The Volkswagen Beetle had one from its very beginnings in the 1930s. The Chevrolet Corvair had one throughout its production run, from 1960 to 1969. Several Porsche models had one. So did the Renault 10 and the Tatra 603.
But not until Tesla came up with the Model S, in 2012, did any automaker deem it necessary to coin a word for the feature all these cars have in common: a trunk in the front. Or as Tesla chooses to call it, the frunk.
Tesla frunk, via Jalopnik.
The more-recent mid-size Model 3, introduced in 2017, continues the frunky tradition. But it’s not “a large, multi-purpose frunk,” noted Jalopnik’s Jason Torchinsky in a June 2017 review:
It’s a pretty small trunk, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still a useful volume. What’s important here—and our inspirational trunk lesson of today—is how Tesla’s marketing team recast this small space.
What they did was brilliant, I think, and possibly one of the greatest trunk-volume marketing triumphs ever. Whoever was responsible for writing breathless PR copy about the car must have been a bit stymied at how to talk about the frunk. The Model S and X frunks were easy, large enough to stand on their own simple luggage-swallowing merits, but the Model 3 needed something else.
Whoever realized that the trunk volume is about the same as the size restriction for a carry-on bag deserves a raise.
The newish British “fashion and footwear label” Oscar and Hamish has seized the opportunity and created “hand made tailored luggage for your Tesla” that promises to “free your Frunk.” (The needless capitalization is Oscar and Hamish’s; there’s no trademark registration for frunk.)
“But it’s not a ‘trunk’ in British English!” I hear you protesting. “It’s a ‘boot’!” Right you are, but as far as I can tell, only in Australia and New Zealand are they calling it the Tesla feature a “froot.”
Frunk is not universally loved. Back in 2012, marketing consultant David Allen Ibsen called the word “witty and appropriate.” But in 2016, Forbes contributor Michael J. Dunne called it “awkward”: “ ‘Frunk’ sets out to be a clever combination of words, but ends up sounding kind of forced. You: ‘Here, you can just toss your bags into my frunk.’ Friend: ‘Umm, into your what?’”
Nevertheless, frunk appears to have staying power beyond its association with Tesla. Just last month I spotted two uses of frunk to describe the front trunk of a new Porsche electric sedan, the Mission E.
Can your bike fit in Tesla's frunk? pic.twitter.com/bF55STNnml Like us on Facebook to see a bike that can https://t.co/K9FR8TNqqu
— Hanna Scholz (@Bike_Friday1) March 31, 2018
Frunk is a faintly ridiculous-sounding word, with echoes of funk, frump, and – oh no, not that again! – tronc. What’s more, frunk has been a sweary portmanteau for “fucking drunk” since at least 2006, according to Urban Dictionary. (There’s also the spoonerism “frunk as duck.”)
As for me, I instantly conjured up a goofy “Simpsons” character with a similar name.
Professor Jonathan Frink, “the inventor of, among other things, hamburger earmuffs, the flying motorcycle and the 8-month after pill.”
Use of frunk long predated Tesla. A quick search of the Rennlist Porsche forums show references as early as 2004 and attributes the term to Toyota MR2 owners
Posted by: Doug Farrow | April 04, 2018 at 06:33 AM
Hi Doug: Unless I've overlooked something, Tesla is the first brand to use "frunk" in its marketing.
Posted by: Nancy Friedman | April 04, 2018 at 09:58 AM
I’ve never seen Porsche use the word in marketing materials so Tesla is likely first there. Just saying they did not coin the term
Posted by: Doug Farrow | April 04, 2018 at 12:24 PM