China’s all about electric vehicles and clean, green everything, or so the tankies granola types claim, and automakers from Detroit to Germany can’t wait to get their hands on a piece of that market. In Volkswagen’s case, China’s thirst for EVs spawned a brand new brand.
Unfortunately, as is often the case with language, the name of VW’s EV-focused brand could mean something very bad, depending on who reads it.
SOL.
A joint venture between VW and Chinese partner JAC, the SOL brand came about after China rejected the use of the Seat brand name in its market, Car News China reports. The German automaker then asked if “Xiyate” (Seat in Chinese) was okay. Apparently, it was not.
As the report shows, the first SOL-branded vehicle is a small, four-door crossover festooned with blue accents — a not-so subtle hint at the vehicle’s electric powerplant. It’s also not a Volkswagen in any sense; rather, it’s a rebadged JAC model. This particular SOL supposedly generates 114 horsepower and attains a top speed of 130 km/h (roughly 80 mph).
But back to that name, which appears in all caps. Sol, as many know, is Spanish for “sun.” Given that Seat is a Spanish brand, the inspiration for the name seems obvious. A sun rises, much like this brand, and it also generates electricity, which this car uses. The sun is a happy thing that makes plants grow. Sol is also a brand of Mexican beer and the name of a famous French Canadian clown. However, if you’re hip to the lingo these days, SOL is the acronym for “Shit Outta Luck.”
This author is reminded of past naming goofs, such as the Latin American-market Chevrolet Nova and the Canadian-market Buick LaCrosse. In the former case, “no va” translates into “doesn’t go,” though the story gained prominence through an urban legend, not a real-world PR crisis. GM was apparently aware of the coincidence and didn’t care. It wasn’t okay with selling the first-generation LaCrosse in Canada, however, as the model’s name means “masturbation” in Quebecois slang. The Buick Allure debuted in Canada instead. (As of the current generation, the LaCrosse name has returned to Buick’s full-sizer in the Great White North.)
Whether or not VW or JAC brass was aware of this connection is unknown, though it’s possible they were and felt it just wasn’t a big deal. Volkswagen aims to build 40 electric models in China, spurred by the investment of $12 billion over seven years. Many of these models will have their roots in borrowed or dedicated Chinese architecture. Others, however, will borrow the MEB platform destined for the U.S. in the form of the I.D., I.D. Crozz, I.D. Buzz, and I.D. Vizzion.
Speaking of poor naming choices…
[Image: Volkswagen]
Some bureaucrat in some dingy corner office in Beijing says OK to blatant copying of [fill in the blank] but won’t let VW even use a Chinese translation of its SEAT brand…
When you show up at the VW dealer with a problem you’ll be SOL, you can bet on it.
SOL meant “$hit out of luck” when I was a kid, but now to mean SOL means a fairly decent cerveza
SOL is much better than Corona.
Corona has better marking but honestly so does Patron.
(Sorry stuck up sister-in-law, I’m not getting excited about your Patron margaritas. Camarena is just as good at 1/2 the price. Plus you stingy on the dose.)
LOL
I am glad I have no dog in the tequila fight. Beer or water please.
You mean “no worm” in the tequila fight? LOL
HA
You’re on fire today.
Better call SOL?
When it breaks down, “SO SOLLY”
(::Rim shot!!::)
I can’t get over the “fecal-material-outta-luck” connotation!
“This author is reminded of past naming goofs, such as the Latin American-market Chevrolet Nova”
That’s actually a myth.
Electric powered, and made in China? Don’t touch the car while standing in water, or you’ll be SOL.
“past naming goofs” is why we have letters and numbers for car names now.
That didn’t work for the MR2 in France. Pronounce ‘M’ ‘R’ ‘2’ in French…
“What kind of car did you get, Jean-Pierre?”
“I got the new Toyota Sh|t, actually! C’est fantastique!”
I can see them not wanting to dilute the VW brand by sticking the logo on a JAC-built and designed model. VW does have some cachet there, being one of the first western car makers in the country (if not the first).
But why not Skoda? There’s some brand recognition there as well, without much risk of tainting the VW logo.
Turn the logo upside down = WA
VW execs are a little upset at the success that Skoda is having, given that they were originally intended to be a value Eastern European VW cast-off brand (and succeeded in killing off Lada, Proton in Europe), they’re now trying to hobble the brand a little.
The bit about Nova translating poorly in the Spanish-speaking market is an urban legend. The car sold quite well there, in addition to the “problem” not even making sense. (In an example Snopes used, it’d be like attributing poor sales of a dinette set deemed “notable” to be poor because people thought it meant it didn’t include a table. “No va” is quite different (both written and spoken) from “Nova”, which speakers of both English and Spanish could (correctly) guess means “new”.)
Yes! the whole “Nova” and “No Va” myth was blown way out of proportion. I even when I was little that myth didn’t quite make sense to me.
“Nova” is not a word in Spanish. “Nuevo” or “Nueva” would mean “new”.
“No Va” means “it doesn’t go”. It wouldn’t keep anyone from buying a Nova, it’s just a silly name, as consequential as “Bora” or “Golf” or “Camaro”.
In Portuguese, it means “news”, and a nova, or an exploding star.
I realize Nova isn’t a word in Spanish. It isn’t a word in common English either. But it is Latin for “new”, and the root for words associated with “newness” in most of the Romance languages. (And yes, it’s also associated with astronomy.) Either meaning certainly works as a car name.
Y a-t-il quelque chose que les Québécois n’ont pas un mot sale?
Translation from Franco Canadian to Anglo Canadian: Is there nothing the Quebcois do not have a dirty word for?
Sacre Bleu!
Québécois swearing tends to be Catholic Church profanity as opposed to your typical English words around sex. I tried to post a typical phrase but the censors blocked it.
While we’re at this, I don’t understand why most people are ok with KIA.
Great. Now I can’t unsee that.
The Citroen Evasion was renamed the Synergie for the UK market, as Evasion rather than meaning “getting away from it all” in British English has a more menacing sense of “getting away *with* it all”
Back in the 1960s an Italian firm came up with a small off-roader called the FART Breack. I’m not making this up.
http://www.woiweb.com/index.php/FART
Definitely gas powered.
Until recently, VW had a car named the Eos. Seems like they had the answer inside themselves all along.