Which Car Brands Does the BMW Group Own?

It was in 1990 that Volkswagen took full ownership of SEAT after purchasing its entire equity. Volkswagen acquired a 51% controlling stake in SEAT in June 1986. This made it the first non-German subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. It became the major shareholder in December of the same year, with its stake being increased to 75%. The goal is to provide attractive, safe and environmentally-friendly vehicles and mobility services, today and in the future.

The 5-door SUV shares the “Architecture of Luxury” platform and many components with the Phantom. Rolls-Royce announced in September 2006 that it would develop a new four-door model named Ghost. The Ghost will be smaller than the previous Rolls-Royce automobile launched, the Phantom. Only 20% of the components would be sourced from BMW F01 7 Series, and it will be positioned below the Phantom. Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. We are not an independent financial advisor and we act as their agent for this introduction.

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. FCA is a dual-headquartered company with the Fiat side of the business based in Turin, Italy, and the former Chrysler Corp. based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. There are also plans to introduce a new full-size, electric sedan as an executive sedan, based on the Celestiq concept. The crossover lineup includes the XT4, XT5, XT6, and the Escalade.

Volkswagen Passenger Cars is the Group’s original marque, and the other major subsidiaries include passenger car marques such as Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT, and Škoda. Volkswagen AG also has operations in commercial vehicles, owning Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, along with controlling stakes in truck, bus and diesel engine manufacturers Scania AB and MAN SE. The Japanese company formerly known as Fuji Heavy Industries sells cars in the U.S. under the Subaru brand. In addition to its line of all-wheel-drive cars and SUVs, it offers the BRZ sports car that was developed in partnership with Toyota. Subaru, by the way, is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster M45, which is also the inspiration for the automaker’s logo .

Who Owns Which Car Brands?

Volkswagen purchased rights to produce cars under the Bugatti marque in June 1998 and in 2000, Volkswagen officially incorporated Bugatti Automobiles. The company purchased Ettore Bugatti’s former guest house in Dorlisheim and used it as the company’s headquarters. In 1997, Vickers announced it was to sell Rolls-Royce Motors. The logical choice for a buyer was BMW because they supplied engines and other components for both Bentley and Rolls-Royce. BMW offered £340m but Volkswagen outbid them when they offered £430m. The Volkswagen Group and its brands act responsibly towards the environment, economy and society.

• The first car was built in 1940 , but Ferrari technically wasn’t an automaker until he was allowed to sell cars under his own name in 1947 when the first Ferrari-badged road car was completed.
• It has maintained the largest market share in Europe for over two decades.
• A second generation of Defenders, in both long- and short-wheelbase formats, went into production for the 2020 model year.

The company traces its roots to the Toyo Cork Kogyo Company in 1920. Although some believe the automaker got its name as a transliteration of its founder, Jujiro Matsuda, it actually comes from Ahura Mazda, the West Asian god of harmony, intelligence, and wisdom. Mazda is the only brand of Mazda Motor Corporation, a Japanese automaker based in Hiroshima, Japan. It is the first and last of Ford’s luxury brands—there were a lot more that have come and gone. Lexus is the luxury brand of Toyota Motor Company, founded in Japan on October 1, 1986, and is headquartered in Nagoya.

In other words, it’s not the specifics or the mechanical makeup of a BMW that make it appealing to us. No, it’s the very idea of BMW that we find attractive and worth our money. To answer those and other questions, I decided to write up an article on the brands that belong to this Munich-based business. As of May 2018, the VW Group has committed $48 billion in car battery supplies and plans to outfit 16 factories to build electric cars by the end of 2022. According to VW Group CEO Dr. Herbert Diess, the company will offer 25 electric models and 20 plug-in hybrids by 2020.

What is the top of the line Volkswagen?

All of the vehicles were designed in Wolfsburg, but they are produced in Chengdu, China, at a joint venture between FAW and VW. Skoda Works was founded in 1895 as Laurin & Klement, a bicycle manufacturer, and was acquired by armaments manufacturer and industrial giant Skoda Works in 1925. For many years, Fiat was a crucial partner, and it was even seen to be in charge of the company at times. After nearly 30 years, the partnership with Fiat came to an end in 1982.

