Remembering which brands fall under each automakers' umbrella can be very confusing, especially when a company has divisions that are exclusive to specific parts of the world.
Plus, occasional shakeups can cause companies to change hands. Plus, Toyota is buying more of the Japanese auto industry by making significant investments in Subaru and Suzuki. It's also allegedly teaming up with Mazda to share a rear-wheel-drive platform.
Understanding which corporations control which brands will make you the smartest enthusiast among your friends, and help you fact check know-nothing salespeople at the dealership. Check out our slideshow to get a better idea about what brands the world's largest automakers currently control. Home Features Lists. The BMW Group keeps its structure fairly simple. Daimler AG has its headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. The company has quite a complicated corporate structure.
Ford has its headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. It controls: Ford Lincoln. General Motors has its headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. The business has its headquarters in the Minato ward of Tokyo, Japan. Kia went bankrupt in and merged with Hyundai in The company has its headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison, France, a suburb of Paris.
Toyota has its headquarters in Toyota City, Japan. Volkswagen has its headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany. Tata Motors has headquarters in Mumbai. The company has its headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Newest slideshows Motor1. Sep 30, at am ET. By : Chris Bruce. Buick is a premium brand owned by General Motors. It is one of only four brands GM retained after emerging from bankruptcy in Buick has a storied history. It is the company that established General Motors in and is the oldest brand in the U.
The Buick Motor Company was incorporated in Detroit in As a result, Buicks are still hugely popular in China, the world's largest automotive market. GM has positioned Buick as a premium brand, slotting below Cadillac. Long associated with older buyers for its sedans, Buick got into the crossover market to widen its appeal by bringing in younger buyers with families. Cadillac is owned by General Motors of Detroit and is the flagship luxury brand.
Cadillac was named after Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, the man who founded Detroit, and the Cadillac crest is his coat of arms. After Buick, Cadillac is the second oldest automobile brand in the U.
Ironically, it was created by disgruntled shareholders in the Henry Ford Company, who booted out the man who would later put the world on wheels with his Model T, and renamed it Cadillac, building cars with well-engineered engines designed and made by Henry Leland. GM bought Cadillac in Leland would go on to found Lincoln, which, in financial difficulties, was bought in by … Henry Ford.
Cadillac grew to become the standard of American luxury, but by the s it had lost its luster and has struggled to regain past glory ever since. Even still, when GM filed for bankruptcy in and was forced to restructure and downsize, Cadillac was one of the four brands GM retained: Saturn, Hummer, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac were discontinued.
GM is hoping an emphasis on electric vehicles and return to the luxury of old will help elevate the brand. At a time when many brands are getting out of the car business, Cadillac has a slate of cars including the CT6 and the new CT4 and CT5. There are also plans to introduce a new full-size, electric sedan as an executive sedan, based on the Celestiq concept.
Most of the lineup will get some degree of electrification in the future, and the brand's first all-electric vehicle will be a midsize crossover. Read More Who Owns Ferrari? Chevrolet is as American as apple pie. Chevy is, and has always been, owned by General Motors. It was founded in , making it a bit of a newcomer compared with Buick and Cadillac.
Founded by Louis Chevrolet, Willian C. Chevy has long gone up against Ford as America's mainstream automobile. The bowtie dates back to and is still alive today.
When GM looked to shed four of its eight brands as part of bankruptcy restructuring in , there was never any doubt that Chevrolet would continue to exist. Chevy offers a wide range of products from the electric Bolt to the Suburban SUV, Silverado full-size pickup, and the return of the Blazer. While GM has pulled back on the global markets in which Chevy is sold, it is still vested in the portfolio that now finally includes a mid-engine Corvette.
The Chrysler brand has had a lot of troubled parents over the years, but it is still alive and barely kicking under the ownership of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Chrysler dates back to , founded by Walter Chrysler, and was often referred to as one of the Big Three, along with General Motors and Ford, as between them these automakers dominated the world in terms of production and sales volumes, especially after World War II.
Chrysler has teetered many times on the edge of a financial cliff. In it was acquired by Daimler-Benz and the so-called alliance was named DaimlerChrysler.
Described at the time as "a merger of equals," it was anything but, and Daimler, tired of the operational complexity and the losses, sold Chrysler in to Cerberus, a private equity firm.
In October the same year, the two companies became one, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles or FCA, making it a fully integrated global automaker under Marchionne. The future of the Chrysler brand remains uncertain with yet another parenting change in the works. In December , FCA signed a memorandum of understanding with French automaker Groupe PSA for the two to merge, with a tentative target date of late or mid for the deal to close.
The still-to-be-named automaker will be the fourth largest in the world, and the expectation is some brands will go away.
