[HN Gopher] Auto manufacturer family tree: Who owns what?
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       Auto manufacturer family tree: Who owns what?
        
       Author : batirch
       Score  : 226 points
       Date   : 2022-07-06 08:44 UTC (14 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.whichcar.com.au)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.whichcar.com.au)
        
       | Markoff wrote:
       | Wow, I don't follow car news recently, so just now discovered
       | Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat and Opel have same owner now (Stellantis),
       | still can't comprehened how could be such merger approved by
       | regulators.
       | 
       | Also was aware that Nissan and Renault cooperate, but didn't know
       | there is also Mitshubishi with them. Btw. Adobe Acrobat logo
       | would like to have a word.
        
         | PinguTS wrote:
         | That's when GM had his crisis and sold of all its non-US brands
         | Opel, Vauxhall and so to PSA. It was a big mess.
         | 
         | Then just recently FCA and PSA formed Stellantis.
         | 
         | PSA and Fiat worked together previously, as their van the Fiat
         | Ducato is basically the same as the vans from PSA group and the
         | same as the Iveco Daily. They closely worked also together in
         | other areas.
         | 
         | The small cars by Fiat was also partly joined development with
         | Opel in the mid 1990. That relationship worked loosely for
         | years, even while Opel still was part of GM.
        
           | jaclaz wrote:
           | Also later, as an example I have a 2006 Opel (Vauxhall)
           | Vectra C 1.9 TD, the engine (and well as the Saab 9-3 one) is
           | a FIAT one, and they share quite a few "common" parts outside
           | the engine with the Fiat Croma.
        
         | Vespasian wrote:
         | I faintly recall that this was in part a response to VW growing
         | too big in the years before. Before the merger Fiat, who was
         | struggling at the time, tried to fusion with Renault but the
         | French government blocked it.
         | 
         | Maybe someone has more information than me.
        
         | consp wrote:
         | While being not even the biggest in total number of sales
         | (wikipedia says fifth). I still find it strange that it's a
         | Dutch company (and Fiat Chrystler before it), since the
         | Netherlands has no local-origin car manufacturer since DAF-Cars
         | was sold to Volvo in the '70.
        
           | sofixa wrote:
           | It's registered in the Netherlands for tax and regulatory
           | purposes.
        
           | LtWorf wrote:
           | The Netherlands entire business is to be a tax haven inside
           | the EU market.
           | 
           | Their hobby is telling other countries that they suck because
           | their economy is bad (partly because of NL being a tax
           | haven).
        
           | franch wrote:
           | The reason for being a Dutch company is purely for a taxation
           | advantage, and it goes back to the fact that FIAT/FCA moved
           | its headquarters to the Netherlands under Marchionne's
           | leadership. Other italian companies (Mediaset owned by
           | Berlusconi Family) did this too recently: (
           | https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2021/09/18/mediaset-la-
           | sede... )
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | gpderetta wrote:
           | I think Netherlands is just a convenient place for European
           | multinationals to incorporate. ST Micro, another Italo-French
           | company is incorporated there for example.
        
             | sokoloff wrote:
             | I always thought ST Micro was based in Geneva.
        
               | gpderetta wrote:
               | from Wikipedia:                   While
               | STMicroelectronics corporate headquarters and the
               | headquarters for EMEA region are based in the Canton of
               | Geneva, the holding company, STMicroelectronics N.V. is
               | incorporated in the Netherlands.
        
       | fredsmith219 wrote:
       | It would be interesting to see this for auto component companies.
       | For example AC Delco used to be owned by GM, then was spun off as
       | part of Delphi, which changed its name to Aptiv.
        
       | smohnot wrote:
       | Written from a Australian perspective & is missing some US
       | marques, like that Honda owns Acura and Ford owns Lincoln
        
         | edaemon wrote:
         | It's also missing the newer manufacturers like Rivian, Lucid,
         | Nio, and Xpeng, though their absence is somewhat
         | understandable.
        
         | ZWoz wrote:
         | I found Skoda description lacking. Being one of few historic
         | Czech car manufacturers is mention worthy.
        
           | helij wrote:
           | Also, one of the oldest car manufacturers in the world.
        
             | arethuza wrote:
             | And a maker of great value practical cars - my last 3 cars
             | (and my wife's last 2 cars) have all been Skodas.
             | 
             | However, I was disappointed that they stopped making the
             | Yeti.
        
         | SomeHacker44 wrote:
         | Acura is mentioned in the accompanying text.
        
