On February 5, FCA US LLC filed to trademark the word “Magneto”. Why? Let’s take a closer look.

The trademark of “Magneto” was applied for under the “Motor vehicles, namely, concept motor vehicles” section of the application for a word mark as a standard character mark. This is different from how FCA applied for two other recently-used words that found their way onto vehicles.

“TRX”, which we know now as a variant of the Ram 1500, had its standard character mark first applied for on June 4, 2018 under using a “motor vehicles, namely, trucks, excluding all terrain vehicles; and structural parts for motor vehicles, excluding tires” description of its intended use. Its record page on the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website indicates that the trademark was first applied in commerce in 2021, marking the direct path from filing to IRL vehicle.

“Top Dog”, which found its way onto a Jeep Gladiator concept truck had its

uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4809:k82h8o.3.12″ rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>trademark filed for by FCA on March 6, 2020

. Described as being for “land vehicles, namely, passenger automobiles”, the application was filed for opposition in June of last year.

The way “Magneto” has been applied for specifically spells out that the mark is intended explicitly for a concept vehicle, unlike the application for “Top Dog”.

Most will recognize that the name Magneto is most closely associated with Max Eisenhardt, the fictional man who would become villain Magneto in the X-Men comic book series and movies.

There’s another use of the word that may be more relevant as a clue as to why FCA has chosen to trademark it. A magneto is a permanent magnet electrical generator.

Compared to other automakers, Stellantis, now the parent company of the former FCA portfolio of brands, is behind the eight ball when it comes to electrification. A concept vehicle wearing the Magneto name may be used to show off an electrified concept car that points toward the future of electrification within the company’s U.S. brand portfolio.

Earlier this week, Jeep announced that it will debut an all-electric Jeep Wrangler concept at this year’s Easter Jeep Safari. All signs point to Magneto being the name given to the Wrangler EV concept, but not a production model.

The trademark filing was originally reported by CarBuzz.