Chrysler has used up many of its lives and could go. The brand has been reduced to a minivan and a large sedan. While the company's Italian brands are headquartered in Italy, Dodge joins the American stable of brands based at the second set of headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan.
Dodge goes back to and the Dodge brothers, who made parts and assemblies for other automakers and then made their own vehicle in Chrysler bought Dodge in The brand name was built on trucks and full-sized cars. Then Dodge got into compact cars and minivans. Over the years, ownership changed many times. There were the DaimlerChrysler years when Daimler called the shots from Germany; the Cerberus years when finance guys called the shots; bankruptcy in followed by Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne calling the shots; and in Fiat bought Chrysler out completely, and the company became FCA.
It will change yet again, with a pending merger with PSA to create a huge, yet-to-be-named global automaker. Today Ram is thriving with its trucks and commercial vans, while Dodge has been reduced to a pair of muscle cars Challenger and Charger and pair of utility vehicles Durango and Journey.
The Dodge Grand Caravan minivan will be discontinued. It remains to be seen if Dodge survives the next ownership change, given how many brands there will be collectively between FCA and PSA. Ferrari is an Italian luxury sports car maker and brand that is synonymous with sex appeal, Italian racing red, and the prancing horse.
Ferrari is now a public company and remains active in motorsport to this day. The first car was built in for racing , but Ferrari technically wasn't an automaker until he was allowed to sell cars under his own name in when the first Ferrari-badged road car was completed.
In Enzo Ferrari considered selling the brand to Ford until he realized the deal would preclude him from continuing to control the race program. Ferrari pulled out of the deal, and an infuriated Henry Ford II became hell-bent on building a car that would beat Ferrari in the 24 Hour race at Le Mans. The failed Ford deal opened the door for Fiat to take a 50 percent stake in Ferrari in Fiat increased that to 90 percent in The separation became complete in January Ferrari's largest single shareholder today is Exor NV, a company controlled by descendants of Giovanni Agnelli, one of the original founders of Fiat.
Piero Ferrari, Enzo's son, holds a 10 percent stake. This is a storied Italian brand, dating back to , founded in Turin by Giovanni Agnelli, whose family retains some ownership and control more than years later.
Fiat Group was owned by Fiat S. The first Fiat was exported to the U. The Italian vehicles were expensive and coveted, costing about five times as much as a Ford Model T. The Fiat plant was closed in after the U. Fiat returned to North America in the s with the original , the Multipla, and the Fit , , and The U. But sales were never strong; the brand had a reputation for poor quality, and Fiat pulled out of North America in It wasn't until , when a bankrupt Chrysler needed help and Fiat took a 20 percent stake in the struggling American automaker, that plans were made to bring the Fiat brand back across the ocean.
Chrysler started making the Fiat at one of its plants in Mexico for sale in North America. In the electric e was introduced in California, and then-CEO Sergio Marchionne famously said he lost money on every one he sold. For the model year, Fiat announced it was discontinuing production of the , e, and the performance Abarth in North America.
It continues to offer the FiatX small crossover and L stretched hatchback. And Fiat still sells the Spider developed in conjunction with the Mazda MX-5 , as well as the commercial vans. Ford is a quintessential American brand, owned by Ford Motor Company. It is rare in that the Ford family continues to have control of the company, thanks to a stock structure that gives it majority voting rights without having to own a majority of shares. Based in Dearborn, near Detroit, the company was incorporated by Henry Ford on June 16, with cash from such notable investors as the Dodge brothers, who later went on to found their own car company.
Ford led the industry to the idea of a high-volume assembly line, bringing the automobile to the masses. The brand has felt that same obligation to this day. That has meant continual reinvention. As consumers have eschewed cars for trucks and SUVs, Ford has dropped passenger cars from its lineup, keeping only the storied Mustang. When General Motors and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy during the financial crisis of , Ford had presciently mortgaged pretty much everything it had in the preceding years and thus avoided filing for Chapter Hyundai Motor Group has two mainstream brands: Hyundai and Kia.
As the automaker introduced higher-end sedans for those brands, management struggled with whether to create a luxury brand. Although Hyundai sold a sedan called Genesis in the late aughts, it was officially announced as an independent marque in Genesis launched in the U.
S in late with the G90 and G The brand is still gaining awareness. They are notable for elegant and innovative design and performance at a good price. The brand is focused on trucks, both retail and commercial, as well as SUVs. Most of its vehicles have Chevrolet counterparts; the GMC version is more premium, usually with nicer materials, more features, and a higher price tag. The brand models itself around its longtime slogan: Professional grade.
