diff --git a/lib/modules/datasource/gitlab-releases/readme.md b/lib/modules/datasource/gitlab-releases/readme.md
index 6b5ffbaa77cebb..5b916841b8c993 100644
--- a/lib/modules/datasource/gitlab-releases/readme.md
+++ b/lib/modules/datasource/gitlab-releases/readme.md
@@ -37,4 +37,4 @@ Now you may use comments in your `versions.ini` files to automatically update de
 NKJS_VERSION=3.4.0
 ```
 
-By default, `gitlab-releases` uses the `semver` versioning scheme.
+By default, `gitlab-releases` uses the `semver-coerced` versioning scheme.
diff --git a/lib/modules/datasource/gitlab-tags/readme.md b/lib/modules/datasource/gitlab-tags/readme.md
index 5f153fddcf46c0..d637c6042cdc24 100644
--- a/lib/modules/datasource/gitlab-tags/readme.md
+++ b/lib/modules/datasource/gitlab-tags/readme.md
@@ -32,4 +32,4 @@ Now you may use comments in your `versions.ini` files to automatically update de
 NKJS_VERSION=3.4.0
 ```
 
-By default, `gitlab-tags` uses the `semver` versioning scheme.
+By default, `gitlab-tags` uses the `semver-coerced` versioning scheme.
diff --git a/lib/modules/datasource/repology/readme.md b/lib/modules/datasource/repology/readme.md
index 001015b3f7cfe5..a2aa0dedb6d5c9 100644
--- a/lib/modules/datasource/repology/readme.md
+++ b/lib/modules/datasource/repology/readme.md
@@ -50,4 +50,4 @@ When the operating system package for `gcc` of `Alpine Linux 3.12` is updated, R
 <!-- prettier-ignore -->
 !!! tip
     We recommend you try `loose` or `deb` versioning for distribution packages first.
-    This is because the version number usually doesn't match Renovate's default `semver` specification.
+    This is because the version number usually doesn't match Renovate's default `semver-coerced` specification.
diff --git a/lib/modules/manager/regex/readme.md b/lib/modules/manager/regex/readme.md
index 3adba3802f81bc..e2a7efe66fe380 100644
--- a/lib/modules/manager/regex/readme.md
+++ b/lib/modules/manager/regex/readme.md
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ Before Renovate can look up a dependency and decide about updates, it needs this
 
 - The dependency's name
 - Which `datasource` to use: npm, Docker, GitHub tags, and so on. For how to format this references see [datasource overview](https://docs.renovatebot.com/modules/datasource/#supported-datasources)
-- Which version scheme to use: defaults to `semver`, but you may set another value like `pep440`. Supported versioning schemes can be found in the [versioning overview](https://docs.renovatebot.com/modules/versioning/#supported-versioning)
+- Which version scheme to use: defaults to `semver-coerced`, but you may set another value like `pep440`. Supported versioning schemes can be found in the [versioning overview](https://docs.renovatebot.com/modules/versioning/#supported-versioning)
 
 Configuration-wise, it works like this:
 
