sheet.

So it’s perhaps no surprise that more than one manufacturer when seeking to name a new model looks back to its past glories, but there pitfalls may lie….

Ford has plenty of traction in this area. Launched in 2019, the Puma small SUV has become a core model for the blue oval brand, killing off the once dominant Fiesta and replacing it at the top of the new car top 10 sellers chart.

Few people today realise that the original Puma, sold between 1997 and 2001, was a quite attractive small sports coupe, especially in its more potent version dubbed the Puma Racing – a name that would never be used on a road car today…

Ford’s new electric SUV, however, has attracted rather more controversy, because someone thought it would be a good idea to call it the Capri. To many the phrase Ford Capri means sporty fastback, immortalised in 1980s TV series such as The Professionals and Minder.

The new SUV has plenty of qualities, but there is nothing remotely sporty about it, and the backlash from enthusiasts is understandable.

Renault seems to have learnt how to do retro properly. The Scenic was in many ways a trend-setting compact MPV until killed off as recently as 2022.

Just two years later, Renault felt justified in re-using the name on a new electric SUV that had nothing to relate it to its predecessor, and the car took the much-coveted European Car of the Year prize.

When it came to reinventing the Renault 5, however…

Launching a new electric small car, Renault was harking back to the era of the much-loved supermini with its big hatchback. The new car is a thoroughly modern EV designed to be a core of Renault’s future range – but it references the original in so many ways, from the shape of its body to even the in-your-face yellow paintwork of all the promotional models. The result, another Car of the Year trophy and rave reviews from media and buyers alike.

Others have done retro well – Fiat’s 500 does a good job of capturing the spirit of the 1950s ‘Cinqucento’ for example, but by far the winner in this area is BMW, with the manner in which it reinvented the Mini.

Launched in 2001, the new Mini has – let’s be truthful here – absolutely no connection with the very British 1960s icon. For a start, there’s nothing mini about it. But certain styling touches, the shape of the body and its detailing, the big central speed dial on the dash with the rows of switches underneath, directly reference the original.

Just as importantly, clever marketing from the start by BMW built up an image around its new Mini, convincing owners they were buying into the same sort of fashionable lifestyle enjoyed by those who drove the original. And despite since stretching the brand to the limit – including the gargantuan Countryman SUV that could easily swallow a 1960s Mini whole – the Mini has remained popular with a very wide range of buyers simply because it is a Mini. That image has been maintained, and is now beginning its latest round with the new electric Mini range.

So what’s in a name? In terms of new cars, it can be quite a lot…