Today, General Motors controls Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden, Opel, Jiefang, Wuling, and many more. Daimler AG Daimler AG is the parent company ofMercedes-Benz, Fuso, Western Star, Smart, Freightliner, Bharat Benz, Setra, and Thomas Built. Daimler AG was originally founded as Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1899 and later merged with Benz & Cie in 1926 to become Daimler-Benz AG. Mercedes-Benz is one of the oldest car brands in the world, dating back to 1900.

Toyota

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 2014 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne said Ferrari would be spun off and a stake in the company would be sold to the public in an IPO. Ferrari’s largest single shareholder today is Exor NV, a company controlled by descendants of Giovanni Agnelli, one of the original founders of Fiat. Ferrari was founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1939 in Maranello, Italy, under the umbrella of Alfa Romeo. The first car was built in 1940 , but Ferrari technically wasn’t an automaker until he was allowed to sell cars under his own name in 1947 when the first Ferrari-badged road car was completed. In 2009 Chrysler filed for bankruptcy, and the subsequent restructuring included merging with Fiat under the leadership of Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne.

Whether you buy a car from Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, or Buick, that car actually comes from General Motors. Alfa Romeos, Fiats, Jeeps, and Dodges, likewise, fall under the much larger Fiat Chrysler blanket. Counterintuitively, the same is true of the most luxurious, expensive, and powerful vehicles money can buy. Judging by the sheer number of different marques on the road, one might think there are dozens upon dozens of car companies vying for our business. Volkswagen has locked down $25B in battery supplies for its electric vehicle push Archived 3 May 2018 at the Wayback Machine TechCrunch. VW doubles its electric vehicle battery contracts to $48 billion Archived 6 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine.

Four years later, Ferrari bought a 50 percent stake, and by 1999 Ferrari took full control and made Maserati its luxury-touring brand. As consumers have eschewed cars for trucks and SUVs, Ford has dropped passenger cars from its lineup, keeping only the storied Mustang. It even chose an electric SUV named the Mustang Mach-E to represent its future direction.

This is due to the fact that the two companies have had a long relationship even before deciding to merge in 2009 with Volkswagen holding a majority of the shares in 2015. The specified fuel consumption and emission data are determined in accordance with the measurement procedures prescribed by law. 1 January 2022, the WLTP test cycle completely replaced the NEDC test cycle and therefore no NEDC values are available for new type approved vehicles after that date. This information does not refer to a single vehicle and is not part of the offer but is only intended for comparison between different types of vehicles. Due to more realistic testing conditions, fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions measured according to WLTP will in many cases be higher than the values measured according to NEDC. As a result, the taxation of vehicles may change accordingly as of 1 September 2018.

The Chung family controls the Hyundai chaebol of 40 subsidiaries and is Hyundai’s largest shareholder outside of the company itself. Dodge goes back to 1900 and the Dodge brothers, who made parts and assemblies for other automakers and then made their own vehicle in 1914. The future of the Chrysler brand remains uncertain with yet another parenting change in the works. In December 2019, FCA signed a memorandum of understanding with French automaker Groupe PSA for the two to merge, with a tentative target date of late 2020 or mid-2021 for the deal to close.

Volkswagen is the mainstream, high-volume brand of the Volkswagen Group, based in Wolfsburg, and famous for creating the Beetle. ​​The next time you need to have your vehicle serviced, visit us and put your mind at ease.

In 2008, a cash-strapped Ford sold Land Rover and Jaguar to Tata. Tata established Jaguar Land Rover as a subsidiary, but they operated as separate companies. In 2013, Tata restructured to make Jaguar Land Rover a single company. Land Rover, the company, dates back to 1978 and was part of British Leyland, which took over Rover in 1967. In 1994, Rover Group, including Land Rover, was acquired by BMW, which broke the group up again and sold Land Rover to Ford.

On 16 September 1938, Gezuvor was renamed Volkswagenwerk GmbH (‘Volkswagen Factory GmbH’). Renault and Nissan originally became strategic partners in 1999, and today the entity controls 10 separate auto brands worldwide. While Renault vehicles haven’t been offered in the U.S. since it was part of the old American Motors in the 1980’s, there’s been chatter about bringing that nameplate back to this side of the ocean. Henry Ford’s Model T blossomed into a true multinational corporate giant with multiple brands under its control. Today, Ford and Lincoln are its only remaining brands in the U.S.

