Ioniq, Hyundai’s first all electric car, is about to hit the roads and take its place among competitors that include various Tesla models, the Nissan Leaf, the Chevy Volt, and the Kia Soul, among others. And you heard it here first: Ioniq is the best name out of all of them.
On the surface level, the name suggests ionic and ions, which are atoms or molecules that have a positive or negative electric charge. Being a moderately advanced scientific term, Ioniq says intelligent engineering. And with the q for c substitution, the name avoids being nerdy, and instead becomes premium, sexy* and visually gripping.
Even though the coining is just as long as the original word, Ioniq has an truncated feel to it, which carries a vague, almost indescribable suggestion of speed. Like the name Ionic was coined to feel faster. The hard stop at the end is the key—though ending with a c is also a hard stop, the q with no u really makes you want to cut the word off with no decay, which viscerally feels faster. The only proof I have is that many words that imply speed have a hard stop—and slow words don’t. Sprint or fleet or quick or zip vs long or jog or trudge or crawl. I’m sure there are some exceptions to this rule, but I do see a trend, and Ioniq fits in with the fast, and the name helps assuage the worry that many customers have that electric cars don’t have the same power or speed as your average internal combustion engine.
That’s really all I have to say. The name stands out quite nicely among competitors, says more than it needs to say, and feels and sounds just as sleek and classy as the car looks.
*Possibly contentious editorial aside: I can’t think of a sexier letter to put in a coined name than Q in today’s brand naming landscape. I guess X is a contender, but X’s connotations are varied and so more diluted and overused—the X in Xfinity, Xbox, and Xvideos all imply different things. Some wiseacre reading this is probably saying, “But Q-Tip stands for Quality, and that’s not sexy.” True. But I am not swayed. Q is the sexiest letter to use when done elegantly. Examples include: Quintess, Sliquid, and Linq Casino.
