Who owns it?

25 groups own 76 marques. The largest three own 30 of them.

Every marque under the company that controls it. The code beside each name is where the brand was born, so nationality still reads off this view. An indented run is a company inside the company.

Stellantis holds 20% of everything collected 25 groups in all, nine of them holding one
15
Stellantis registered in the Netherlands Marques from the Fiat, Peugeot and Chrysler families, merged in 2021 and registered in the Netherlands. Almost none of them is Dutch.
8
Volkswagen AG Germany One German group holding Skoda, SEAT, Audi, Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini. The group itself is controlled by the Porsche and Piech families through a holding company, on votes rather than shares.
7
Geely Holding China Geely buys companies and keeps their names, rather than inventing badges.
6
SAIC Motor China No car is sold as an SAIC: the names it owns outright include MG, which stayed British in everything but ownership, while the joint ventures on its own subsidiary list build Volkswagens and Buicks for China. Shanghai's city government controls it through an unlisted parent company rather than holding the shares itself.
4
BMW Germany The British marques were bought, not built: MINI came with the Rover Group, and the Rolls-Royce name came from the aero-engine maker in a split that sent the Crewe factory and Bentley to Volkswagen. The largest blocks of ordinary shares are listed under members of the Quandt family rather than under a holding company.
4
General Motors the United States No car is sold as a GM: the badges are names the company owns outright, while the subsidiaries on its own list are finance arms, regional operations and Chinese joint ventures. No shareholder controls it.
4
Toyota Japan Barely a percentage in sight: Lexus, Century and the Toyota badge are names, not companies, and only Daihatsu was bought.
3
BYD China A battery maker that bought its way into cars with a plant in Xi'an and has grown every badge it sells from the inside since, from the mass-market names up to the million-yuan flagship. Its founder is the controlling shareholder in his own name, so no company sits above the group.
3
Tata Motors India The badge on the cars sold in India and the owner of Jaguar Land Rover, bought whole from Ford in 2008 and still run out of Coventry. The trucks this company was founded to build were split off into a separately listed company in 2025, leaving the cars behind.
2
Chery China Chery names its brands rather than buying them, and has led Chinese passenger-car exports for more than twenty years. Its holding company handed its shares straight to its own shareholders in 2025, leaving the listed company with no parent at all — Wuhu's state investment arm, where the money started, is now only the largest holder.
2
Ford the United States Ford and Lincoln are badges on one company rather than businesses it bought; what Ford actually lists as subsidiaries is finance and factories. The founding family holds a separate class of share that fixes its slice of the vote.
2
Great Wall Motor China Pickups and off-roaders first: every name on its stand was invented in Baoding and split out of the parent brand as it grew, rather than bought from anyone. Control runs up through two unlisted holding companies to the chairman, who owns a majority of the one at the top in his own name.
2
Honda Japan Nothing on Honda's stand was bought: the premium badge is one it invented for American showrooms, and the motorcycles, generators and business jets alongside the cars all carry the Honda name itself. Only in China does it build cars through joint ventures with local partners.
2
Hyundai South Korea Hyundai and Genesis are badges on one Korean company, not businesses it bought. No shareholder controls it: the group's parts maker is its largest holder, and the founding family's grip runs through a ring of cross-holdings rather than a holding company.
2
Mercedes-Benz Germany No controlling shareholder at all, and a Chinese minority holder who is also its partner in smart.
2
Suzuki Japan One bought majority, run from Hamamatsu: Suzuki controls India’s largest carmaker.