           | smohnot wrote:
           | yeah, I mean it isn't shown on a slide... if Lexus & Genesis
           | are shown, Acura & Lincoln probably should be too
        
       | kmlx wrote:
       | mazda still going strong, with toyota owning just 5% of it.
       | excellent, as their mx5/miata is a gem of car.
       | 
       | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-toyota-mazda-idUSKBN1AK0R...
       | 
       | https://www.automotiveworld.com/news-releases/mazda-continue...
        
       | CSMastermind wrote:
       | I know that Ford takes a lot of flak (deservingly in many cases)
       | but I've always been very impressed by how consistently the
       | company has seemingly been run. If I remember correctly, and I'm
       | sure someone will correct me if I don't, they are the only one of
       | the 'Big 3' American auto manufacturers to not need a bailout.
        
         | linksnapzz wrote:
         | One of the things that Ford has, which GM and Chrysler did not,
         | is the continued heavy involvement of the founding family.
         | There are two classes of Ford stock, one for family and one for
         | everyone else. The holders of the family shares have a way-
         | outsized voting influence on the board, and can bring a great
         | deal personal interest and scrutiny into how the company is
         | run. Always remember whose name is on the side of the building.
        
         | MisterTea wrote:
         | There was a time when Ford owned a bunch of brands at the same
         | time which made them quite a large car company:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Motor_Company#Former_marq...
         | 
         | I was very surprised to see they were listed as stand alone in
         | that list.
        
           | brk wrote:
           | The list seems to be Australia-centric. In the US Ford still
           | owns the Lincoln brand as well.
        
         | bobthepanda wrote:
         | Yes and no.
         | 
         | Ford did not participate in the explicit bailout for the auto
         | industry, but their financial arm did receive loans from the
         | federal government. (GM and co. also received this type of
         | assistance in addition to the bailout.)
        
         | DwnVoteHoneyPot wrote:
         | Ford is bipolar. On one hand some models are pure garbage. Then
         | on the other hand their F-150 truck is incredible. Mustang and
         | new Bronco are also loved.
        
         | lowbloodsugar wrote:
         | Watch Ford vs Ferrari to get an idea of what Ford is like. Also
         | be aware that you are not their customer. Their dealers are
         | their customers. This is why a Shelby with an MSRP of $60k goes
         | for $90k, while a faster $72k MSRP Camaro goes for <$70k. Ford
         | makes limited runs so dealers can put insane markups, while GM
         | makes cars for people to buy. (Bonus, when GT350s' rear
         | differentials overheated on the track, Ford said "The GT350 is
         | not a track car" - Shelby is rolling in his grave). Ford's
         | "halo" car is $300k MSRP, GM's is $190k. Guess which one you
         | can actually buy. I have owned three Mustangs including a
         | GT500, and tracked them, and will never buy Ford again.
        
           | tmh88j wrote:
           | >Also be aware that you are not their customer. Their dealers
           | are their customers.
           | 
           | > Ford makes limited runs so dealers can put insane markups,
           | while GM makes cars for people to buy.
           | 
           | Didn't they just announce fixed price direct to consumer
           | sales for EV's?[1] Regardless, I'm not quite sure what you
           | mean by that. Dealers reap the markups, not Ford, and they're
           | hardly moving any of those trims compared to the F-150 and
           | other "normal" vehicles. If anything it's hurt them. The
           | Focus RS was arguably axed because of dealer greed[2]. Of
           | course Shelby has more fanboys, Chevy doesn't have an
           | equivalent. Ford has made non-Shelby Mustang Cobras in the
           | past and currently have the Mach 1 to replace the Shelby
           | GT350. Having shopped for both I can say with confidence that
           | regular Camaros trims in general tend to be higher marked up
           | than Mustangs because their production volume is much lower,
           | especially with the 1LE package. Ford churns out performance
           | pack Mustangs like they're base models.
           | 
           | [1] https://www.kbb.com/car-news/ford-ceo-wants-future-of-
           | online...
           | 
           | [2] https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2017/07/barks-bites-
           | focus-...
        
           | neogodless wrote:
           | I assume you mean the Ford GT costing $300k. What car from GM
           | sells for $190k? Is it a rare special edition of the
           | Corvette? The base car is $60k, and even the Z06 starts
           | around $90k.
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | belval wrote:
       | I always wanted something like this but for all companies. I feel
       | like it would be a great tool to help people understand how giant
       | conglomerates are actually a big part of what we consume.
       | 
       | My favorite are outdoor clothing companies which almost all tie-
       | in to the same Chinese investment fund. Or how glasses companies
       | all belong to that one French conglomerate.
        
