Car Logos Explained: What These 9 Symbols Really Mean

Here's the story behind the logos of some of your favorite automakers.

Brett Berk | 

Jul 7, 2023 | 4 min read

Updated on April 09, 2026

Capital One

Logos act as a visual shorthand for the brand, standing in to represent what the brand does and promises. But what do the logos on some of our favorite cars actually mean? Here's the story behind some of your favorite automakers' logos. 

• Audi logo
  
• BMW logo
  
• Lincoln logo
  
• Mazda logo
  
• Mercedes-Benz logo
  
• Nissan logo
  
• Subaru logo
  
• Tesla logo
  
• Toyota logo
  

Audi 

Audi Logo

The Audi logo, four intersecting rings, signifies the merging of four independent automakers:  Audi, Horch, DKW, and Wanderer in 1932. They adopted the four interlinked rings as their emblem. In 1949, they formed Auto Union AG, creating the second-largest manufacturing group in Germany at the time. Updates to the Audi logo have occurred through the years to simplify the original design, but the four rings have remained the company's identifying symbol.   

BMW 

BMW Logo

The white and blue in BMW’s four-quadrant “roundel” represent the official colors of the state of Bavaria, where the corporation was founded and is headquartered. But a myth has long endured that the propeller-like logo is meant to refer to the company’s origins in aviation.

Lincoln 

Lincoln Logo 

There's been some mystery around the Lincoln logo's history. According to Lincoln Media Center, today's four-point star badge was originally designed in 1955. The automaker states the logo sketches were agreed upon because they represented a "simple, elegant design for an elegant car." While the logo has been adjusted over the decades, the four-pointed emblem has stayed true to its roots and simplicity. 

Mazda 

Mazda Logo

An enclosed "M" invoking the look of arched, soaring wings, Mazda's “brand symbol” logo embodies its “commitment to continuous self-reform and dynamic, unceasing growth.” The graphic’s precision is supposed to express the brand’s commitment to quality, technology, and perseverance. And if you ever wondered why all of the letters in the corporate logo are lowercase except for the D, it’s for harmony; the stem of a lowercase D would have extended above the rest of the letters. 

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz Logo

Mercedes’ three-pointed silver star has become recognized globally as a symbol of prestigious stolidity. This makes sense, as the logo dates from 1909, when the sons of one of the founders, Gottlieb Daimler, patented this icon, drawn from a “You Are Here” marker on a postcard sent by his father. 

According to the automaker's site, the three-pointed star symbolized the use of Daimler engines on land, at sea, and in the air. When Mercedes-Benz merged in 1926, a redesigned new logo was revealed with Daimler's Mercedes star within the Benz laurel wreath. In 1933, a streamlined version of the emblem became available, which is closer to the logo used on present-day vehicles.

Nissan

Nissan Logo

Founded in early 1930s in Japan, Nissan's logo is a background circle bisected at its middle by a thin rectangle containing the brand’s name. While the Nissan logo on its cars today is a single-color design, the logo's background circle used to be red, symbolizing a rising sun. The rising sun motif has long been a symbol of Japan. The name Nissan is a combination of Ni (“sun”) and San (“product” or “birth”). 

Subaru

Subaru Logo

The Subaru logo is an array of six stars. Subaru means "unite" in Japanese and it also identifies a cluster of six stars called the Pleiades. 

In 1953, five Japanese companies merged to form Fuji Heavy Industries, The new corporation adopted the Subaru cluster of stars as its official logo for its vehicles. It is said the sixth star signifies the merged entity uniting the other five. 

Tesla

Tesla Logo

Elon Musk didn’t exactly start Tesla, but he's become inextricably identified with the company. On January 19, 2017, he tweeted, "Similar to SpaceX, the T is like a cross section of an electric motor, just as the X is like the rocket trajectory." For the more technical among us, the upright portion of the T represents a pole protruding from the rotor, while the crossed top stands for an external layer of the stator.

Toyota

Toyota Logo 

Toyota released its current logo, three overlapping ellipses, in 1989 to commemorate the company's 50th anniversary. The automaker states it represents the unification of the “heart of the customer and the heart of the company,” with the background representing the opportunities ahead. 

The overlapping ovals inside the logo make a "T" for Toyota, and Toyota says it also resembles a steering wheel on a steering column. Each oval is contoured with different stroke thickness, similar to the brush art in Japanese culture.

Brett Berk

A queer New York City-based writer, Brett covers the intersection of cars, politics, and culture, and appears regularly in Architectural Digest, Car and Driver, GQ, The New York Times, Road & Track, Vanity Fair, and The Wall Street Journal. A Detroit native, he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing and a Master of Science in early childhood education. He worked for decades as a preschool teacher, early childhood center director, youth/family researcher, and university instructor. In his spare time, he wrote the nonfiction book "The Gay Uncle's Guide to Parenting" (Crown, 2008) and co-authored three automotive books: "Never Stop Driving" (Hagerty, 2019), "Corvette Stingray: The Mid-Engine Revolution" (Motorbooks, 2021), and "The Atlas of Car Design" (Phaidon, 2023).