According to a trademark filing discovered by Autocar, Aston Martin’s upcoming DBX SUV won’t be called the DBX at all. Instead, it’ll be known as the Varekai when it officially debuts sometime late 2019.
Not only does Varekai carry on Aston’s obsession with the letter V (think Vantage, Vanquish, and Valkyrie), it also lines up with the car’s chief rivals in foregoing a somewhat uninspired, alphanumeric name. The Lamborghini Urus, Rolls-Royce Cullinan, Bentley Bentayga, and Maserati Levante all have full, proper names that you could, y’know, legally name a child after. (Just because you can doesn’t mean you should, though. Please don’t name your kid Bentayga.)
When The Drive reached out to Aston Martin for confirmation of the name change, a company spokesperson said they have “no comment to make on this one.”
Aston hopes the Varekai, er, yet-to-be-named-SUV will be a volume-seller that ensures the company is profitable. “If Aston Martin wants to survive, it must do an SUV,” CEO Andy Palmer previously said. In addition to the obligatory V12 model, the crossover will also reportedly be available with an AMG-sourced, 4.0-liter V8. According to Palmer, the Daimler mill is “the greatest V8 in the world today.”
Previous reports also say that the car will feature cameras mounted at the base of the A-pillars instead of old-fashioned mirrors. While that sounds fancy and would be quite the conversation piece, future us wouldn’t want to get stuck having to change lanes in an aged Varekai whose cameras have failed (or worse, lag).
While the Varekai’s debut is still a ways off, look for our review of the new Vantage on April 10.