How do you pronounce ‘iy’? Is it ‘e’? Or ‘eye’? I ask because Lotus says the Evija is officially pronounced ‘Ev-iy-a’, which I think is Ev-eye-a but could be Ev-ee-ya – although, given time, those of us who have read the name but don’t know the back story will probably settle on Evidga. Or perhaps Evajazzle, in the same way that the Europa was known as the Europeless by people outside – and indeed sometimes inside – Lotus

Whatever, it’s quite confusing, but it won’t matter, because having an ambiguous name is no hindrance to selling a car. Costing £2 million might be, but I suppose we’ll see. 

From a names perspective, see also the Ford Ka. That’s the Ka with a soft ‘a’ like car, or a hard ‘a’ like cack, depending on when and where and who you are. Or it’s Kay-ay if you are a Ford insider; mostly, I imagine, because saying you’re going to launch or move or redesign or refuel ‘the Ka’, in a company that makes six million cars a year, is going to become complicated unless you’re a bit more specific. 

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I could go on, so I will. There is the Renault Kadger or Kadgaaar, the Toyota Pre-us or Pry-us. Is it a Daysea-a or a Datcher? Who knows? 

And there is serial offender, Porsche, which makes the Porsche Macan, with an ending like Minder’s Terry McCann or The Jungle Book’s Shere Khan, depending. Porsche prefers the latter. And it prefers Tie-can to Taycan – despite the spelling, so what does it know? – and I forget about Porsche Cayenne. Do some people say Kai-en? I think they do. Whatever, tomayto, tomato, let’s call the whole thing whatever you like, I don’t really care.