         | stevenjgarner wrote:
         | "~80% of the 50 largest public companies are connected to one
         | another through 1 or more shared board member(s)" [1]
         | 
         | The "three most connected companies" through interconnecting
         | directors are "3M (7 connections), Boeing (6 connections) and
         | Amgen (6 connections)" ... "Other highly-connected companies
         | include Walt Disney, Apple, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, IBM, and
         | Procter & Gamble - each has five board members that also serve
         | for other top 50 corporations." [2]
         | 
         | [1]
         | https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/923c92/80_...
         | 
         | [2] https://www.visualcapitalist.com/50-largest-u-s-companies-
         | bo...
        
         | sircastor wrote:
         | I was recently looking at Tool brands and came across a similar
         | article explaining how all the popular tool brands you know are
         | owned by a handful of corporations.
         | 
         | https://toolguyd.com/tool-brands-corporate-affiliations/
        
           | Cd00d wrote:
           | Whenever I see that chart I feel gratified that I chose
           | Makita when I was making the _big battery decision_ a few
           | years ago.
           | 
           | Personally, I lean to independent brands. I don't want my
           | Milwaukee tools having all the same parts as the Ryobi line -
           | makes me assume I'm being suckered into an identical tool
           | that's way more expensive. Even if the Milwaukee is usually
           | superior, I'm guessing some things just are exact copies with
           | red paint. I'm the same way with say Patagonia over North
           | Face - I'll always avoid VF Corp brands for something that's
           | still building legacy, rather than profiting on historical
           | credibility.
           | 
           | I guess the same is true with previous generation stuff.
           | Abercrombie & Fitch, and Eddie Bauer used to be premier
           | outdoor equipment companies with great down jackets and
           | sleeping bags, fishing equipment, even shotguns. Now they're
           | both brands representing clothes I don't want. Both brands
           | sold and were aggregated with other companies in the late
           | 1980s.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Bauer
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abercrombie_%26_Fitch
        
         | pr0zac wrote:
         | Which brands are you talking about and could you point to
         | something showing the ownership (not doubting you, just
         | wondering). Looking up Patagonia, Columbia, and VF Corp (North
         | Face, Timberland, etc) none of them appear to be Chinese owned,
         | but its quite likely their Wikipedia page is missing info.
        
           | belval wrote:
           | I was thinking of Anta Sports
           | (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anta_Sports) which owns a lot
           | of skiing/mountaineering stuff but I was remembering wrong.
           | 
           | I guess you get good news every day!
        
             | pr0zac wrote:
             | I already don't buy Arc'teryx cause their stuff is way over
             | priced but good to have yet another reason not to do so!
        
               | s0rce wrote:
               | I liked their stuff more when it was made in Canada. Some
               | of it is still pretty good and if you get on
               | sale/clearance/used its not that bad. I've had some
               | jackets for 10 years.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | Green_man wrote:
           | I know anta sports (Chinese) owns Arc'teryx and Salomon (and
           | other brands as well), which are both big deals in very niche
           | parts of outdoors companies (mountaineering/climbing and
           | trail running/skiing respectively) but I don't think there's
           | any single Chinese company that owns all the outdoor brands,
           | unless anta is owned by some other company. Luxottica, the
           | eyeglass company gp referred to is also Italian, not French
           | (afaik), and their stranglehold was weakening with online
           | retailers breaking in (last I checked was ~5 years ago, this
           | might have regressed since).
        
             | FuriouslyAdrift wrote:
             | Luxottica merged with Essilor in 2018. It's now a French-
             | Italian company.
             | 
             | They own: Ray-Ban, Oakley, Michael Kors, Varilux, Crizal,
             | Transitions, LensCrafters, Clearly, EyeBuyDirect,
             | FramesDirect.com, OPSM, Pearle Vision, Sears Optical,
             | Sunglass Hut, Target Optical, Vision Direct, Vision Source,
             | et al. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EssilorLuxottica
        
               | jacquesm wrote:
               | Hm, that looks like a good case for an anti-trust action.
        
               | sseagull wrote:
               | The more interesting/disgusting part is that they own
               | EyeMed, so for many people they also get your insurance
               | premium, and then also what you pay for glasses or
               | whatever.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxottica#Medical_managed_c
               | are
        
               | samatman wrote:
               | I personally view vertical integration much more
               | favorably than the Borg-like horizontal consolidation
               | Luxottica exhibits.
               | 
               | Consider that CostCo does the same thing and members are
               | generally happy about it.
        
         | sokoloff wrote:
         | The eyewear conglomerate is Luxottica (Italian, not French).
        
           | keiferski wrote:
           | They merged with Essilor, a French company, in 2018.
           | Technically they are a Franco-Italian company.
        
           | cju wrote:
           | EssilorLuxottica (merger in 2018) is a French company with an
           | headquarter in Paris and the stock part of the French index
           | CAC40.
        
