I’m more interested in the name, of course. Talk about being environmentally friendly! What could be better than a leaf? Maybe a volt? Ouch! Or bio-power – that sounds “natural”! Or maybe a converj… Wait, what?

In case you haven’t been paying attention, those are the names of the recent (and future) hybrid and electric cars to hit the market. Here’s a rundown:

• Aptera (electric vehicle coming out at end of 2011)
• BMW Hydrogen 7 (hydrogen)
• BMW ActiveHybrid (hybrid)
• Cadillac Converj (plug-in hybrid–in 2010 GM decided to drop this concept)
• Cadillac Provoq (plug-in hybrid in development)
• Chevrolet Volt (plug-in hybrid)
• Ferrari Hy-Kers (hybrid in development)
• Fisker Carma (plug-in hybrid)
• GEM (Chrysler Group Global Electric Motorcars–low speed vehicle LSV)
• Honda FCX Clarity (hydrogen)
• Honda Insight (hybrid)
• Mercedes BlueHybrid (hybrid)
• Opel Ampera (European variant of the Chevrolet Volt)
• Saab BioPower (ethanol)
• Saturn Green Line (stop-start and hybrid – now dead)
• Smart ForTwo (electric–more commonly known as smart car)
• Tesla (electric)
• Toyota Prius (hybrid)
• Volkswagen XL1 (hybrid in development)
• Volvo DRIVe (clean diesel – Europe)
• Zap Xebra (electric–sounds like a video game set in a zoo)
• Zenn (electric low speed vehicle)

Wow, those are some fancy names!

Of course, many of these are concept cars, and they may never make it to market – as was the case with the Cadillac Converj. I think my favorite is Tesla. Nikola Tesla, as you might know, was the original handsome bad-ass crazy scientist who was basically responsible for the AC power system, among scores of inventions and discoveries. Tesla and Thomas Edison famously hated each other; one of the reasons that the Tesla name works so well for the car company is that it stands in opposition to the known, the old, the tried and true. It’s the anti-Edison. Tesla was European, brilliant, maverick, fashionable, and quite the showman – all attributes that Tesla Motors has embraced.

It’s awesome to see electric cars coming into their own, because it’s way past time for them to become the norm. I am hoping that my next car will be more like the one the Jetsons’, with a big bubble on top so I can get sunburned every time I drive it to the Space Mart. Of the electric vehicles listed here, only one approaches the Jetson level of design – Aptera (pictured here). It is a three-wheeled “car” that looks like an iMac on wheels. (They’re not in production yet, but they are taking pre-orders.) It’s so futuristic that the Aptera 2 made a brief appearance in the last Star Trek movie, in which the bridge of the Enterprise itself appeared to be located inside an iMac. Does Apple have dibs on the way the future will look?

Perhaps we should look to the Jetsons for inspiration on names of the future. George Jetson, as you’ll recall, worked at Spacely’s Space Sprockets; their main competitor was Cogswell’s Cosmic Cogs. Jane Jetson’s favorite store was Mooning Dales. The Jetsons live in the Skypad Apartments in Orbit City. Am I detecting a pattern here? Or maybe we’ll just have to wait until technology catches up with Hanna-Barbera. Speaking of which, where is that flying car they promised me?

I love those Kia hamsters. The first commercial showed a trio of hammies tooling around in their Kia Soul while the rest of the world ran in stationary wheels; it was cute and clever and made a nice statement about the cool factor of the car.

But the second one blew that right out of the water. The combination of CGI and Black Sheep’s “The Choice Is Yours” is a whole new level of awesome. Now, these kinds of commercials are nothing new, but in this instance the match of the product name–Soul–and the theme of the commercial (rapping dudes on Hamsterdam Ave.) is just perfect. I know that they didn’t create this car name to appeal to hip hop hamsters, but man, it works.

Which is why the recent rumors about Kia dropping their car names in favor of alphanumerics puzzles me. Automotive News reports:

Kia’s lineup in South Korea and some other markets already is partially alphanumeric. In Korea, the mid-sized sedan based on what was known as the Optima is named the K5, a large sedan known as Cadenza in some markets–but not yet sold in the United States–is named the K7, and the Forte likely will become the K3.

Okay, I admit that “Cadenza” isn’t the greatest name; I know it’s a musical term, but for me it’s too close to “credenza“, and I don’t think anyone wants to be driving around a big wooden sideboard. But more to the point, what does Kia think they are accomplishing with the K names?

Typically, alphanumerics have been used by car companies who want to bestow some prestige on the brand; think BMW, Audi, and Mercedes. The letter usually indicates the class, and the number refers to model features like engine size. But this isn’t always the case, and that’s where the confusion comes. BMW and Audi, for example, use numbers for the product lines, with the letters signifying fuel injection, or “standard” vs. “sport”, or some other damn thing I can’t figure out–that is a problem.

Kia seems to feel that sequential numbering (where “K” presumably stands for Kia) is the answer. But what happens when they get into the double digits? And how to distinguish sedans from SUVs from sports cars? And don’t forget that alphanumerics are inherently less memorable and brand-y than names–especially when the market is flooded with them.

Which gets me back to the hammies. With the Kia Soul, the company found a perfect match of brand and brand image as exemplified in the TV ads. You couldn’t have done the same commercials with a car named Morning (another Kia model). The whole joke is that the Soul has so much soul that it’s the car of choice for people who aren’t part of the bland, boring, middle-aged go-nowhere American culture. I don’t know if Kia is specifically targeting African Americans, but they certainly are capitalizing on the marketability of gangsta culture to a young buying population, no matter their ethnicity.

