Do you prefer a "Shanghai Commonage"(*) or a "Beijing Modern Times"(**)? 

We start our journey in Car naming with some overview of what is really displayed on the car seen on the streets of China. 

Most of our international clients believe that everything is written in Chinese on a car like this: 
 
When actually the reality is a bit more like this: 
 

A survey made in August 2006 by Labbrand Research team on a sample of hundreds of cars in China studying the use of the Car Brand (CB) names and Model Brand (MB) names on the car, has shown that most brands display the CB names either in Chinese (56%) or in English (51%), sometimes both but rarely no CB names (18%). 

I. It is compelling to see that there is no link between the nationality of the company and language chosen by the company for the display of the CB name on the car. 

For instance, most Chinese companies may use their English CB name where some foreign brands - like Volkswagen- use instead a Chinese CB name. CB is an important way to convey the corporate image and companies are using different naming options in order to achieve this goal. 

For the Model Brand (MB) names the situation is less symmetrical: 95% have an English brand name where only 16% have a Chinese one. This dissymmetry is due according to us to a predominance of the status benefit in the local car market for which an outwardly spoken foreign MB name for the model is the most direct way. We believe that this trend is going to change soon, as companies realize that each MB name could be efficient for conveying not only the status attributes, but also some characters and functional attributes related to this particular model. Labbrand expects that an increasing number of car manufacturers make a stronger use of a well chosen Chinese MB names as a tool to communicate in a lot more sophisticated way to their customers in the future. 

II. Some trends in naming CB and MB in China Geography enters the game. 

We were astonished of the frequent association of the Chinese CB name with the manufacturing city: 上海大众 ( Volkswagen), 北京现代 (Hyundai), 上海通用 ( Chevrolet) This trend is also occurring in mixed language CB names: 北京JEEP,广州HONDA... 

We believe that one main reason behind these choices have been the necessity to show that those brands are joint-ventures (see next paragraph). We also believe that some brands has decided to see the advantage of this situation: some of those companies have competed and won some important local markets like the taxi market for Volkswagen in Shanghai and more recently the taxi market for Hyundai in Beijing... Some brands, like Nissan, use this CB name structure but instead of mentioning the manufacturing place in China, they mention the origin of the brand: 日产汽车 (日产 meaning “produced in Japan” : this is the meaning of the original Japanese name; 汽车meaning “car”) 

The reflection of a JV partnership and the partnership mean... 

We have mentioned in the paragraph above that the CB names sometimes reflect the fact of where is the JV with local partners. Chinese companies that are the JV partner of a foreign manufacturer appear sometimes even explicitly in the CB name written on the car. We have chosen the case of Peugeot which Chinese name is 标致 (标biāo: label or pretty- 致zhì: delicate). Peugeot Chinese partner is Dongfeng (东风). The CB name appearing on the car is 东风标致, we particularly like the choice of different typographies for the 2 part of the CB name (see the picture below) 

Several brand names for one car... 

Nissan TIIDA has a linguistically speaking unconventional name in English but it has succeeded in making it accepted, and even more it contributes very effectively to make the car stands out from the crowd. As in China there is a preference for sedan bodies over hatchback bodies, TIIDA has launched two models – the original one (hatchback body) and the sedan. Labbrand wishes to congratulate Nissan for choosing 2 distinct MB names. The Hatchback body model that is more sportive has a name consistent that conveys better this product benefit: 骐达 (骐qí- fine horse; 达dá – to lead, reach). Whereas the sedan model has a more conservative name: 颐达 (颐yí – taking care of oneself; 达dá – to lead, reach). 

 
骐达（TIIDA） 

 
颐达（TIIDA） 

III. “Modernity” portfolio of brands 

Could you imagine a car brand called “Modernity”? Actually this car exists: Hyundai means “Modernity” or “Modern Times” in Korean. Actually for the Chinese name the Korean kept the Hyundai name in “Hanja” - it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language. So the meaning of Hyundai is the same in Korean and in Chinese since the meaning of the Characters has not changed in Chinese language from the time they inspired Korean language. 
Well, now if you see again a Hyundai car, the meaning of modernity will be reflected in your mind spontaneously. To finish our journey in Chinese car naming, let’s analysis a part of “modernity” MB name portfolio and see how it is building meaning with them. 

索纳塔 (索suǒ – search, 纳nà – accept, 塔tǎ- pagoda; the spirit of mastership and exploration) 
SONATA 

伊兰特(伊yī– he or she, 兰lán orchid, 特tè- special; attraction personality) 
ELANTRA 

途胜(途tú – road, 胜shèng – success; the winner on the road!) 
TUCSON 

NF御翔(御yù – royal, drive, 翔xiáng – flying; royal flying! Nobleness and esteem) 
（no English Name） 

雅绅特(雅yā – elegant, 绅shēn – gentleman, 特tè – special; distinctive elegance) 
ACCENT 

Those names stimulate directly association with different customer types: within “Modernity” there is a car for each kind modern times car drivers…A good naming clarify the portfolio and enhance product offer relevance. 

(*) The Chinese literal meaning of Volkswagen name adaptation in Chinese 
(**)The Chinese literal meaning of Hyundai name adaptation in Chinese