Nio is appealing the title dispute with Audi

Nio is appealing the title dispute

Audi is suing the new Chinese

The legal dispute between Audi and Chinese newcomer Nio has been going on for a year. The reason: Audi is bothered by the names of the Chinese electric SUVs ES6, ES7 and ES8. After the court ruled in favor of Audi, Nio is now appealing.

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Nio has christened its large electric SUV ES8.

Martin A BartholdiAutomated Editor and Mobility

The launch of the Chinese manufacturer Nio caused confusion in Europe last autumn. At the big launch event in October in Berlin the Chinese electric brand launched its best-selling SUV globally as the ES7 as the EL7. The German championship is responsible for a short-lived name change in Europe. Audi filed a lawsuit against the Nio in October 2021. Not only about the ES7 model, but also about the sister models ES6 and ES8. Audi sees naming rights for its S6 sports models, S7 and S8 to hurt That is why the luxury daughter of VW sued in the district court in Munich for injunctive relief, information claims and compensation claims.

Details of Nio

The trial took place in May last year. Among other things, Nio explained the logic behind the model names. E stands for emotion and not for electricity, as this is already the case for an electric brand like Nio. The S also stands for SUV, and the number indicates the size. P stands for performance in the EP9 super sports car and C for the SUV coupé in the EC7.

Tesla has no gravity

Tesla also had to struggle in the area of name and trademark rights – and lost to an established car company. That’s why Model 3, unlike Models S, X and Y, has numbers instead of letters. Tesla CEO Elon Musk originally wanted to create the word SEXY with the letters in the models. But with “E” Ford put spokes in his wheel. The name “Model E” belongs to the car giant and he did not want to give up the name because of its historical importance. To avoid a legal dispute, Tesla therefore changed the number 3. Initially it was intended to be issued with three horizontal bars to preserve the interesting pun. But later Tesla changed the number “3” on the back of the car.

Judgment

For the Munich district court, however, this explanation of the naming logic was not enough to distinguish it from the Audi S6, S7 and S8 models. In the middle of January, it was therefore judged on the meaning of the German luxury brand. Although the E sets the Nio models apart from the Audis in terms of writing and sound, this is not enough. There is an immediate danger of confusion between the Chinese and German models. In addition, customers are more likely to understand E as an operational indicator. The court’s decision says: “There is a risk that consumers will think that the ES6 is an S6 in an electric version and that the two cars come from the same manufacturer.”

However, the renaming of the SUV ES7 to EL7 for Europe should not be understood as a knee-jerk reaction to the Chinese. On the contrary: Nio disagrees with the decision and has now appealed. The next higher authority must now deal with the name dispute. The Chinese want to protect their brand and their international branding strategy. ES7 is only called EL7 in Europe. Globally, the Nio SUVs continue to be sold as the ES6, ES7 and ES8.

Legal disputes in the automotive industry