Automaker Volkswagen was founded in 1937 in Berlin, Germany. In a bold move, the company announced it’s rebranding its electric vehicle (EV) division to Voltswagen.
The automaker’s rebranding across the company’s social media profiles is a hat tip to Alessandro Volta, the Italian physicist, chemist, and pioneer of electricity and power who is credited as the inventor of the electric battery.
Launching the Voltswagen line of EVs is the Voltswagen ID.4 that can be custom built. Costing about $40k in the US, it’s going to post a big challenge to Tesla cars.
All this being said, VW has not secure the matching .com domain, Voltswagen.com. That domain, registered in 2003, is parked and some of the PPC ads displayed are related to Volkswagen.
The Voltswagen ID.4 – at Volkswagen.com
This is a very bad idea, regardless of who came up with the term first or when it was used. It qualifies as the kind of typo-domains that end up getting involved in a UDRP.
Conclusion: The Voltswagen is a catchy play on the established Volkswagen brand, the car of the people. The German automaker giant should have done some proactive domain acquisitions to go with the brand, however: Someone registered VoltswagenID4.com already.
Classic Volkswagen vans are very popular in Germany. Don’t miss out on the Sedo VW story. 😀
