The Honda e:Ny1 Gives the Toyota bZ4X a Run for Its Money in the Race to Come Up With the Most Incomprehensible Car Name Possible

Photo: Honda

On paper the Honda e:Ny1 sounds like a solid crossover for Europe and its denser development. It looks to be about the size of a Honda HR-V, so it shouldn’t be too big to park. It’s electric, so you can drive it in zones that don’t allow internal combustion engine cars. And while the styling is a new direction for Honda, it’s still familiar enough that it’s recognizable.

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The specs aren’t game-changing, but they’re still solid. It’s front-wheel drive, makes 201 hp and 228 lb-ft of torque, has a 68.8-kWh battery that should give it 256 miles of range and can charge from 10 to 80 percent in about 45 minutes. And if you’re into big screens, it’s got a 15.1-inch vertical touchscreen.

Photo: Honda

But oh man. That name. Why? Why did Honda have to go with an incomprehensible mishmash of letters and numbers with random capitalization and punctuation? We can work with hyphens even though I’d rather not. But colons do not belong in car names. How do you even pronounce the name? Ee en why one? Eenie one? Anyone? I’m sure it stands for something, but I can’t be bothered to go find that information, and I doubt anyone else wants to, either.

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I used to think the Toyota bZ4X had the dumbest car name of all time. It’s like something Elon Musk would name one of his (What are we up to now? 80?) children. And I hate that I know it supposedly stands for Beyond Zero all-wheel-drive crossover. Or maybe it doesn’t. It’s so hard to care about names like this. Especially when there’s no real pattern to how things are capitalized.

Photo: Honda

It’s also hard to type because no one can remember what’s capitalized and what isn’t. It’s a problem that only affects journalists and copywriters, but it’s a problem that affects me personally, and since I’m already complaining, I might as well share all of my complaints.

But I was wrong. The bZ4X doesn’t have the worst car name. It’s now the Honda e:Ny1. On the positive side, it’s doubtful that the e:Ny1 is going to come to the U.S., so at least I probably won’t ever have to review it.