When William Durant was pulling together companies to form GM, he grabbed Rapid and made it a subsidiary. Durant also snagged Reliance Motor Company, which made commercial vehicles. The two were folded into the General Motors Truck Company, and their former names were replaced with GMC Truck, the designation for the new trucks being produced at three plants across the U.
Another major shift: In GMC stopped making medium-duty commercial trucks after more than years. The focus on crossovers continued with the introduction of the mid-size Terrain, and there are the heavyweights: the Yukon and Yukon XL full-size SUVs, as well as Sierra and Canyon pickups, and the Savana van. Going forward, GMC will get into electric vehicles, starting with the GMC Hummer full-size electric pickup, a move that brings back the Hummer name but on an environmentally friendly, zero-emissions truck.
Honda is another brand whose owner is self-evident. Honda is also unusual in that the mainstream Japanese brand has had the same parent since its inception in The company was founded by Soichiro Honda, who started with motorcycles and sold the first automobile in , the T mini pickup truck.
Honda is a public company headquartered in Tokyo. It is its own largest shareholder at about a 5 percent stake but has the backing of numerous Japanese asset management firms. The brand has had a stellar reputation for safety and reliability over the years with a wide range of vehicles from the tiny Honda Fit to the Odyssey minivan one of the few minivans left to the Ridgeline, a unibody pickup that invited derision but also has a cult following.
Read More! Who Owns Ferrari? The Chung family controls the Hyundai chaebol of 40 subsidiaries and is Hyundai's largest shareholder outside of the company itself.
The carmaker was founded in , and the first model was the Cortina, licensed from Ford and released in The brand had a rocky start in North America. The first car developed in-house was the Hyundai Pony compact car, which was exported to Canada in A few years later Hyundai opened a plant in Bromont, Quebec, where it built Sonatas for four years before it closed due to slow sales.
In , Hyundai began selling cars in the U. The early cars were cheap in both price and quality, and Hyundai became synonymous with affordability over substance. The brand later set out to change that. Quality and reliability reached or exceeded that of many established brands, but the public was not getting the message, so Hyundai introduced a year, ,mile warranty to promote both sales and awareness.
It was a success. Today, Hyundai is becoming a juggernaut, with top design and impressive performance, lots of amenities and features, but still at an impressive price.
The first foray into trucks could come with the unibody Santa Cruz that's still under development. Nissan started selling the Infiniti brand in North America in Ironically, Infiniti is not offered in Japan. Infiniti was headquartered in Yokohama, Japan, with Nissan until when Infiniti global operations moved to Hong Kong to concentrate on sales in the large China market.
In , Infiniti moved back to Japan. Vehicles have been taxed with confusing names. A series of concepts lead us to believe a new full-size flagship sedan is in the works, as well as crossovers that pay homage to the FX.
In , Infiniti CEO Hiroto Saikawa said the brand would become electric with all new vehicles being hybrid or pure electric by The beginning of this storied British brand dates back to , to a company called Swallow Sidecar.
Founded in Blackpool, England, it made sidecars for motorcycles and, later, car bodies. The luxury vehicle brand of Jaguar Land Rover has had many parents over the years. The first Jaguar-branded cars were made by S. Cars, founded by Sir William Lyons after his business partner decided to leave. The name was changed to Jaguar Cars in The combined company was then urged by the British government to take over truck and bus maker Leyland, Standard-Triumph, and Rover, becoming British Leyland Motor Corporation.
Under the economic reforms led by Margaret Thatcher, Jaguar, a profitable piece of British Leyland, was spun off in and listed on the London Stock Exchange, with the government retaining a golden share that prevented any single shareholder from taking more than 15 percent of the company.
In Ford bought the brand, and it became part of the Premier Automotive Group, which Land Rover later joined, as well. But Ford did not give its luxury brands much love or resources, and Jaguar never gave Ford any profits. Initially Tata made them a subsidiary, but in the two brands were officially merged to form Jaguar Land Rover. A new electric XJ flagship is coming. J is for Jeep.
This is a brand so iconic that children around the world are taught the alphabet that way. But Jeep's brand home remains in Toledo, Ohio. Jeep has a storied past. The wider Mitsubishi brand still commands a 20 per cent stake in the company, but Nissan took a 34 per cent share in October Tata is an Indian brand and part of the wider Tata conglomerate.
Between and , the brand enjoyed a collaboration with Daimler-Benz. Land Rover was acquired by Tata Motors in , but is still revered as a British icon. Jaguar is a British luxury car brand previously controlled by Ford, from until Both brands under the JLR umbrella have enjoyed a resurgence since Tata's acquisition, with an explosion of new models and variants — as well as significant manufacturing investment including the Ingenium engine plant in the UK.
The company continues to build inexpensive and relatively conservative cars for non-car enthusiasts, but has more recently branched out into performance models to broaden appeal, including its full-fat i30N hot hatch.