         | NickRandom wrote:
         | Here ya go (I knew I had seen it somewhere so I'm glad I
         | managed to find it again). Here are some links to assorted
         | sources about brands etc. It makes for fascinating reading imo
         | 
         | "These 10 Companies Own Almost All of the Brands You Use"
         | https://thehomestead.guru/10-companies-own-brands/
         | 
         | https://gizmodo.com/fascinating-graphic-shows-who-owns-all-t...
         | 
         | https://www.dividend.com/how-to-invest/9-companies-that-own-...
         | 
         | https://capitaloneshopping.com/blog/11-companies-that-own-ev...
         | 
         | https://www.webfx.com/blog/internet/the-6-companies-that-own...
         | 
         | https://www.forbes.com/sites/brendancoffey/2011/10/26/the-fo...
        
           | Retric wrote:
           | That first list is interesting because I recognize most of
           | them as terrible products.
           | 
           | My mental model of brands was as a quality stamp, as in
           | people would recognize a product from advertising but if they
           | disliked the product then it wouldn't help. But, I think
           | there is a second effect in play. If you start with something
           | of high quality that people consume regularly you can very
           | slowly lower the quality without people noticing. Continue
           | long enough and old brands are going to end up as lower
           | quality.
        
             | willhinsa wrote:
             | "What do you call your act?"
             | 
             | "Brooks Brothers!"
        
         | adhesive_wombat wrote:
         | And same for semiconductors. Everything seems to have been
         | consolidating like mad.
        
         | oboes wrote:
         | The French newspaper "Le Monde diplomatique" made a very
         | interesting family tree for media ownership in France:
         | https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/cartes/PPA
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | rcMgD2BwE72F wrote:
           | Published on Github too
           | https://github.com/mdiplo/Medias_francais
        
         | skywal_l wrote:
         | Ideally, in a democracy, it should be open and transparent who
         | owns what, up to the individual. That should be the basic
         | principle of a free market.
        
           | mistrial9 wrote:
           | good direction but impractical.. a tech lead at Starbucks
           | quipped "we don't actually know how many people work at
           | Starbucks right now" .. huh? because, though they do have
           | modern cloudy tech, there is meat-space time involved in edge
           | transition from state of employed to not-employed, etc. So it
           | is true, even with "perfect" observation of events, the
           | leaders have ranges, not hard numbers.
           | 
           | So it is with markets. There are indistinct conditions that
           | may exist for some time, and decay, and financial privacy,
           | etc. So even given "perfect" observation of events, it is not
           | fully transparent.
           | 
           | Nor would you want it, I argue. Once you as an individual are
           | involved with markets and partners and committed
           | relationships, some faceless bureacracy is tracking your
           | parking spending? or more to the point, your ownership
           | stakes? So we must re-invent public markets. Too much to
           | change at once, and imperfect cooperation, so.. set a
           | direction. "messy"
        
             | matsemann wrote:
             | Impractical? Isn't it already being done?
             | 
             | At least here in Norway, I can look up an organization and
             | see all owners of that company last year. And press a
             | button and it calculates the "true"/indirect owners up the
             | chain as well.
             | 
             | I can also go the other way. Select a person, and see what
             | they own through multiple layers of companies.
        
               | muxator wrote:
               | Interesting.
               | 
               | Is this a public service? Could you please give an url to
               | know more about it? Thanks
        
               | matsemann wrote:
               | All companies have to provide a list of owners each year
               | to our tax agency Skatteetaten ("IRS"). The data isn't
               | exactly publicly available AFAIK, but anyone can ask for
               | access.
               | 
               | This is a company doing extra stuff with the data, and
               | providing some of it directly online. Here's a lookup of
               | the company I work for:
               | https://proff.no/aksjon%C3%A6rer/bedrift/oda-group-
               | holding-a...
               | 
               | It lists owners, but as you can see it's mostly "Holding
               | Companies". However, pressing "Indirekte eierskap og
               | eiere" ("Indirect ownerships") one can see the true
               | companies or persons behind those.
        
               | muxator wrote:
               | Very insightful, thank you!
        
       | dpedu wrote:
       | > Tesla - Founded 2003
       | 
       | > It was founded by former PayPal owner Elon Musk
       | 
       | Hah. Nope.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla,_Inc.#Founding_(2003%E2%...
        
         | tsomctl wrote:
         | > A lawsuit settlement agreed to by Eberhard and Tesla in
         | September 2009 allows all five - Eberhard, Tarpenning, Wright,
         | Musk, and Straubel - to call themselves co-founders.
         | 
         | Granted, he wasn't there to sign the articles of incorporation,
         | but he joined very early.
        
