diff --git a/src/pip/_internal/cache.py b/src/pip/_internal/cache.py
index 930205f6461..8c2041527c1 100644
--- a/src/pip/_internal/cache.py
+++ b/src/pip/_internal/cache.py
@@ -8,15 +8,14 @@
 import json
 import logging
 import os
-import sys
 
 from pip._vendor.packaging.utils import canonicalize_name
 
 from pip._internal.exceptions import InvalidWheelFilename
 from pip._internal.models.link import Link
 from pip._internal.models.wheel import Wheel
+from pip._internal.pep425tags import interpreter_name, interpreter_version
 from pip._internal.utils.compat import expanduser
-from pip._internal.utils.misc import interpreter_name
 from pip._internal.utils.temp_dir import TempDirectory
 from pip._internal.utils.typing import MYPY_CHECK_RUNNING
 from pip._internal.utils.urls import path_to_url
@@ -104,11 +103,8 @@ def _get_cache_path_parts(self, link):
         # depending on the python version their setup.py is being run on,
         # and don't encode the difference in compatibility tags.
         # https://github.com/pypa/pip/issues/7296
-        key_parts["interpreter"] = "{}-{}.{}".format(
-            interpreter_name(),
-            sys.version_info[0],
-            sys.version_info[1],
-        )
+        key_parts["interpreter_name"] = interpreter_name()
+        key_parts["interpreter_version"] = interpreter_version()
 
         # Encode our key url with sha224, we'll use this because it has similar
         # security properties to sha256, but with a shorter total output (and
diff --git a/src/pip/_internal/pep425tags.py b/src/pip/_internal/pep425tags.py
index b8aba326c71..3a291ebaeb1 100644
--- a/src/pip/_internal/pep425tags.py
+++ b/src/pip/_internal/pep425tags.py
@@ -54,6 +54,9 @@ def get_abbr_impl():
     return pyimpl
 
 
+interpreter_name = get_abbr_impl
+
+
 def version_info_to_nodot(version_info):
     # type: (Tuple[int, ...]) -> str
     # Only use up to the first two numbers.
@@ -69,6 +72,9 @@ def get_impl_ver():
     return impl_ver
 
 
+interpreter_version = get_impl_ver
+
+
 def get_impl_version_info():
     # type: () -> Tuple[int, ...]
     """Return sys.version_info-like tuple for use in decrementing the minor
diff --git a/src/pip/_internal/utils/misc.py b/src/pip/_internal/utils/misc.py
index 9a802556269..85acab856b0 100644
--- a/src/pip/_internal/utils/misc.py
+++ b/src/pip/_internal/utils/misc.py
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@
 import io
 import logging
 import os
-import platform
 import posixpath
 import shutil
 import stat
@@ -880,13 +879,3 @@ def hash_file(path, blocksize=1 << 20):
             length += len(block)
             h.update(block)
     return (h, length)  # type: ignore
-
-
-def interpreter_name():
-    # type: () -> str
-    try:
-        name = sys.implementation.name  # type: ignore
-    except AttributeError:  # pragma: no cover
-        # Python 2.7 compatibility.
-        name = platform.python_implementation().lower()
-    return name