Ford has applied for a trademark on the Thunderbird name, which has previously been used by the company and could hint at a future return of the nameplate.
The trademark was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on January 13, 2021 and would be applied to “motor vehicles, namely concept motor vehicles; four-wheeled motor vehicles,” according to the application.
The name was first used on a production car in 1955. The car was initially a two-seater convertible meant to cruise down the boulevards, rather than attack tracks. Its diminutive size and large motor, though, did mean that some brave privateers chose it to take on the world’s race tracks.
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In production from 1955 through 1997, the Thunderbird had a brief hiatus before coming back as a retro roadster, not unlike the Prowler or the Beetle, from 2002 to 2005. What will now come of the name remains to be seen.
We might have already had our first hint when Jason Castriota, Ford’s global brand director for battery electric vehicles, recently said in an interview that the Blue Oval wanted to dip back into the heritage names for future electric vehicles.
Speaking about the Mustang Mach-E, Castriota said that the name’s success meant that Ford might use a heritage name again. Although the Mustang nameplate can’t be applied to everything, “we feel that it’s definitely worthwhile exploring the other potentials for our great brands.”
With EVs being the flavor of the day, the Mach-E earning praise, and a shrinking population of people who would be upset by the evolving names, it may behoove Ford to find ways to incorporate more of its great nameplates into its electric offensive. Could the Thunderbird be one of them? Well, we certainly wouldn’t be surprised.