Audi

is bmw owned by volkswagen in 1919, has been a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group since 1998. Rolls-Royce, currently Bentley’s biggest rival, owned Bentley for several decades, starting in 1931. Read on to learn which larger companies own the likes of Bentley, Bugatti, and Rolls-Royce, and which brands are truly independent.

The company’s administrative and production headquarters are located on the Goodwood Estate in Goodwood, West Sussex, England, United Kingdom. In today’s globalised market, it is becoming increasingly common for car brands to be owned by multinational corporations or luxury conglomerate companies. Understanding the parent company behind a car brand can provide valuable insight into the brand’s history, future plans, and the larger industry as a whole. German automobile manufacturing company Porsche, founded by Ferdinand Porsche in 1931, initially wasn’t involved in the production of cars until its first vehicle production in 1939. In fact, during WWII, Porsche was involved in the manufacture of military tanks. Also, it is true that its designs are similar to the popular Volkswagen beetle.

• It is one of only four brands GM retained after emerging from bankruptcy in 2009.
• We are not an independent financial advisor and we act as their agent for this introduction.
• Rising to prominence in the U.S. during the 1970’s with the Wankel rotary engine and the beloved RX-7 sports coupe, Mazda was part owned by Ford Motor Company from 1974 to 2015 and now stands as its own entity.

The SEAT name dates back to 1950, founded by a Spanish state-owned industrial holding company, Sociedad Espanola de Automoviles de Turismo (S.E.A.T.) and it quickly became the country’s largest supplier of cars. Fiat was a key partner for many years, at times viewed as controlling the business. The relationship with Fiat ended in 1982 after nearly 30 years.

Founded by Louis Chevrolet, Willian C. Durant, Samuel McLaughlin, Edwin Campbell, and William Little, it is the volume brand within GM. Chevy has long gone up against Ford as America’s mainstream automobile. “See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet,” was the message in the ’50s and ’60s. It was founded in 1911, making it a bit of a newcomer compared with Buick and Cadillac. But we bit the bullet and here we present the ultimate list of who owns who in the auto industry today. Volkswagen acquired Auto Union from Daimler-Benz in 1965, and the brand was relaunched with the return of the Audi name after 25 years and the introduction of the Audi F103 series.

Engineering conglomerate Vickers bought Rolls-Royce Motors in 1980 and sold it to Volkswagen in 1998. Henry Royce established an engineering business in 1884 and got into making cars. Charles Rolls had his own business and the two came together as Rolls-Royce in 1906 to sell cars. The Ram brand consists of trucks and commercial vehicles and is part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles . While FCA had headquarters in both Auburn Hills, Michigan, and Turin, Italy, Ram operates out of the U.S. complex.

In 1922, BMW merged with the aircraft company Bayerische Flugzeug-Werke. Today, BMW Group owns BMW, Rolls-Royce,Mini, and BMW Motorrad. Although the Rolls-Royce brand has been in use since 1906, the fate of the brand diverged between 1998 and 2003. In 2003, the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars subsidiary of BMW AG, which had been a major supplier to the brand up to 2003, began manufacturing vehicles with the Rolls-Royce name. Volkswagen AG took ownership of the Bentley name as well as previous Rolls-Royce production facilities and previous Rolls-Royce designs. It is probably not very shocking that Volkswagen Group is the owner of Volkswagen Passenger Cars.

However, the company began to catch fire with the introduction of the full electric Model S sedan in 2012, and the rest, as they say, is history. The company also maintains a network of public Superchargers for Tesla owners and sells industrial battery packs. Rising to prominence in the U.S. during the 1970’s with the Wankel rotary engine and the beloved RX-7 sports coupe, Mazda was part owned by Ford Motor Company from 1974 to 2015 and now stands as its own entity. With North America being its largest market, the company’s sole brand is Mazda. Volkswagen Group is a large German multinational car manufacturing company headquartered in Wolfsburg. Volkswagen’s ownership of all these different brands allows it to offer consumers a wide range of vehicles to choose from.