The Hyundai-owned brand is similar to its parent in that it is based in South Korea and builds affordable and inoffensive cars, regularly going up against its parent company in the Australian sales race. Kia was crippled in though, before being bailed out through an ownership exchange with Hyundai. Today, its quality and appeal are unrecognisable compared with some of the first offerings, and vehicles such as the Stinger high-powered sports coupe continue to shatter preconceptions.
However, it has now evolved to become its own standalone marque. Geely is a Chinese car brand which has grown exponentially since it first started producing cars in Selling a vast majority of its cars in China, the brand was able to purchase Volvo from Ford in and is preparing to conquer the western world with cars it hopes will appeal to more demanding requirements.
Originally a Swedish ball-bearing company, Volvo began manufacturing cars in Created by two university graduates, Lotus is a British low-volume sports car maker and, over the course of more than 70 years of history, has exclusively focused on performance cars which are lightweight and minimalist, based around founder Colin Chapman's motto, "add lightness".
Polestar is now a dedicated EV manufacturer, creating the Polestar 1, 2 and 3 which share some hardware with Volvo products. The Polestar 2 will be coming to Australia in with the local business structure being announced in mid Originally formed as a steel trading company by two Indian brothers, Mahindra began assembling the Willys Jeep on the subcontinent in before exporting its vehicles in Mainly a manufacturer of agricultural products and vehicles, Mahindra's first vehicle, the Scorpio, was released to the world in with its XUV SUV becoming the first model to arrive in Australia, landing in Italian automotive styling house Pininfarina is best known for its long-held association with Ferrari, designing iconic models such as the Testarossa, F40, F50, Maranello and to name a few.
A deal was struck in for the Mahindra Group to take a 76 per cent stake in Pininfarina, although the company still operates out of its base in Turin, Italy. This is where things may get a little confusing. While the Mahindra Group has a majority stake in Pininfarina, Automobili Pininfarina is a seperate entity and is a subsidiary of Mahindra's automotive arm, having been founded as a luxury EV manufacturer. Its one car in production is named the Battista , based on the underpinnings of Rimac's Nevara hypercar, producing kW and Nm from its four motors, one for each axle.
Merc's hardware continued to be used in the badge-engineered MB van as well as the Ssangyong Korando. Ford at different times has maintained control of various other car brands, but at present only holds a small stake in both Aston Martin and Mazda eight and 2.
Having operated in Australia from , Ford ended manufacturing locally in , signalling the death of the Falcon and Territory nameplates. The brand continues to work independently of other car brands, apart from its Acura luxury indent sold in some markets such as North America.
Despite holding limited traction in the Aussie car market, Suzuki is a major player on the world stage. At one point Volkswagen held a Mazda was owned for a short time by Japanese banks and Ford, but Mazda has continued to, for the most part, guide its own destiny. For a significant chunk of its history, Fiat owned a 50 per cent stake in Ferrari between and before the company eventually regained independence.
Best known for its boxer engines, rally success and commitment to all-wheel drive system development, the Subaru brand has earned a loyal following in Australia, and is a consistent top ten seller.
Before the more conventional dealership model of today, Subarus were initially sold through agricultural machinery suppliers - one of the reasons the brand is still popular with farming communities to this day. It also builds batteries for home use, and is branching into solar roof tiles. Jordan Mulach. Daniel Gardner. Leigh Giollo. Gallery Daihatsu — Founded Daihatsu is a new name under the Toyota umbrella, becoming wholly-owned as of August Lamborghini — Founded Today, Lamborghini is owned in its entirety by Audi, which, as of , provided the stability of its backing.
Bentley — Founded The British company known for its luxury sports tourers was a standalone company for 12 years before being taken over by Rolls-Royce. Porsche - Founded After decades operating independently and as one of the world's most profitable car companies, Porsche was eventually swallowed whole by Volkswagen in Seat — Founded Owned by the Spanish Government from to , the Volkswagen Group took a 51 per cent share in Seat before acquiring Cupra — Founded Initially formed as Seat Sport, the motorsport division of the Spanish manufacturer underwent a rebrand in when it was renamed Cupra.
Lancia FCA — Founded Despite being sold only in Italy in modern times, Lancia is still a well-known brand thanks to its highly successful motorsport endeavours, including famous rally cars like the Stratos, Delta and Peugeot PSA — Founded Originally a coffee mill company, Peugeot switched to bicycles in before looking to cars in , and eventually becoming a highly successful mainstream vehicle producer. Citroen PSA — Founded Citroen has made waves in the automotive world at various points during its lifetime, and today is best known for quirky small and mid-sized cars.
0コメント