Audi's E-Tron Moniker Is A S***y Name For French Speaking Markets
A couple decades ago, Toyota decided to launch their upcoming MR2 sports car in Europe. The MR2 was a good car on its own, but Toyota had a bit of a marketing blunder on its hands when they discovered that MR2 was pronounced “mere-deux” in French, which is similar to merde a not so nice word for doo-doo.
25 years later, Audi looks set to make the same mistake with their upcoming range of electric vehicles, branded as e-Tron. It turns out in French, the word etron is synonymous with merde in the same way that “crap” is to “s**t”.
We’re not really sure what Audi can do about this, having already established e-Tron as a brand in much of the world. Perhaps they’ll create a new moniker for the French market, but it’s a little shocking that with continental European countries in such close proximity, we’re a little surprised that this linguistic oversight went forward.
[Source: Green Car Reports]
More by Derek Kreindler
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Is Audi finally marketing with a bit of honesty? Or is it that they just don't give an etron about the French?