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Origins and Logo Archive

What we compareAudiMercedes-Benz
Country in archiveGermanyGermany
FoundedJuly 16, 1909June 28, 1926
FounderAugust HorchKarl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler (through Benz & Cie. and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft)
HeadquartersIngolstadt, Bavaria, GermanyStuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Name originThe 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.Mercedes comes from Mercédès Jellinek, the daughter of the Austrian entrepreneur Emil Jellinek, who sold Daimler cars and raced them under the name Mercedes. Benz comes from Karl Benz, whose company Benz & Cie. merged with Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1926 to form Daimler-Benz.
Selected modelsAudi Front, Auto Union Type C, Quattro, A4, TT, R8Mercedes 35 hp, SSK, W125, 300 SL, S-Class, G-Class
Earliest archived brand logo19091926
Latest archived logo20162011
Archived logo assets129

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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