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ Configuration-wise, it works like this:
 - You can optionally have a `packageName` capture group or a `packageNameTemplate` if it differs from `depName`
 - You must have either a `datasource` capture group or a `datasourceTemplate` config field
 - You can optionally have a `depType` capture group or a `depTypeTemplate` config field
-- You can optionally have a `versioning` capture group or a `versioningTemplate` config field. If neither are present, `semver` will be used as the default
+- You can optionally have a `versioning` capture group or a `versioningTemplate` config field. If neither are present, `semver-coerced` will be used as the default
 - You can optionally have an `extractVersion` capture group or an `extractVersionTemplate` config field
 - You can optionally have a `currentDigest` capture group.
 - You can optionally have a `registryUrl` capture group or a `registryUrlTemplate` config field
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ You could configure Renovate to update the `Dockerfile` like this:
 }
 ```
 
-We could drop the `versioningTemplate` because Renovate defaults to `semver` versioning.
+We could drop the `versioningTemplate` because Renovate defaults to `∆semver-coerced` versioning.
 But we included the `versioningTemplate` config option to show you why we call these fields _templates_: because they are compiled using Handlebars and so can be composed from values you collect in named capture groups.
 
 You should use triple brace `{{{ }}}` templates like `{{{versioning}}}` to be safe.
diff --git a/lib/modules/versioning/index.spec.ts b/lib/modules/versioning/index.spec.ts
index b7c8d3e28afa59..6abc2f3c7d7bbc 100644
--- a/lib/modules/versioning/index.spec.ts
+++ b/lib/modules/versioning/index.spec.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import { loadModules } from '../../util/modules';
 import { isVersioningApiConstructor } from './common';
 import { GenericVersion, GenericVersioningApi } from './generic';
 import * as semverVersioning from './semver';
+import * as semverCoercedVersioning from './semver-coerced';
 import type { VersioningApi, VersioningApiConstructor } from './types';
 import * as allVersioning from '.';
 
@@ -57,12 +58,12 @@ describe('modules/versioning/index', () => {
     }
   });
 
-  it('should fallback to semver', () => {
+  it('should fallback to semver-coerced', () => {
     expect(allVersioning.get(undefined)).toBe(
-      allVersioning.get(semverVersioning.id)
+      allVersioning.get(semverCoercedVersioning.id)
     );
     expect(allVersioning.get('unknown')).toBe(
-      allVersioning.get(semverVersioning.id)
+      allVersioning.get(semverCoercedVersioning.id)
     );
   });
 
diff --git a/lib/modules/versioning/index.ts b/lib/modules/versioning/index.ts
index 616d9e03bb3268..b26e22d9552ede 100644
--- a/lib/modules/versioning/index.ts
+++ b/lib/modules/versioning/index.ts
@@ -1,10 +1,13 @@
 import { logger } from '../../logger';
 import versionings from './api';
 import { isVersioningApiConstructor } from './common';
+import * as semverCoerced from './semver-coerced';
 import type { VersioningApi, VersioningApiConstructor } from './types';
 
 export * from './types';
 
+const defaultVersioning = semverCoerced;
+
 export const getVersioningList = (): string[] => Array.from(versionings.keys());
 /**
  * Get versioning map. Can be used to dynamically add new versioning type
@@ -16,8 +19,10 @@ export const getVersionings = (): Map<
 
 export function get(versioning: string | undefined): VersioningApi {
   if (!versioning) {
-    logger.trace('Missing versioning, using semver as fallback.');
-    return versionings.get('semver') as VersioningApi;
+    logger.trace(
+      `Missing versioning, using ${defaultVersioning.id} as fallback.`
+    );
+    return defaultVersioning.api;
   }
   const [versioningName, ...versioningRest] = versioning.split(':');
   const versioningConfig = versioningRest.length
@@ -26,8 +31,11 @@ export function get(versioning: string | undefined): VersioningApi {
 
   const theVersioning = versionings.get(versioningName);
   if (!theVersioning) {
-    logger.info({ versioning }, 'Unknown versioning - defaulting to semver');
-    return versionings.get('semver') as VersioningApi;
+    logger.info(
+      { versioning },
+      `Unknown versioning - defaulting to ${defaultVersioning.id}`
+    );
+    return defaultVersioning.api;
   }
   if (isVersioningApiConstructor(theVersioning)) {
     return new theVersioning(versioningConfig);
diff --git a/lib/modules/versioning/semver-coerced/readme.md b/lib/modules/versioning/semver-coerced/readme.md
index cc058f2825ad54..c6f315d9117e09 100644
--- a/lib/modules/versioning/semver-coerced/readme.md
+++ b/lib/modules/versioning/semver-coerced/readme.md
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 Renovate's Coerced Semantic Versioning is a forgiving variant of [Semantic Versioning 2.0](https://semver.org) with coercion enabled for versions.
 
-This versioning provides a very forgiving translation of inputs in non-strict-SemVer format into strict SemVer. For example, "v1" is coerced into "1.0.0", "2.1" => "2.1.0", "~3.1" => "3.1.0", "1.1-foo" => "1.1.0". Look at the Coercion section of [this page](https://www.npmjs.com/package/semver) for more info on input coercion.
+This versioning provides a very forgiving translation of inputs in non-strict-SemVer format into strict SemVer.
+For example, "v1" is coerced into "1.0.0", "2.1" => "2.1.0", "~3.1" => "3.1.0", "1.1-foo" => "1.1.0".
+Look at the Coercion section of [this page](https://www.npmjs.com/package/semver) for more info on input coercion.
 
-Since this versioning is very forgiving, it doesn't actually provide the coercion for version ranges. The range functions only accept strict SemVer as input and equivalent to those provided by the Renovate's semver versioning.
+Since this versioning is very forgiving, it doesn't actually provide the coercion for version ranges.
+The range functions only accept strict SemVer as input and equivalent to those provided by the Renovate's semver versioning.
diff --git a/lib/util/package-rules/index.spec.ts b/lib/util/package-rules/index.spec.ts
index 8e1651e1e3bea4..a64c37ba2fef07 100644
--- a/lib/util/package-rules/index.spec.ts
+++ b/lib/util/package-rules/index.spec.ts
@@ -662,6 +662,7 @@ describe('util/package-rules/index', () => {
 
   it('checks if matchCurrentVersion selector is valid and satisfies the condition on range overlap', () => {
     const config: TestConfig = {
+      versioning: 'semver',
       packageRules: [
         {
           matchPackageNames: ['test'],
@@ -699,6 +700,7 @@ describe('util/package-rules/index', () => {
 
   it('checks if matchCurrentVersion selector is valid and satisfies the condition on pinned to range overlap', () => {
     const config: TestConfig = {
+      versioning: 'semver',
       packageRules: [
         {
           matchPackageNames: ['test'],