       | photochemsyn wrote:
       | It'd be interesting to see this expanded into the secondary
       | supply chains, and the primary factories, all of which may or may
       | not be owned by the car corporations themselves.
       | 
       | These networks sprawl out pretty quickly, I imagine. Modern cars
       | rely on microcontrollers and microprocessors, and without chip
       | fabs that comes to a halt. They also require varying amounts of
       | steel, aluminum, carbon fiber, other plastics and metals, and
       | natural rubber.
       | 
       | Then there's the physical locations and the international
       | ownership / leasing / agreement structures. For example, Rust
       | Belt manufacturing of vehicles in the USA for the US market has
       | mostly relocated to Mexico:
       | 
       | https://napsintl.com/mexico-manufacturing-news/mexicos-auto-...
       | 
       | > "According to Forbes, about 80 percent of the cars manufactured
       | in Mexico are exported globally, with about two-thirds of those
       | exports going to the United States. In 2014, the industry
       | comprised about $19 billion in investments. Production for that
       | year was estimated to reach 3.2 million cars, double what it had
       | been five years prior."
       | 
       | A network map of everything that went into a Mexican-made vehicle
       | that was purchased in the USA would be highly complex, and if you
       | then asked for an ownership map of all the shell companies,
       | holding compenies, investors, primary owners etc. involved, the
       | complexity would likely increase by a factor of ten.
       | 
       | Just tracking the global production and ownership of raw lithium
       | and electric car battery manufacturing, for example, would be a
       | fairly massive undertaking.
        
         | fibers wrote:
         | building out a massive BOM for all platforms would be next to
         | impossible because it would require forcing OEMs to disclose
         | their contracts with Tier 1 suppliers. I totally agree with you
         | becasue that would be such a cool thing to do
        
       | sgt wrote:
       | Even though Volkswagen (VW) owns cars like Porsche and others, it
       | should be mentioned that Porsche SE controls and owns majority in
       | VW.
        
         | sxcurry wrote:
         | Also, to be more precise than the original article, Volkswagen
         | AG is the parent company, which owns a number of brands,
         | including Volkswagen and Audi.
        
         | arethuza wrote:
         | Porsche SE is a holding company though - it doesn't directly
         | make cars.
         | 
         | Porsche cars are made by Porsche AG which is a subsidiary of
         | Volkswagen AG - Porsche SE then holding a controlling stake in
         | Volkswagen AG.
        
           | sgt wrote:
           | Correct, but they do pull the strings (the Porsche family).
        
       | iancmceachern wrote:
       | This misses the stake Toyota has in Subaru
        
       | gennarro wrote:
       | Anyone interested in this should dive into the NHTSA data.
       | Something like "make by manufacturer" explains this quite nicely,
       | albeit without the history that the article nicely explained.
       | Example: https://transportation.report/manufacturer/976/
        
       | option wrote:
       | Before buying any Volvo or Polestar consider that those are owned
       | by China.
        
       | 3D30497420 wrote:
       | Page seems down? Here's the Google Cache:
       | https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:BWE--R...
        
       | sorenjan wrote:
       | I only skimmed trough it, but the section about Polestar is
       | wrong. It says that their racing division was renamed Lynk & Co.
       | Lynk & Co is a different car brand focusing on a subscription
       | sales model. Polestar's racing division was renamed Cyan Racing.
       | Polestar is also partly owned by Geely, which of course also owns
       | Volvo which owns part of Polestar...
       | 
       | Geely recently bought the mobile phone manufacturer Meizu.
        
       | legitster wrote:
       | Interesting fun fact - the Japanese sub-brands were mostly
       | created to get around US import restrictions. At the time, the US
       | had super imposing quantity limitations on Japanese cars. So the
       | workaround was the companies spun off luxury companies (Lexus,
       | Acura, Infiniti) so they could sell fewer cars at a higher
       | markup.
        
         | glowingly wrote:
         | Acura launched first, since Honda already had a factory in the
         | US (originally for motorcycles). Honda was still smaller than
         | Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Toyota at the time, iirc. That factory
         | is still the oldest operating, US factory from a foreign
         | automaker.
         | 
         | Amusingly, the import restrictions were "voluntary," as much as
         | geopolitics can be voluntary.
        
