Perhaps the auto world is Wonderland--for, as Alice famously said, it gets curiouser and curiouser.

The latest oddity is a report last Sunday from the enthusiast site Ford Authority that Ford Motor Company has filed for a trademark on "Model E."

Ford logo BEST

Ford logo BEST

It's odd because reports last summer indicated that, in fact, Tesla Motors had filed to register the same trademark on August 5, serial number 86029275.

Given that two of Ford's seminal vehicles were the Model T and the Model A, the move to claim Model E might not be all that unusual--except that Ford never actually made a Model E, so it's not reclaiming the name of a model whose trademark had lapsed.

And many have speculated that Tesla plans to use Model E as the name of its planned next model, the 200-mile "third generation" electric car targeted to sell at $35,000.

MORE: Tesla's Next Electric Car Line: Roundup Of What We Know Now

There's more to this story than we know now, clearly.

But the rumor mills--or perhaps the paranoia machines--are already out in force, suggesting coded messages in model naming.

After all, if Tesla launches its Model X at the end of next year and then adopts the Model E name, you can spell ... S-E-X.

Is Ford now sending a coded message of its own, interspersing its Model T and Model A with a new Model E to spell ... T-E-A?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Happy holidays, everyone.

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