Cinch, the online used car marketplace, has teamed up with renowned lexicographer Susie Dent to predict the motoring words and phrases likely to change (or even disappear) in the next decade, and the new ones we can look forward to becoming part of the vernacular.
Over the last year, more and more drivers have been making the switch to electric cars. By 2030, that switch will accelerate with the UK government’s ban on new petrol and diesel car sales, and this EV revolution will transform more than just the cars we drive.
The language we use every day, from specific motoring terms to popular colloquial phrases, is set to evolve. From ‘petrolhead’ to ‘gas guzzler,’ and common features like ‘clutch’ and ‘gears,’ linguistic changes will happen in more ways than might initially be expected, so cinch has partnered with Dictionary Corner’s expert Susie to unpack them.
There will be ‘nothing left in the tank’ as drivers hurl ‘full throttle’ toward electric vehicles, and the English language could potentially lose popular idioms like ‘take your foot off the gas’ and ‘running on fumes.’
With the biggest range of electric cars to buy entirely online, cinch’s EV experts and Susie have identified the vocabulary expected to become commonplace within a decade. Depending on which side of the pond drivers are on, they might opt for ‘frunk’ or ‘froot’ - the added space under the bonnet of an EV to store belongings - quite literally, ‘front trunk’ or ‘front boot.’
Whether motorists drive a ‘BEV’ (Battery Electric Vehicle) or ‘PHEV’ (Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle), new EV drivers can sometimes suffer from ‘range anxiety’ when they get started: a nervousness around how far their EV will travel on a charge. Describing battery percentage as ‘juice’ will become commonplace, and ‘charge hogging’ could cause frustration at charging points.
Lexicographer Susie Dent comments: “Are you a true 'petrolhead' who lives life 'at full throttle'? If so, you might feel your lexicon shrinking a little as electric cars come to the fore. 'Miles per gallon,’ the 'clutch,’ and 'gears' will all eventually become terms of the past. We may no longer be 'filling up' at a 'petrol station,’ nor be 'running on empty' (or 'on fumes') when there is 'nothing left in the tank.' Of course, it might take our language a while to catch up, and many expressions based on old technology still survive - we still 'dial' a phone number or 'hang up' on a call, and continue to measure our 'films' in 'footage.’ All of which means that we may be 'sucking diesel' or 'taking our foot off the gas' for some time to come.
“What is certain is that the language of the electric car will become as familiar to us as the vocabulary of the 'motor car' did at the turn of the 20th century. Within a decade we will be happily comparing the capacity of the 'froot' on a new 'BEV' or 'PHEV,’ or trying to keep a lid on our 'range anxiety.’ We will be regularly 'juicing' our battery - perhaps with just a 'trickle' - whilst hopefully avoiding all recriminations of 'charge-hogging' from our neighbours.
“All of this should be celebrated as part of the natural and constant evolution of our language. English will always twist and turn as we need it to, even as it holds onto the footprints of the past.”
Abhishek Sampat, Head of Electric Vehicles at cinch, says: “At cinch, we’ve been preparing for the EV revolution for a long time and are proud to offer the biggest range of electric cars to buy entirely online. We have already been seeing our EV customers gradually using and becoming more familiar with these new words, so it’s been fascinating to work with Susie on collating these vocabulary lists. Drivers might be surprised to learn that common sayings like ‘take your foot off the gas’ are in fact petrol-related!”
Susie Dent’s petrol-related words that may become extinct by 2032:
petrolhead
clutch
gears
miles per gallon
take your foot off the gas
nothing left in the tank
full throttle
petrol station
gas guzzler
running on fumes
Susie Dent’s EV words motorists should get to know:
frunk/froot
used to describe a space under the 'bonnet' of an EV, which may have an additional space to keep belongings. Not all EVs have it, but very useful for those that do. The American version is ‘frunk’ while the British would be ‘froot,’ however ‘frunk’ is currently more common
EV (BEV & PHEV)
BEV = Battery Electric Vehicle. That is, a fully electric car running purely on battery power. PHEV = Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle, which uses a combination of a battery and a combustion engine to drive the vehicle
range-anxiety
worries around whether there is enough battery charge in the vehicle to get to a destination
regen
regenerative braking or ‘regen’ for short. That is, when the brakes are applied and the motor spins backwards, slowing the car and becoming a generator to transfer the energy lost back into the battery
juice
colloquial phrase to refer to battery charge and the process of charging a battery
trickle
to slowly charge, usually with the three-pin plug provided with the car
charge hogging
parking at a charging point when not charging, or after charging has finished
hybrid
a vehicle that uses a combination of a battery and a combustion engine
over the air update
a software update to improve features and functionality
Kilowatt
unit of measurement of power. All chargers and motor outputs are rated in kilowatts (kW), however most drivers still understand horsepower best, so the conversion is typically 1 kW = 1.34 hp