       | adolph wrote:
       | While "ownership" is often interpreted in terms of value-flows
       | and control, the model of Ikea's corporate structure indicates
       | that actually modeling value-flows and control would be more
       | helpful than using "ownership" as a proxy.
       | 
       |  _IKEA's organizational structure might sound a bit confusing at
       | first, but I looked into it to see how its business model works
       | so that you could gain clarity on that._
       | 
       |  _Put it shortly, IKEA as a brand comprises two separate owners.
       | INGKA Holding B.V. owns the IKEA Group, the holding the group._
       | 
       |  _At the same time that is held by the Stichting INGKA
       | Foundation, which is the owner of the whole Group. IKEA Group is
       | not the owner of the brand, which is managed by Inter IKEA
       | Systems B.V., part of Inter IKEA B.V. that is the real owner of
       | the IKEA Concept._
       | 
       |  _Thus, IKEA Group is a franchisee that pays 3% of royalties to
       | Inter IKEA Systems._
       | 
       | https://fourweekmba.com/who-owns-ikea/
        
       | mc32 wrote:
       | Stellantis is like the new Step parent to a bunch of step
       | children that were given up for adoption by their biological
       | parents. Some premier brands but also a lot of second tier brands
       | and smaller brands overall. I wonder if they can keep so many
       | brands afloat. Over the last 20 years or so the larger MFGs have
       | shed brands and consolidated.
        
         | dchest wrote:
         | They mostly keep releasing the same car under different brands,
         | so the cost for brand differentiation with respect to actual
         | car production is pretty much the same as if it was a single
         | brand. They even add non-Stellantis brands to it, e.g. Toyota
         | (for example, see their European range of small, medium and
         | large vans).
        
       | sharikous wrote:
       | Ferrari is listed as independent (rightly,) but it is owned in a
       | big part by the Agnelli family (Exor) who own also a big part of
       | Stellantis.
       | 
       | No employee in the Ferrari factory has a non-Stellantis car (Alfa
       | Romeo or Maserati preferably)
       | 
       | So I think it should be clarified that Ferrari and Stellantis
       | (specifically Fiat) are related
        
         | jeroen wrote:
         | Exor (the Agnelli's) owns 14.35% of Stellantis and 22.91% of
         | Ferrari.
        
       | lizardactivist wrote:
       | It's too bad that Saab is gone.
        
       | ComputerCat wrote:
       | Very cool, thanks for sharing
        
       | csours wrote:
       | Disclosure: I work for GM. Anything here is solely my own opinion
       | or experience.
       | 
       | Fun fact: Chevrolet kind of bought GM.
       | https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/gm-buys-chevrole...
       | 
       | > "Still the owner of a considerable portion of GM stock, Durant
       | began to purchase more shares in the company as his profits from
       | Chevrolet allowed. In a final move to regain control, Durant
       | offered GM stockholders five shares of Chevrolet stock for every
       | one share of GM stock. Though GM stock prices were exorbitantly
       | high, the market interest in Chevrolet made the five-for-one
       | trade irresistible to GM shareholders. With the sale, concluded
       | on May 2, 1918, Durant regained control of GM"
       | 
       | And then after this the DuPont Family effectively controlled GM
       | for quite a while. They previously had a relationship because GM
       | used DuPont paints.
       | 
       | ----
       | 
       | As to the manufacturer family tree: things get significantly more
       | complicated when you add joint ventures. Ford famously partnered
       | with Mazda, Chrysler partnered with Mitsubishi, and GM partnered
       | with Isuzu and Suzuki and even Toyota for a while (NUMMI).
       | Nowadays GM and Honda have a few codevelopment projects; even the
       | concept of what a joint venture means has significantly changed.
       | My list is this comment is far from authoritative or exhaustive.
        
         | RajT88 wrote:
         | > Chrysler partnered with Mitsubishi
         | 
         | The epic "Diamondstar Motors" as I recall. Responsible for
         | generations of kickass cars under different names.
         | Conquest/Starion, Laser/Talon/Eclipse, Stealth/3000GT.
        
           | flyinghamster wrote:
           | In addition, Chrysler had captive imports from Mitsubishi at
           | least as far back as the 1971 Dodge Colt. The GM/Isuzu and
           | Ford/Mazda relationships went back to the 1970s as well.
        
         | SkeuomorphicBee wrote:
         | > As to the manufacturer family tree: things get significantly
         | more complicated when you add joint ventures.
         | 
         | Yes, and even more complicated because some of those joint
         | ventures where country-specific. For example, in the 80s (and
         | early 90s) due to the economic crisis in Brazil and Argentina,
         | Ford and Volkswagen created the joint venture Autolatina to
         | join forces during the crisis. So both brands shared engines
         | and released sight variations of the same cars.
        
       | SomeHacker44 wrote:
       | Tesla is mistakenly listed as having been founded by Elon Musk.
       | (See e.g. Wikipedia for accurate information.)
        
         | FuriouslyAdrift wrote:
         | He's LEGALLY a founder (as per the lawsuit)... but I get your
         | meaning.
        
