Carpocalypse: The Ever Confusing Automotive Family Tree

Who owns Who?

The auto industry has a very confusing family tree. The past few years have seen partnerships, sales, separations, bankruptcies, and entire divisions killed off, making it difficult to keep up with who owns which car brands.

A number of changes have been made in recent years. We have seen established names such as Hummer, Mercury, and Pontiac, fade away into the history books. We have seen others such as Chrysler, Jaguar, and Volvo find new international corporate parents.

To help clear up some of the confusion, here is a basic road map to navigate who owns which car brands among the major automotive companies. Of course, the list is definitely subject to change.

List:

BMW owns:

Mini and Rolls Royce.

Fiat owns:

Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Ferrari, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Ram and SRT.

Ford Motor Company owns:

Lincoln and a small stake in Mazda.

General Motors owns:

Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC. GM owns a controlling interest in Opel and Vauxhall in Europe and Holden in Australia. (The U.S. Treasury Department is in the process of selling off the remaining GM stock holidngs.)

Honda owns:

Acura.

Hyundai owns:

Kia.

Proton owns:

Lotus

Tata Motors (India) owns:

Jaguar and Land Rover.

Mazda:

mostly independently owned (Ford has 30% stake)

Mitsubishi:

is part of Renault - Nissan alliance

Daimler AG owns:

Mercedes-Benz, Maybach and Smart.

Nissan owns:

Dacia,Infiniti, cross shareholding with Renault.

Saab

is owned by National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS).

Subaru:

Owned by Fuji Heavy Industries with Toyota a minority partner.

Maruti Suzuki:

Owned by Suzuki Motor Corp, Japan.

Peugeot

PSA Peugeot Citroén has strong ties with Mitsubishi.

The Peugeot family includes Peugeot and Citroén.

Renault:

Dacia, Renault-Nissan alliance, Renault Samsung motors

Tesla:

Toyota is a minority partner. Daimler AG has 10% stakes in Tesla.

Toyota Motor Company owns:

Lexus, Scion, Daihatsu and Hino Motors, with a stake in Fuji Industries (Subaru's parent company) and Isuzu.

Volkswagen owns:

Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Ducati,Lamborghini, Porsche,Spyker, Scania, SEAT,Skoda, VW trucks, MAN trucks and stakes in Suzuki motor corp.

Volvo:

is owned by Chinese-automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, aka Geely.

The great automotive family tree:

Fantastic work by Larry Gormley in charting the path traveled by the industry:

Credits:

Data Courtesy: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm

Cover picture courtesy: http://www.autoguide.com/

Geneology Picture courtesy: http://www.fastcodesign.com/

Auto family tree Picture courtesy: http://www.coolinfographics.com/