Volkswagen is getting some new names for what sounds like two new SUVs. CarBuzz has just uncovered the EU trademark filings that reveal the new models, both with names starting with the letter T. When you’re Volkswagen, T means truck, like the Tiguan and Taos. That, along with one name that means “task” in Spanish, shows that at least one of these new models is likely going to be used for commercial-grade vehicles.
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The two new names are the Volkswagen Tairos and the Volkswagen Tareon. Tareon, roughly, is from the Spanish word “tarea,” meaning task. The name heavily implies a vehicle that is ready to help you with your tasks, in a similar fashion to the Volkswagen Transporter, which is a commercial van, or the VW Caddy, a smaller commercial van.
Tairos is a little less clear. We did find another German company that uses that name. The company builds pre-fab bathrooms, not cars, and it says the name is derived from the Greek “kairos” meaning “the right or critical moment.” That name also sounds like a delivery vehicle, doesn’t it? And there’s always the possibility that VW will join the fight in a future Game of Thrones sequel with dragon-slaying SUVs, and these are the names. No, that won’t happen. Probably.
Volkswagen has only just gotten the trademark for the two names, requested over four classifications. The trademarks apply to vehicles as well as toys. They’ve also been obtained in the areas of business management services and construction field services. We don’t think the latter two are a sign that VW is planning to branch out, but it could mean that the company expects to use the new names for business-focused telemetry services like Ford Pro. Volkswagen offers its own connected fleet service, under the boring but descriptive branding of “Fleet Interface Data.”
VW has been using T model names for its SUVs since the Touareg, not just in the US or Europe, but globally. US shoppers are likely familiar with the Touareg, Tiguan, and now Taos, but there are plenty more outside of the US. The T-Cross and T-Roc, Tera, Taigo, Talagon, Tavendor, and Tayron, to name some of them. Even the SUV known as the Atlas in the US is called the Teramont in other markets.
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Some of the names have meaning behind them. Touareg is named for a nomadic group in the Sahara and Tiguan is a mashup of tiger and iguana. Others have less meaning, like Tavendor, which doesn’t seem to mean much of anything.
“The T-strategy has naturally grown after the Touareg and the Tiguan. Two strong names were developed that were well received by customers. In order to create a recognition value here, a ‘T’ was always requested as the first letter for the next names,” a company spokesperson told CarBuzz in 2021. The hyphen in some, like T-Roc, was used to differentiate the names and clarify how to say them. T-Roc and Troc don’t exactly both have the same ring.
VW has plenty of other T names already trademarked, including T-Sport, T-Go, and T-Coupe. These latest could be another attempt to secure names it doesn’t plan to use, but it could be planning to introduce them for new models or for new generations of vehicles that don’t fit into the current structure. Time will tell.
Trademark filings do not guarantee the use of such nomenclature in future vehicles and are often used exclusively as a means of protecting intellectual property. Such a filing cannot be construed as confirmation of a production-bound application.
Source: TMView