It’s a triumph of naming and branding. And now they’re considering throwing it away for a bunch of letters and numbers? Kia, the choice is yours.

“My name is on every car,” Akio Toyoda, the president of Toyota Motor, assured Congress on Wednesday.

The company started by Toyoda’s grandfather did indeed have his name — Tokyo Toyoda Motor Sales — until 1936, when a stroke of the brush changed it to Toyota.

Writing “Toyoda” in Japanese requires 10 brush strokes, explains John R. Malott, president of the Japan-America Society of Washington DC, but writing “Toyota” requires eight.

While “8″ is considered an auspicious number, “10″ is not, said Malott, who visited with the company during his years as a State Department official. “Ten” consists of two strokes crossed against each other and resembles the “plus” symbol, or even a crossroads or an uncertain path. Not a good omen for a company.

“It’s a very Japanese way of thinking,” Malott said.

Chie Tamaki, a Japanese language expert at Arlington County-based Rosetta Stone, said in an e-mail that the name Toyoda consists of two characters, one meaning fertile and the other, rice paddy.

Tamaki was skeptical of a theory that the name was changed to make it sound less rural. Toyoda is a common name in Japan, not unlike Smith in English, she said, and most people don’t think of blacksmiths when they hear Smith, she observed.

According to an official corporate history, the company changed its name to Toyota because it “sounded better” — but whether it sounds better or not depends on the speaker, perhaps.

“I’m from Chicago,” Malott said, “so it’s all Toyoda, anyway.”

So that’s really all I wanted to blog about. Yeah. Isn’t it also cool that both the tires get good ratings? I mean, they’re at numbers 8 and 9! That’s really good! You know, Toyo offered to send us a Versado tire but I told them there wasn’t room in our display case. You know what else? Toyo tires make great Christmas gifts, so buy a bunch for everyone on your list. And tell Toyo I gave you that idea.

After developing and marketing what promises to be the world’s first mass-produced extended-range EV, the folks at GM are too tired to come up with names for all the paint colors, so they’re asking for your help.

Apparently not satisfied with “kinda silvery and greenish” as a description of the exterior color of the pre-production Chevy Volt shown above, the General is asking for help from the general public to officially name the color for press and marketing materials. You can enter — and eventually vote — at chevroletvoltage.com.

The three top vote-getters win a trip to the L.A. Auto Show, while first prize gets their own addition to GM’s paint codes and the chance to drive a pre-production Volt. Props to anyone who submits “Autopia Emerald.”

So, how about it? For professional namers, coming up with a new name for “that same weird metallic green color you see on every other car” should be a snap. (Despite the fact that the car doesn’t really look green at all, to me.) Here are our suggestions, and we encourage you to leave yours in the comments. Have at it!

Kelp
Sea Foam
Seahorse Poop
Pelican’s Briefs
Green Guano
Pregnant Mermaid
Jellyfish Rash
Moldy Caviar
Cataract green
Limeaid
Limerick
Smoggy Everglade
Greenade
Gangreen
Seth (green)
Forest Spore
Mucous
Phlegm
Sputum
Not Quite (green)

BONUS: At the GM Volt website, they have posted some YouTube videos to help us all feel part of the process of developing the Volt. The name of this video is “How GM Chooses Vehicle Colors”, but they never actually explain how they choose colors. What’s much more interesting is Chris Webb’s accent. Dude, where you from?

What hit me almost immediately was that both car names are real English words. I wonder if concocted words or a Latinate name style was ruled out because Toyota seems to owns that style with Prius. (For those of you who don’t know, Prius is a Latin comparative adjective or adverb, with meanings “ahead, in front, leading; previous, earlier, preceding, prior; former; basic;” fitting for such a car in the green vanguard.)

I like what each of the new car names conveys about its car model. “Clarity” focuses on the environmental benefit, and perhaps even suggests how simple a decision it should be to purchase one. The name also fits nicely with Honda’s other real-word names: Accord, Element, Civic, Pilot, Fit, Odyssey, etc. All of these words (maybe with the exception of “Fit”), are real words with elegant connotations. Either that, or Honda has done a great job of imbuing each of the brands with elegance and reliability. Either way, I think Clarity is as equally elegant and evocative as each of the names in the Honda brand roster.

“Volt” appeals to Chevy’s tough and exciting brand image. The name is electrically charged, powerful, and punchy. Instead of conveying the benefit, Volt implies the radical new technology. (Similar to the way Zap car does.) Much like the Chevy Cobalt, the Volt has a strong, exciting, and charged tonality. The Volt electric car marks a huge energetic shift for General Motors. The Volt (hopefully) effectively launches Chevy into the green car revolution. If Chevy hasn’t already gone under or severely missed the green boat by waiting until 2010, then the Volt may signal a new era for the American auto maker. The name aims to capitalize on this monumental change in the automotive tides.

Of course, let’s not forget about the Smart Car that’s already selling its super efficient models in the U.S. In fact, by next year they plan on having a fully electric model available for sale. At $12,000 for the current gasoline-burning model, it’s no wonder that I’m seeing them pop up all over San Francisco. In parking-starved SF, it also doesn’t hurt that you can park two of these adorable little guys in the one SUV’s street parking space.

More green cars! And please, more exciting green car naming!