Major Car Brands And Their Families In Detail

This year saw Japanese giant Toyota overtake Volkswagen to become the biggest automotive brand in the world. Volkswagen follows closely with Daimler and Ford acquiring the following two slots. When we say Volkswagen, we mean the German company as a whole along with its sub-brands. 

Similarly, all major brands have sub-brands and the whole industry is basically a large web of brands. Today, we thought we’ll sit down and break them down so we can finally figure out which parent companies pull all the strings in the automotive industry.

Toyota Group

Originating from Japan, Toyota is the largest brand in the world in terms of volume. But, the Toyota group is the parent company and Toyota has three sub-brands which include Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino (commercial vehicles). The now discontinued Scion was also a part of Toyota and it targeted younger customers. A lesser-known fact is that Toyota owns 5 per cent stake in both Suzuki and Mazda while it also owns 20 per cent of Subaru. 

Volkswagen AG

Volkswagen is easily the largest brand in the world in terms of the sub-brands owned and some of these companies themselves are huge enough, making Volkswagen Group a big force to reckon with. The German marque completely owns Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Ducati, Porsche, Skoda, Seat, Cupra, MAN and Scania. 

It also partly owns other brands like Bugatti and Jetta (China-based). When you think about it, these brands have all the bases covered from mainstream cars to supercars, hypercars and even superbikes and trucks.

General Motors

GM was the largest carmaker in the US for 90 years, only to be overtaken this year by Toyota. It owns four major brands - Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC. Based out of Detroit, it also partly owns two Chinese brands - Wuling and Baojun.

Stellantis Group

Stellantis follows Volkswagen when it comes to the sheer number of sub-brands under it. Some of these are Jeep, Chrysler, Maserati, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Peugeot, Citroen, Vauxhall, Opel, Dodge and Ram. The Stellantis group is actually a combination of the Italian FCA group and the French PSA group. The group is relatively new as it was formed in 2021.

Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance

As the name suggests, it is a joint alliance between Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi. The sub-brands of these three firms also come under the alliance. These include Infiniti, DS, Dacia and Alpine.

Mercedes-Benz Group AG

The Mercedes-Benz group owns two brands - Smart and Maybach. Not many know that the Chinese brands Geely and the BAIC group own 9.8 per cent and 5 per cent stake in Mercedes, respectively. 

BMW AG

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG has two leading sub-brands which are Rolls-Royce and Mini. It also owns the two-wheeler brand BMW Motorrad. BMW has collaborated with other brands like McLaren, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz, but has always remained under the same ownership. 

Tata Motors

Part of the huge Indian conglomerate, Tata Motors entered the passenger vehicle market in 1991 with the iconic Sierra. It is no secret that Tata Motors own Jaguar-Land Rover, acquired in 2008 from Ford. Tata Motors has turned the fate of both these brands which were earlier incurring heavy losses under the leadership of Ford. 

Geely

Geely is a relatively new brand established in 2002 in China. Apart from Geely which operates mainly in China, the brand also owns two major marques - Volvo and Lotus. The all-electric sub-brand of Volvo, Polestar, is also owned by Geely.

Hyundai Group

The Korean auto giant which is only behind Maruti Suzuki in India in terms of volumes and market share is ]a global brand with an increasing customer base and reputation. Apart from Hyundai, it also owns Kia and Genesis (the luxury arm of Hyundai).

Mahindra

Mahindra is actually the world's largest tractor manufacturer by volume. Its passenger vehicle department is highly competent today with a wide range of SUVs that are also sold in other parts of the world. Mahindra owns the renowned design house Pininfarina and Automobili Pininfarina which is based out of Italy. 

Also read:

• Do Carmakers Need SUVs To Thrive?
• Transport Minister Says Airbag Costs Rs 800, Six-Airbag Rule Coming Soon

These are the major brands operating right now in the global automotive space. Apart from these, there are also brands such as Ford, Honda, Suzuki, Mazda, Subaru, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Koenigsegg, Pagani, McLaren etc, which are standalone with no parent owners as such. Ford also has its luxury sub-brand Lincoln while Honda has Acura.