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Origins and Logo Archive

What we compareBMWAudi
Country in archiveGermanyGermany
Founded1916July 16, 1909
FounderKarl RappAugust Horch
HeadquartersMunich, Bavaria, GermanyIngolstadt, Bavaria, Germany
Name originBMW is an acronym for Bayerische Motoren Werke, German for Bavarian Motor Works. The name was adopted in 1917 when Rapp Motorenwerke was renamed, and it was later transferred to the aircraft maker Bayerische Flugzeugwerke, which became today's BMW AG in 1922.The name is the Latin translation of founder August Horch's surname. Horch means "listen" in German and audi is the singular imperative of the Latin audire. After a court ruled that August Horch could no longer use his own name for his second company, the name was proposed by the son of a business friend in 1909, and the firm was entered in the register as Audi in 1910.
Selected models3/15, 328, Isetta, 507, M1, 3 SeriesAudi Front, Auto Union Type C, Quattro, A4, TT, R8
Earliest archived brand logo19171909
Latest archived logo20202016
Archived logo assets912

Logo dates are archive labels; symbols dated before a brand's founding are excluded from its earliest-logo date. Asset counts include all archived variants, not just redesigns. A dash means a value is unavailable.

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