           | dehrmann wrote:
           | IANAL, but it more like the company has a legal obligation to
           | tell that story and let him call himself a founder, but it's
           | an out-of-court settlement, so we're free to call him an
           | early investor and leave it at that. Now if Tesla to make a
           | libel claim against the sources saying Eberhard and
           | Tarpenning were the real founders, it can.
        
           | sircastor wrote:
           | This is absurd, and as bad as him being listed as the "Chief
           | Engineer" at SpaceX
        
             | dehrmann wrote:
             | They're different. Rewriting history to say you're a
             | founder is delusional. Giving yourself the title of "chief
             | engineer" is akin to being the mascot of the company.
        
               | Ekaros wrote:
               | I see something like Chief Engineer no different from
               | Executive Producer on movie or tv show...
        
           | kergonath wrote:
           | He can call himself however he wants (he's also completely
           | unqualified to be called an engineer), but money cannot buy
           | facts.
        
             | asciiresort wrote:
             | > he's also completely unqualified to be called an engineer
             | 
             | What qualifies someone as an engineer? Math? What kind of
             | math?
             | 
             | Building stuff? What kind of stuff?
             | 
             | Writing code? What languages count and what languages
             | don't? Does CSS count?
             | 
             | Or are you talking about some kind of academic
             | certification or standardized exam?
             | 
             | It seems like you are basing someone's engineering prowess
             | based on their personal, social, political antics.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | stewx wrote:
       | Wow, somehow I was unaware that Hyundai now owns the majority of
       | Kia.
        
         | lightsandaounds wrote:
         | They don't the majority. Hyundai owns 1/3 of Kia and Kia
         | actually is a partial owner in several Hyundai subsidiaries.
        
           | stewx wrote:
           | I stand corrected: they owned 51% back in 1998 but more like
           | a third now.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | FuriouslyAdrift wrote:
         | Ah yes.. Chaebol's
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaebol
        
         | kube-system wrote:
         | You ever notice how similar their models are? Nearly all of
         | their line ups are clones with different trim.
        
       | skhr0680 wrote:
       | It's not mentioned in the article, but Toyota owns 20% of Subaru
        
       | camjohnson26 wrote:
       | And a few months ago Tesla was valued more than all the brands on
       | the list, combined. If that isn't a sign of a stock market bubble
       | I don't know what is.
       | 
       | https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/14/tesla-valuation-more-than-ni...
        
         | mulmen wrote:
         | Why would that be a sign of a bubble and not simply an
         | overvalued stock?
        
         | jansan wrote:
         | Agreed, but remember that if you are thinking about betting
         | against Tesla that the market can stay (much) longer irrational
         | than you can stay solvent. There is a quote from the early 20th
         | century: "Wall Street's graveyards are filled with men who were
         | right too soon."
         | 
         | When VW stocks went through the roof due to a short squeeze a
         | few years ago, a very conservative German billionaire named
         | Adolf Merckle saw that VW's stock value was ridicilously
         | overpriced, so he decided to bet agains the stock. But the
         | stock price went further up and stayed there long enough to
         | make him lose all of his money. He then committed suicide.
        
       | xnx wrote:
       | This is great. If I was more motivated, I'd look up some sales
       | data and make a treemap to represent the relative size of these
       | brands.
        
         | neogodless wrote:
         | I've seen something like this in Car & Driver print magazine,
         | circa September 2017 or so.
         | 
         | (Memory could be off on time and which publication..)
        
       | voiper1 wrote:
       | Related ... 10 companies control the food industry:
       | 
       | https://www.businessinsider.com/10-companies-control-the-foo...
       | 
       | https://archive.is/7eOPd
        
         | amelius wrote:
         | Related ... the top 1% of people control 90% of wealth
        
           | crikeyjoe wrote:
        
             | amelius wrote:
             | I don't need much. I just hate it if others use their
             | wealth against me.
        
               | sophacles wrote:
               | Shhh. the most important part of capitalism is
               | disingenuously pretending money and power aren't the same
               | thing.
        
               | crikeyjoe wrote:
               | You'd love cuba
        
         | rgrieselhuber wrote:
         | Related...six companies that control the media:
         | 
         | https://www.webfx.com/blog/internet/the-6-companies-that-own...
        
       | whalesalad wrote:
       | Stellantis is a monster.
        
         | Vespasian wrote:
         | Stellantis and VW were pretty much tied in 2021.
        
           | gsnedders wrote:
           | https://www.factorywarrantylist.com/car-sales-by-
           | manufacture... places Stellantis with 30% lower production
           | than VW in 2021.
           | 
           | But the thing that's super stark is how many marquees
           | Stellantis have; I can't help but think that some
           | consolidation and focusing of resources would be beneficial
           | (and I'm well aware that plenty is shared already).
        
             | lotsofpulp wrote:
             | Stellantis is where all the brands with slipping or already
             | low quality go, so having a lot of different brands at
             | various price points is their thing.
        
               | sofixa wrote:
               | That's unfair. Maybe that was somewhat true to an extent
               | for the American part of FCA, but isn't for PSA and Opel.
               | The latter were in not great shape under GM for decades,
               | but were turned around by PSA in a few years. Peugeot,
               | Citroen, DS, Opel have good reputation.
        
               | jmrm wrote:
               | I don't know in the last 5 years, but Opel had a lot of
               | different faults due to cost cutting measures, and
               | depending of the model and the year of the different
               | Peugeot and Citroen, it has or not lot of problems.
               | 
               | One one hand, we have the examples of those models that
               | had the infamous FAP HDi 110 hp engine that gives a lot
               | of problems, and Citroen's "Hydractive" (hydropneumatic)
               | suspension was discarded due to the many problems they
               | gave. We had a 1st gen Citroen C5, that had those two,
               | and it needed to visit the garage every every 2 year to
               | have some pretty costly repairs. Also, some of their
               | newer cars with AdBlue have factory design problems in
               | this system, and repairing that module is knowing that is
               | gonna be relatively expensive and it's gone to fail in
               | the future.
               | 
               | On the other hand, we had models like the Xsara, the 206,
               | the 406, the C15, the Partner/Berlingo combo, and many
               | others that were very reliable cars that rarely had
               | problems.
        
               | kergonath wrote:
               | Peugeot seem to be doing ok in terms of quality in the
               | last decade. It seems to me that they do a lot of
               | horizontal segmentation, having the same cars sold under
               | different brands in different markets.
        
             | whalesalad wrote:
             | They've given all the brands a budget and a time box to
             | turn things around. Those that do will be retained, the
             | others will go. My wife was a chemist there for a few
             | years, since before it became Stellantis.
        
             | sokoloff wrote:
             | Nit: it's marques (brand of car), not marquees (cinema
             | entrance).
        
             | franch wrote:
             | They keep all the marquees because they sell better in the
             | various European national markets, but many models are now
             | the same platform with some small aesthetic changes. For
             | example the new electric citroen berlingo / fiat doblo /
             | opel combo are the same car:
             | 
             | https://www.citroen.it/modelli/berlingo/elettrico.html
             | 
             | https://www.fiat.it/e-doblo/e-doblo
             | 
             | https://www.opel.it/veicoli/gamma-combo/combo-e-
             | life/panoram...
        
         | franch wrote:
         | The original mother company of Fiat/FCA (Exor, controlled by
         | the Agnelli family) now merged in Stellantis, also own stakes
         | in Ferrari, CNH Industrial (New Holland Tractors, Case and
         | other industrial and farming equipements), Iveco and a bunch of
         | other brands. Quite a concentration of companies.
        
       | saisundar wrote:
       | Given the recent influx of EVs, some of these charts explain why
       | certain brands seem to have launched them now.
       | 
       | Hyundai, kia and Genesis for instance, share the same ev
       | platform.
       | 
       | Volvo and polestar too,with their EVs.
       | 
       | Audi, Vw, Porsche too have all launched EVs with surprisingly
       | similar specs ( especially in terms of miles/kwh).
       | 
       | These ownership trees help explain why, clearly.
        
       | netfl0 wrote:
       | I did not know TATA owns Land Rover and Jaguar!
        
         | PinguTS wrote:
         | That's when Ford hat its problems in the 2008 crisis and sold
         | off its then so-called Ford Premium Group that consisted of
         | Volvo and Jaguar.
        
           | gpderetta wrote:
           | That's after it bought DeLorean for their time machine
           | business I assume.
           | 
           | edit: "after it will have brought" I guess
        
             | PinguTS wrote:
             | Sorry, wrong key pressed. Thanks. Fixed it.
        
               | gpderetta wrote:
               | Nooo now my comment is not funny anymore :)
        
               | neogodless wrote:
               | If your forum has a working "edit" button, you can revise
               | history in your favor...
        
         | sircastor wrote:
         | I worked for Jaguar Land Rover for 7 years. It almost never
         | came up. I would say that most of the company operates
         | independently. Occasionally we would engage with Tata's other
         | arms (I recall early on doing work with TCS - Tata Consulting
         | Services to do some software development.)
         | 
         | Sometimes as I'm out and about I'll see old Ford-era Jaguars
         | and I'm pleased that the company has independence to make its
         | own vehicles.
        
         | mabbo wrote:
         | Interestingly, TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) which many
         | people on HN would recognize, is a publicly traded company- yet
         | something like 70% of it's shares are owned by Tata Group, and
         | it's a massive part of their income.
        
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